OK, this is interesting, but maybe not for the reasons that one might have originally thought, because the fact that the President used the N-word on The Apprentice is neither surprising nor particularly damaging for a President who is all but proudly racist. What is surprising to me about it — and maybe it shouldn’t be — is that 1) there were three black women working on the Trump campaign, and 2) there were three black women working on the Trump campaign trying to get out ahead of a potential nightmare for campaign Trump ahead of the possible release of that The Apprentice tape in which Trump used the N-word.

Let me back up just a minute: In Omarosa’s book, she claims that she spoke to Lynn Patton (assistant to Eric Trump) and Katrina Pierson, a campaign spokesperson, about how to handle the existence of the tape. And their response was not, “He used the N-word? Fuck that guy. I’m out of here, because there is no context in which it is OK for any white dude — let alone a guy running for the Presidency — to use that word.”

Their response was, “What was the context in which it was used so we can figure out how to spin it.”

POTUS says former White House staffer @Omarosa lied when she called him a racist who has said the N-word on tape. But a new recording, obtained by @CBSNews overnight, seems to back up Omarosa's story that several Trump advisers discussed an alleged tape during the 2016 campaign. pic.twitter.com/tV3R6P2TvE

— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) August 14, 2018

This is how soulless and nakedly ambitious the people with whom Trump surrounds himself are. They will go to any length to protect Trump, no matter how awful the transgression. I mean, obviously it shouldn’t surprise anyone given the number of women who have protected Trump knowing full damn well that he sexually harassed or assaulted multiple women.

To be fair, there are also a lot of contradictions about when Omarosa heard the tape, or if she ever heard the tape at all. But it is clear — despite denials from both Katrina Pierson and Lynn Patton before Omarosa’s phone call recording was released — that campaign staffers were preparing not the resignations, but their defense of Trump had it been released.

Of course, Trump declined to weigh in on the existence of said tape until Trump was reassured that the tape would not get out.

.@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

Honestly, I just want the tape to come out. Not because it will damage Trump in any way — it probably won’t — but just so everyone knows exactly where they stand.

Note, too, that Trump is in the midst of another Twitter meltdown this morning, tweeting 9 times in the last two hours, including this one:

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

Dustin is the founder and co-owner of Pajiba. You may email him here, follow him on Twitter, or listen to his weekly TV podcast, Podjiba.

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