Sarah Sanders "can't guarantee" there are no tapes of Trump saying N-word
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she "can't guarantee" that there are no tapes of President Trump saying the N-word. Former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman claims she has heard such a tape dating from Mr. Trump's time on "The Apprentice," but the president insists he has never uttered the slur.
"I can't guarantee anything, but I can tell you that the president addressed this question directly," Sanders said in the White House press briefing Tuesday in response to a question about whether she could guarantee that Americans would never hear him use the word in a recording.
"I can tell you that I've never heard it. I can also tell you that if myself, or the people that are 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 was who some of his critics claim him to be, we certainly wouldn't be here."
Sanders was repeatedly asked if she's spoken with Mr. Trump directly about his use of the slur. She denied having ever heard it "or anything similar" from the president.
"I didn't have to, because he addressed it to the American people all at one time," she said, in reference to Mr. Trump's tweet Monday in which he claims he did not use the racial epithet during his time hosting "The Apprentice."
Mr. Trump also claimed in that tweet that he had been reassured by the show's creator, Mark Burnett, that the tapes do not exist.
In those tweets, Mr. Trump also criticized Manigault, who he has also referred to as a "lowlife" and a "dog" in separate tweets.
.@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
Also Tuesday, Mr. Trump's campaign organization filed an arbitration complaint against Omarosa for an alleged breach of a confidentiality agreement, CBS News has confirmed.
Sanders characterized Mr. Trump as an "equal opportunity person."
"This has absolutely nothing to do with race and everything to do with the president calling out someone's lack of integrity," she said.
Notably, Mr. Trump has publicly called out Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California, CNN's Don Lemon, and kneeling NFL players who he's said "are unable to define" what they are protesting. Prior to entering the White House, Mr. Trump faced a host of racially charged lawsuits and allegations in his business dealings.
Sanders ultimately praised the Trump administration for putting polices in place that "helps all Americans, particularly African Americans" and touted the president's record for reducing black unemployment.