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Omarosa tells NPR she heard tape of Trump using the N-word, contradicting her book

In her new book 'Unhinged,' former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman claims Trump is a racist and misogynist.
Credit: Michael Reynolds - Pool/Getty Images
President Donald Trump holds an African American History Month listening session attended by Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison Omarosa Manigault (L) and other officials on February 1, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Did she or didn't she?

In an interview on Friday with NPR, former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman said she has heard President Trump on an "Apprentice" tape using the N-word.

But in her new memoir "Unhinged," she never says she has personally heard the tape.

She told NPR something different on Friday. In an interview with reporter Rachel Martin, Omarosa claimed to have heard the tape with Trump using the slur.

"Hearing it changed everything for me," she said.

According to a published report by NPR, when asked about the discrepancy, Omarosa said the reporter must not have read the book (she had, according to NPR) and pointed to a section, which describes her calling one of her "sources" about the tape.

In the book she writes:

"On this phone conversation, I was told exactly what Donald Trump said – yes, the N-word and others in a classic Trump-goes-nuclear rant – and when he'd said them.

"During production he was miked, and there is definitely an audio track."

When pressed, she told NPR: "I heard the tape."

In "Unhinged," Omarosa claims she was let go by the White House because she was trying to prove the existence of tapes with Trump using the N-word on "The Apprentice."

Her claims regarding the tapes were first reported by The New York Times and The Guardian.

In the book, obtained by USA TODAY, Omarosa says she is now convinced her former mentor is a "racist."

The former White House aide and reality TV star says she has not heard the tapes herself, but claims sources have told her that audio exists and that Trump uses the racial slur.

“Apprentice” producer Bill Pruitt first claimed in October 2016 that there were tapes of Trump using the N-word and other slurs on the reality TV program. Omarosa competed in the show's first season.

In 2016, Mark Burnett, producer of "The Apprentice," would neither confirm nor deny the tapes exist, but said that even if they did, he couldn't release them because he doesn't control them. (Though MGM bought Burnett's production company in 2014, he is the studio's TV chief.)

In "Unhinged," which goes on sale Tuesday, Omarosa writes, according to the reports: "It had finally sunk in that the person I’d thought I’d known so well for so long was actually a racist. Using the N-word was not just the way he talks but, more disturbing, it was how he thought of me and African Americans as a whole.’’

According to the Times, Omarosa continues: “Three sources in three separate conversations had described the contents of this tape. They all told me that President Trump hadn’t just dropped a single N-word bomb. He’d said it multiple times throughout the show’s taping during off-camera outtakes, particularly during the first season of ‘The Apprentice.’”

She writes, “I would look like the biggest imbecile alive for supporting a man who used that word.”

Omarosa left the White House in December 2017. In the new book, she writes that she believes White House Chief of Staff John Kelly wanted to get rid of her because it was known she was trying to verify the tapes.

On Friday, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said "Unhinged" is “riddled with lies and false accusations."

Said Sanders: "It’s sad that a disgruntled former White House employee is trying to profit off these false attacks, and even worse that the media would now give her a platform, after not taking her seriously when she had only positive things to say about the President during her time in the administration.”

Earlier this week, The Daily Beast reported that Omarosa has smartphone tapes of Trump that she has played for people.

On Friday, George Conway, husband of White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, said Omarosa's claims in "Unhinged" that Trump used racial slurs about him are "absurd" and "not credible."

George Conway is half Filipino. According to The Guardian, Omarosa writes in "Unhinged" of a conversation in which Trump said: "Would you look at this George Conway article? (Expletive) FLIP! Disloyal! (Expletive) Goo-goo.”

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