Al Sharpton asked White House aide Omarosa Manigault on Thursday to deliver a message to President Trump on behalf of blacks and women concerned with the “disaster” he created during his first three months in office.
Ms. Manigault spoke at the National Action Network summit organized by Mr. Sharpton in New York City this week when the civil rights leader asked her to relay a message to the president.
“You are in a very precarious position, because you represent an administration that many of us disagree with,” Mr. Sharpton said to the White House aide and former reality show contestant, Politico reported.
“But I would not be loyal to what I am if I did not address those issues and ask you to go back and tell them, ’Yes, they were respectful. … No, they would not allow me to be silenced, but they told me to tell you that we as blacks and women are, in the first 100 days, seeing a disaster in Washington, D.C.,’ ” he added.
Mr. Sharpton raised his concerns during Thursday’s event after Ms. Manigault generated groans from the audience while giving her closing marks, according to multiple reports.
“I am looking forward to continue to partner with you, continuing to work on behalf of the National Action Network of Los Angeles, but, more importantly, the president of the United States,” Ms. Manigault told an reportedly unenthused audience.
“We’ve had Bill O’Reilly here, we’ve had Sean Hannity here. We respect you. But I wish the President would respect us,” Mr. Sharpton said on stage afterwards, according to Politico.
Ms. Manigault, 43, gained fame over a decade ago as a contestant on “The Apprentice,” Mr. Trump’s NBC reality show. She previously worked in the office of Vice President Al Gore in the 1990s and was a member of the Democratic Party before switching to Republican in 2015.
She’s currently an aide to the president as well as the communications director for the White House Office of Public Liaison.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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