Six former “Apprentice” contestants are planning to publicly denounce Donald Trump just ahead of the April 19 New York primary.
The former contestants, who include Season 1 runner-up Kwame Jackson and Season 4 winner Randal Pinkett, released statements in which they call out Trump for his divisive rhetoric.
“As alums of ‘The Apprentice,’ we have had the opportunity to work with Donald in various capacities, including as employees of the Trump Organization,” Pinkett said, per PBS. “Based on that experience and Donald’s campaign, we do not believe he is worthy of becoming president of the United States.”
“Trump is passionately and strategically reigniting a dirty and divisive culture soaked in a history of prejudice, fear and hate. It is unpatriotic, anti-American, self-serving, regressive and downright lazy,” Marshawn Evans Daniels added in her own statement.
Trump then responded with a statement of his own, saying, “”How quickly they forget. Nobody would know who they are if it weren’t for me.”
“They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with Trump,” he continued. “Total dishonesty and disloyalty… They should be careful or I’ll play hours of footage of them individually praising me… Ask how successful they’ve been since they left, six failing wannabes out of hundreds of contestants — so sad!”
Trump hosted “The Apprentice” from 2004 to 2015. After Trump announced his candidacy for president, he left the show. Arnold Schwarzenegger was named as the new host in September.
Despite losing in Colorado and Wisconsin in recent weeks, Trump still leads Ted Cruz in the delegate count 743 to 545. Ohio Gov. John Kasich currently has 143 delegates. Candidates need to accumulate 1,237 delegates in order to win the party’s nomination outright, avoiding a contested convention in July.