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Omarosa Manigault: Trump adviser who resigned says she saw things in White House that made her 'very uncomfortable'

'I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community, and my people'

Clark Mindock
New York
Thursday 14 December 2017 11:38 EST
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Omarosa Newman says a lot inside the Trump White House upset her

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Omarosa Manigault Newman says that she saw and heard things during her year-long stint in the White House that made her “very uncomfortable”.

When asked about claims that she had conflict with other staff over President Donald Trump’s response to the Charlottesville violence and his endorsement of Roy Moore, Ms Manigault Newman, a former contestant on "The Apprentice", said that she could not go into specifics, but that she did not like everything she saw.

“As the only African American woman in this White House as a senior staff and assistant to the President, I have seen things that have made me uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally, that has affected my community and my people,” Ms Manigault Newman said during an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America”.

The question is based on reports that Ms Manigault Newman had become increasingly frustrated with how Mr Trump has handled issues concerning race.

That includes Mr Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville in August when a white supremacist allegedly drove a car through a crowd of peaceful protesters, killing one person. Ms Manigault Newman was also reportedly upset with Mr Trump’s handling of NFL protests, in which mostly black athletes knelt during the national anthem to protest police brutality and race inequality in America.

More recently, Ms Manigault Newman reportedly told a friend that she was uneasy with Mr Trump’s endorsement of Mr Moore, who lost his bid this week for Senate in Alabama.

Ms Manigault Newman, who is reportedly leaving the White House on January 20, also pushed back in the interview on reports that her leaving the West Wing resulted from a dramatic showdown between her and Chief of Staff John Kelly at a Christmas party. She claimed that those reports have come from a single reporter, but did not say who that reporter was.

Those reports indicate that Ms Manigault Newman was pushed out of her position in the White House after she demanded that Mr Kelly give her broad access to the President, but was rebuffed. Both Ms Manigault Newman and the White House have insisted that she left voluntarily, and had planned on doing so after one year in the White House.

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