President Donald Trump dedicated a portion of his Black History Month gathering with black supporters on Wednesday to sharing a little known fact about former “Apprentice” contestant and current White House staff member Omarosa Manigault. Turns out, she’s actually pretty cool.
“I want to thank my television star over here — Omarosa’s actually a very nice person. Nobody knows that,” he said during what he described as a “little get-together,” during which he briefly mentioned civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and abolitionist movement leader Frederick Douglass while heaping praise on other supporters in the room, including Ben Carson.
“I don’t want to destroy her reputation,” he continued. “She is a very good person and she’s been helpful right from the beginning with the campaign and I appreciate it, I really do. Very special. So I want to thank everybody for being here. ”
You can read the full transcript of Trump’s remarks below.
This is a full transcript of President Trump's speech to his Black History Month event. pic.twitter.com/uJ9iXvUOGr
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 1, 2017
Manigault’s White House title is assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison.” She has been a Trump ally since appearing on the first season of NBC reality show “The Apprentice.”
Manigault previously worked for Trump’s presidential campaign as his director of African-American outreach. Before that, she described herself as a Democrat and briefly worked in the office of Vice President Al Gore during President Bill Clinton’s administration.
In between letting his various guests speak while seated around a table in the White House, President Trump also blasted CNN as “fake news” and hostile” while praising African-American CNN commentator and GOP strategist Paris Dennard.
“He’s all by himself, seven people and Paris. I’ll take Paris over the seven,” Trump said. “But I don’t watch CNN so I don’t get to see you as much.”
The room full of press and supporters seemed to laugh at every comment made by Trump until he said, “I don’t like watching fake news,” which didn’t draw much of a reaction.