On Tuesday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders returned to the White House briefing room lectern for the first time in weeks to field questions from reporters. As expected, she was inundated with questions regarding former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman‘s scorched earth book tour, particularly surrounding her claim that a storied Apprentice outtake featuring the president saying the n-word does indeed exist.
NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker effectively backed the press secretary into a corner when she asked if Sanders could unequivocally deny the existence of the tape after Sanders dodged questions as to whether she had actually asked President Trump if the tape exists.
“Can you stand at the podium and guarantee the American people that they’ll never hear Donald Trump utter the n-word on a recording in any context?” Welker asked.
“I can’t guarantee anything, but I can tell you the president addressed this question directly,” Sanders said. “I can tell you that I’ve never heard it. I can also tell you that if myself or the people in this building serving this country every single day, doing our very best to help people all across this country and make it better, if at any point we felt that the president is who some of his critics claim him to be, we certainly wouldn’t be here.”
Of course, that’s not really a denial.
Sanders won’t say Trump hasn’t used the N-word pic.twitter.com/275x0RtAHt
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) August 14, 2018
When Sanders said that the president had already addressed the issue, she was referring to a late night tweet storm in which the Trump claimed that he doesn’t have that slur “in my vocabulary and never have.” In a later tweet, he refers to Omarosa as “a dog.”
.@MarkBurnettTV called to say that there are NO TAPES of the Apprentice where I used such a terrible and disgusting word as attributed by Wacky and Deranged Omarosa. I don’t have that word in my vocabulary, and never have. She made it up. Look at her MANY recent quotes saying….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
….such wonderful and powerful things about me – a true Champion of Civil Rights – until she got fired. Omarosa had Zero credibility with the Media (they didn’t want interviews) when she worked in the White House. Now that she says bad about me, they will talk to her. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018
Just another Tuesday at the White House.