MSNBC's Morning Joe invited former White House aide Omarosa on Thursday to discuss President Trump's temperament, the Mueller report, and to wildly speculate. Omarosa told co-host Mika Brzezinski that Trump is trying to create chaos because he, "is hiding something from the American people and he knows it's something that would affect his presidency and keep him from being re-elected."
Beyond the fevered speculation about "something," Omarosa is not the best of sources for MSNBC. In August 2018, Omarosa hyped a video that was ultimately aired on Hardball, but the video merely showed Michael Cohen boarding the Trump campaign's plane.
She's also not the best Mueller prognosticator. When co-host Willie Geist asked her to back up her claim that Trump was hiding something, even after a two year investigation by Robert Mueller, Omarosa declared that:
When you look in the Mueller report, you see the part that I’m in there’s a whole bunch of redactions and it makes me realize that particular time and those issues related to those particular emails are still under investigation. They told us ongoing in that particular footnote. Certainly Donald Trump, there is an endless amount of scandal, unethical behavior, illegal behavior.
At the Los Angeles premiere of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9, she predicted that, "I think the results of the Mueller investigation are going to rock Washington in a way that no other investigation has." While Washington has moved onto obstruction or general charges of unethical behavior, collusion has largely been flushed down the memory hole. Still, she clung to the idea that the redacted portions of the report would bring Trump down. When Geist asked, "What do you expect is under those black lines in the redacted report?" she responded:
I think a very clear, clear process of trying to have a relationship with foreign entities that would advance… and we know that Donald Trump and the campaign took advantage of foreign actors who impacted his election. We know all this right now. But Donald Trump continues to deny it, because he wants the American people to believe that he was transparent and that cooperative and that's just not true.
If there was evidence to charge Trump with collusion or conspiracy, Mueller would have reported so. Regardless, Omarosa is not one who has credibility to speak to what may be under those black lines.
Here is a transcript for the April 25 show:
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7:34 AM ET
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN: I think what you're going to see is classic Trump. Trump is going to try to create chaos, so that he can try to distract from what is very obvious. That Donald Trump is hiding something from the American people and he knows it's something that would affect his presidency and keep him from ever being re-elected.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: So the distractions are things he just throw out there? He doesn't care if they're true or not? I mean, this is the New York media world that he had fun with years ago, but he’s doing it in the White House?
OMAROSA: Well, let me tell you, they have these lists of shocking proposals. They would come up with them even when Steve Bannon was there and Steve Miller and they would just keep them on the side and whenever they needed to throw a hand grenade to blow up the press or take over the front covers of the newspaper, they would pull out one of these very shocking proposals. Many of them dealt with something try to eradicate one of Barack Obama’s signature legislative accomplishments or something he did during his presidency.
BRZEZINSKI: Did you see this list?
OMAROSA: But they had them in their pocket. You know they talked about all these different things, in fact very early on in the administration they talked about separations. We never imagined they would do them but that was one of the shocking proposals on this crazy list that Steve Bannon and Steve Miller came up with.
BRZEZINSKI: That’s incredible
…WILLIE GEIST: Omarosa, you said a minute ago, the president is creating chaos that is certainly true, is almost always true, but you said he’s creating chaos because he you believe he might be hiding something. We just had a long two-year investigation by Robert Mueller- highly esteemed investigator. Do you think there's something more out there that the special counsel did not find in his investigation?
OMAROSA: My own section, when you look in the Mueller report, you see the part that I’m in there’s a whole bunch of redactions and it makes me realize that particular time and those issues related to those particular emails are still under investigation. They told us ongoing in that particular footnote. Certainly Donald Trump, there is an endless amount of scandal, unethical behavior, illegal behavior. You know I was talking with my attorney yesterday about the boxes of emails that the White House still has mine from the campaign and we were discussing in preparing for what's to come with the congressional hearings possibly, if that in fact was
obstruction by not allowing us to take those emails and to share with the Mueller team.GEIST: So what do you expect is under those black lines in the redacted report, having been in that White House and worked so closely with them?
OMAROSA: I think a very clear, clear process of trying to have a relationship with foreign entities that would advance… and we know that Donald Trump and the campaign took advantage of foreign actors who impacted his election. We know all this right now. But Donald Trump continues to deny it, because he wants the American people to believe that he was transparent and that cooperative and that's just not true.
