HORIST: Oh my! Oh my! Omarosa

The latest stab in the back of President Trump comes from former White House aide, Omarosa Onee Manigault-Newman.  Whew! No wonder she prefers to be known mononymously by a slight variation of her first name.  Out of deference to her preference, I shall follow the lead of the major media and set aside the journalistic tradition of referring to people by their last names.  We can do that because her name is unusual.  If her first name was Barbara, it would not work.  We often use Hillary Clinton’s first name, but that is so as not to confuse her with the other Clinton, Bill.  I should now escape the first name rabbit hole and get back to Omarosa.

If she thought her betrayal of the Donald (see you can use his first name, but only if you precede it with the “the”) would gain her positive notoriety, she was badly mistaken.  For starters, we the people tend not to like people who double cross those who gave them opportunities or jobs.  We have a thing about loyalty. Omarosa comes across as the typical disgruntled employee.

The problem with Omarosa is that she is a bit of a despicable person.  Consider the taping of her exit interview with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly.  That is a lowlife thing to do – but Trump has already made that observation.  Even worse, it is a criminal offense.  We cannot have just anyone recording conversations in the sanctum sanctorum of the Situation Room of the White House.  It is a serious crime and Omarosa could be – and should be — facing criminal charges.

Several of the news folks wondered why Kelly would even conduct that exit interview in such a secret location. Well, duh! I would guess that it was because he had a reasonable expectation that in that room no one would dare record the conversation.  Only a fool would do such a thing. Enter Omarosa.

Omarosa has so many credibility problems that even the most ardent #NeverTrump people in the media will not only not defend her, but they are in full attack mode in terms of her honesty.  Now think about that for a moment.  Omarosa is ready to say anything to tear down the Trump presidency and yet the most anti-Trump people in the media are among her harshest critics.

April Ryan, who covers the White House for the Urban Radio Network has been one of Trump’s primary media nemeses and a frequent combatant with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders.  But when it comes to Omarosa, Ryan is a rabid pit bull.  She not only excoriates Omarosa for taping the Situation Room conversation, but for altering the tape of an interview.  Since Ryan did not elaborate on-air, I am not sure of the specifics – but whatever it was, it had Ryan enraged.

Laura Rosenberger, Director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a former Hilary Clinton adviser wrote on Twitter, “This [the taping] is a HUGE security violation. HUGE.” Her criticism was directed at Kelly’s management, but the implication for Omarosa is unavoidable.

In different interviews, Omarosa had said that she has heard a tape of Trump using the n-word but offered zero substantiation. In one interview, she said she wrote about that tape in her book and in another said she did not learn of the tape until the book was published.  There is no reference to such a tape in the book.

About the Kelly tape, Omarosa says she taped it to protect herself.  Yet, there is nothing on the tape that seems beyond a typical “you’re fired” exit interview. In fact, Kelly refers to a number of “integrity issues,” apparently including the misuse of White House vehicles.

She claims that she was threatened to keep her mouth shut but exit interviews in government and in corporations often deal with silencing the outgoing employee.  It is a common practice in the media, too.  That is why we have non-disclosure agreements.  

Kelly was giving her good advice.  She chose not to take it and now she is in a pickle.

The media has questioned why Trump would have brought her into the White House.  That is a fair question.  His only known association with her were her appearances on The Apprentice – and she got fired there, too.  But, there is a bit more background that is not common knowledge.

This is not the first time Omarosa has been floating around the hallowed halls of the White House.  She was a staffer for Vice President Al Gore during the Clinton administration.  She was not the most popular kid on the block, it turns out.

Proving herself to be a bipartisan backstabber, Omarosa turned on her Democrat bosses, accusing Gore of creating “a very difficult environment because they don’t believe in training.  They just kind of throw you in the fire.”  The Vice President’s office administrator, Mary Overbey said that Omarosa “was the worst hire we ever made.”  Hmmm.  I thought that might have been Monica Lewinski.

Omarosa was then booted over to the Department of Commerce.  Under Secretary for Technology Administration, Cheryl Shavers declared Omarosa to be “unqualified and disruptive.”  “I had her removed,” she added.

She also revealed a secret tape of her whining to Trump about being canned.  Trump said he had not head because “we have a big operation here.”  That should not be surprising since Omarosa did not report to the President.  She worked for – and at the pleasure of – Kelly.  The Chief-of-Staff made that known to Omarosa during the termination talk.

In terms of the much anticipated tell-all book, Omarosa apparently had very little to tell.  Her most sensationalistic “revelations” amount to she said/he said without any supportive evidence.  It comes across as the bitter rants of an employee who was booted – and for good cause.

In her effort to get back at Trump, Omarosa has severely damaged her reputation, prevented herself from ever getting a government job that requires a security clearance, made herself less than a desirable potential employee in the private sector and may well face criminal charges.

Oh my!  Oh my! Omarosa.