Former White House aide and reality-TV star, Omarosa Newman, released on Aug. 12 what she claimed was a secret recording she made of chief of staff John Kelly over her firing in the White House situation room.
The recording which aired on NBC’s “Meet The Press” reveals Kelly discussing with Newman her “integrity violations” in her roles as director for the White House Office of the Public Liaison and assistant to the president. The White House announced in December last year that Newman was leaving her post.
“We’re going to talk to you about leaving the White House,” Kelly tells Newman in the recording. “It’s come to my attention over the last few months that there’s been some pretty, in my opinion, significant integrity issues.”
Later, Kelly is heard saying again, “This has to do with some pretty serious integrity violations.”
“I think it’s important to understand that if we make this a friendly departure, we can all be—you know, you can look at your time here in the White House as a year of service to the nation,” Kelly continued.
Newman told NBC’s Chuck Todd she has “no regret” over her recording and if she hadn’t made it “people would still believe the false, incredible story that I was running around the White House … that I tried to charge the residence of the White House.”
At an event on Aug. 11 President Donald Trump told reporters “She’s a lowlife,” when asked about Newman, who first rose to prominence on “The Apprentice” series.
Security Threat
Many have since criticised Newman for her secret tape, citing it as a threat to national security.
“Um, are not staff supposed to check all electronic devices in a secure repository before entering the Situation Room?” David Frum, senior editor at The Atlantic, wrote on Twitter Aug. 12.
“If Omarosa carried for example a cellphone into the Situation Room, then not only did she record conversations there, but so potentially has any country or criminal organization that thought to hack her phone,” Frum continued.
Former White House Aide Marc Short said in an interview on ABC Sunday that everyone has to give up their phone when entering the room.
“If she actually did that, that’s quite an affront. But I mean, the reality is, Jonathan, the media ridiculed and mocked Omarosa for the full year plus that she was in the White House. And now she writes a book and all of a sudden she’s like an oracle.”
Her book, “Unhinged: An Insider Account of the Trump White House,” has a number of unverified claims, including one that Trump is racist. But Frank Luntz, a political consultant who is reportedly mentioned in Newman’s book, called her claims a complete lie.
“I’m in @Omarosa’s book on page 149,” he wrote on Twitter on Aug. 10. “She claims to have heard from someone who heard from me that I heard Trump use the N-word. Not only is this flat-out false (I’ve never heard such a thing), but Omarosa didn’t even make an effort to call or email me to verify.”
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Newman’s book has “undercut her own credibility.” While press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said it was “riddled with lies and false accusations.”
From The Epoch Times