The White House hit back at former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman after she revealed that she secretly taped her firing by chief of staff John Kelly in the Situation Room last year, saying it shows her “lack of character and integrity.”
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement Sunday that the “very idea a staff member would sneak a recording device into the White House Situation Room, shows a blatant disregard for our national security.”
“And then to brag about it on national television further proves the lack of character and integrity of this disgruntled former White House employee,” Huckabee Sanders continued.
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Manigault Newman revealed on NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier Sunday that she had secretly recorded her dismissal by Kelly last year.
“This is a White House where everybody lies … you have to have your back,” she said about recording the conversation.
“If I did not have this recording, 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. People would still think that I was trying to set off alarms,” Manigault Newman continued. “So yes I recorded myself and I have no regret about it.”
The chief of staff can be heard on the brief clip saying that he hopes the aide can have a “friendly departure” from the White House so she “can go on without any type of difficulty in the future, relative to your reputation.”
Journalists and other figures in the security community quickly said the recording should not have happened, as people entering the Situation Room are generally required to give up their electronic devices.
This is not the first time the White House has sought to cast doubt on Manigault Newman’s character ahead of her new book: Huckabee Sanders unloaded on the former aide in a statement on Friday, calling the former aide a “disgruntled former White House employee” who is “trying to profit off of these false attacks.”
Others have also denied Manigault Newman’s claims in forthcoming book about her time in the White House, including Trump’s former longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen.
Manigault Newman alleges in the book that Trump is a racist who has used racial slurs, and claims that there are tapes of the president using the n-word while he was recording his reality show “The Apprentice.”
The White House has called the book “riddled with lies and false accusations.”