*Omarosa Manigault, celebrity-elect Trump’s newly appointed director of African-American engagement, sat down with the ladies of “The View” last week and went head-to-head with hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin.
Manigault dodged particular questions relating to Trump’s ‘grab ’em by the pu**y’ comments, and controversial policies he signed into legislation during his first week.
“We have real issues and have real problems that we need to address,” she said in response to The View hosts’ multiple inquiries.
“No kidding,” Behar responded.
Manigault wanted to focus on her new gig and brought up the work she’s currently doing planning the Trump administration’s upcoming Black History Month program.
“The criticism has been that he’s just using you for optics and doesn’t really care about the Black community,” Hostin said.
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In response to an opinion that many Black people hold about Manigault and her questionable relationship with Donald Trump, the reality TV star set the record straight:
“First of all, no one uses me,” she said. “No one uses me. First and foremost, let me tell you a little bit about myself and then you can understand how I got where I am. I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio in the Westlake projects, a housing project. So I am the embodiment of the American dream. I grew up on welfare, on Section 8 housing, my father was killed when I was seven years old. I went to public schools. I went to Central State Ohio, got to Howard University and started to work in politics. So I earned my way to sit in the White House, no one gave me anything, okay?”
She added, “I was able to make it because my mother made sure that we were in the church, that Christ was the head of our lives, that education was at the top of every single thing we did, and she kept us out of trouble and out of the streets. And that’s why I made it. We’re not a monolith. The African-American community is so diverse. But my mother and the sacrifice she made after my father was murdered is the reason that I’m successful today.”
As for the belief that 45 doesn’t care about the Black community, Manigault said: “The last administration decided not to aggressively do African American outreach. They felt that if they helped all Americans, then the African-American community would be helped. That really isn’t the approach that we’re taking. We have a very strategic plan of engaging this community. We see what’s happening in the inner cities. We see that 56 percent of African American men under 30 are either unemployed or not in school, and we want to change that.”
Check out her conversation with the ladies of “The View” via the clip below:
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