White House aide Omarosa Manigault got a frosty reception on Friday as a panel at a convention for black journalists turned into a screaming match.
Manigault sparred with panel host Ed Gordon, host of a news magazine show on Bounce TV at a panel titled “Black and Blue: Raising Our Sons, Protecting Our Communities“ during the National Association of Black Journalists‘ annual convention in New Orleans.
Gordon pressed Omarosa hard on her views on the current state of the criminal justice system as the director of communications for the White House’s Office of Public Liaison. When asked how she
“could sit in a White House“
while Trump signaled support for police brutality –a nod to Trump’s recent remarks encouraging the police to be rougher when arresting criminal suspects. Manigault said,
“Are you suggesting that I just walk away?”
I’m not going to stand here and defend every single word and decision. I still have my story –you’re dismissing my family story.“
Manigault of course is a former contestant on Trump’s reality TV show The Apprentice and she advocates on issues important to African-Americans to Trump.
Omarosa threatened to leave several times while Gordon insisted that he
“did my best to try to make this as civil as possible.“
All of this was happening while White Nationalists were marching with torches in Charlottesville. How heated would this have been after the events of this weekend?
If you remember (it seems like a year ago after the week we just had) that speaking before officers in Suffolk County Police Department in New York on their efforts to combat the gang MS-13, Trump said,
“When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon. You just see them thrown in — rough. I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,'” referring to officers shielding prisoners’ heads with their hands. “Like, don’t hit their head and they’ve just killed somebody, don’t hit their head. I said, ‘You can take the hand away, OK?‘”
Police departments across the country spoke out against Trump’s comments, and the White House later said he was joking. (Ha. Ha. Get some better writers.)
Manigault and Gordon go at it below.
Watch.
Omarosa and Ed are on their feet, giving every single journalist in this room what they came for – drama. #NABJ17 pic.twitter.com/ZBmE502V1F
— maya king (@mayaaliah) August 11, 2017
(Photo, screen grab; via CNN)