{"id":176509,"date":"2018-08-13T22:20:14","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T02:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=176509"},"modified":"2018-08-13T22:20:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T02:20:14","slug":"trump-allies-security-experts-alarmed-omarosa-recordings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/13\/trump-allies-security-experts-alarmed-omarosa-recordings\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump allies, security experts alarmed by Omarosa recordings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWho in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?\u201d (File Photo<\/a> By Gage Skidmore\/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. \u2014 Former presidential adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman is drawing fire from President Donald Trump’s allies and national security experts for secret recordings she made at the White House, including her firing by chief of staff John Kelly in the high-security Situation Room.<\/p>\n

Manigault Newman said Sunday on NBC’s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that she surreptitiously recorded a number of conversations in the White House for her own protection. Parts of her conversation with Kelly were played on the air. Critics denounced the recordings as a serious breach of ethics and security.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho in their right mind thinks it’s appropriate to secretly record the White House chief of staff in the Situation Room?\u201d tweeted Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.<\/p>\n

In the recording, which Manigault Newman quotes extensively in her new book, \u201cUnhinged,\u201d Kelly can be heard saying that he wants to talk with Manigault Newman about leaving the White House. The Associated Press independently listened to the recording of the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s come to my attention over the last few months that there’s been some pretty, in my opinion, significant integrity issues related to you,\u201d Kelly is heard saying, citing her use of government vehicles and \u201cmoney issues and other things\u201d that he compares to offences that could lead to a court martial in the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we make this a friendly departure … you can look at your time here in the White House as a year of service to the nation and then you can go on without any type of difficulty in the future relative to your reputation,\u201d he tells Manigault Newman, adding: \u201cThere are some serious legal issues that have been violated and you’re open to some legal action that we hope, we think, we can control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manigault Newman said she viewed the conversation as a \u201cthreat\u201d and defended her decision to covertly record it and other White House conversations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I didn’t have these recordings, no one in America would believe me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The response from the White House was stinging. \u201cThe 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,\u201d press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Situation Room is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, where the nation’s most consequential foreign policy decisions are made, and staff are not permitted to bring in cellphones or other recording devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve never heard of a more serious breach of protocol,\u201d said Ned Price, who served as spokesman of the National Security Council in the Obama administration. \u201cNot only is it not typical, something like this is unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n

Price said there is no one checking staffers for devices at the door, but there is a sign outside the room making clear that electronic devices are prohibited.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Situation Room is the inner-most sanctum of a secure campus,\u201d he said, describing the breach as part of a culture of disregarding security protocols in the Trump White House. He also questioned why Kelly would ever choose to have such a meeting there.<\/p>\n

In the book, which will be released Tuesday, Manigault Newman paints a damning picture of Trump, including claiming without evidence that tapes exist of him using the N-word as he filmed his \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d reality series, on which she co-starred.<\/p>\n

Manigault Newman wrote in the book that she had not personally heard the recording. But she told Chuck Todd on Sunday that she later was able to hear a recording of Trump during a trip to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard his voice as clear as you and I are sitting here,\u201d she said on the show.<\/p>\n

The White House had previously tried to discredit the book, with Sanders calling it \u201criddled with lies and false accusations.\u201d Trump on Saturday labeled Manigault Newman a \u201clowlife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Katrina Pierson, an adviser to Trump’s re-election campaign who served as a spokeswoman for his 2016 campaign, said she had never heard Trump use the kind of derogatory language Manigault Newman describes. She said in a statement that she feels \u201cpity for Omarosa as she embarrasses herself by creating salacious lies and distortions just to try to be relevant and enrich herself by selling books at the expense of the truth. ‘Unhinged,’ indeed.\u201d<\/p>\n

White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway also questioned Manigault Newman’s credibility in an interview Sunday on ABC’s \u201cThis Week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I ever heard Omarosa suggest those awful things about this president are in this book,\u201d she said, noting Manigault Newman \u201cis somebody who gave a glowing appraisal of Donald Trump the businessman, the star of the ‘The Apprentice,’ the candidate and, indeed, the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manigault Newman had indeed been a staunch defender of the president for years, including pushing back, as the highest-profile African-American in the White House, on accusations that he was racist.<\/p>\n

But Manigault Newman now says she was \u201cused\u201d by Trump, calling him a \u201ccon\u201d who \u201chas been masquerading as someone who is actually open to engaging with diverse communities\u201d and is \u201ctruly a racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was complicit with this White House deceiving this nation,\u201d she said. \u201cI had a blind spot where it came to Donald Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BRIDGEWATER, N.J. \u2014 Former presidential adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman is drawing fire from President Donald Trump’s allies and national security …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":176515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-jill-colvin","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}