White House correspondent April Ryan claimed Tuesday that ousted West Wing aide Omarosa Manigault Newsman purposely pushed a story in early August that President Trump used the N-word because she wanted to get revenge on Aretha Franklin for an old fight by distracting the public from the singer’s declining health.
“She did it because Aretha Franklin didn’t want her at her birthday party,” Ryan told the Hollywood Reporter. “That’s how vindictive Omarosa is.”
Franklin died at age 76 on Thursday from advanced pancreatic cancer.
Ryan stopped short of defending the White House from claims Manigault Newman made against Trump and his family ahead of her book release last week, but did say people are suddenly willing to listen to the former director of the White House Office of Public Liaison now that she claims to have dirt on her former employer.
“You can’t make this mess up. People still don’t like her, but they’re willing to sit back and eat the popcorn and watch them shoot at each other, Donald Trump and Omarosa shoot at each other,” Ryan said. “We don’t want to see her called a ‘dog’ by the president, but we don’t trust her. She has done a lot of dirt, and people don’t forget.”
“Omarosa said a long time ago that she’d never be poor again. And if this is her way to be big and grand so she won’t be poor, so be it. She’ll throw anybody under the bus to get a dollar, and to have herself shine. So, more power to her,” she added. “People will be around for the spectacle, and she is providing a spectacle.”
Ryan and Manigault Newman got into a heated discussion in February 2017 in which Ryan later said the White House official tried to ruin her reputation.
