Christabel Duah
Reality star turned White House aide turned reality star Omarosa Manigault Newman made it known how she felt about her time in the administration.
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Back at her reality roots on “Big Brother: Celebrity Edition,” the 44-year-old was quick to wax poetic when asked about being Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the Office of Public Liaison.
RELATED: Omarosa goes to war with Robin Roberts after being called out on live TV
“I felt like it was a call of duty,” she told housemate Ross Matthews, an E! correspondent, in Thursday’s premiere episode. “I felt like I was serving my country, not serving him.”
Manigault Newman is one of 11 celebrities competing for a $250,000 grand prize. She joined the series mere months after being unceremoniously fired from the White House. She maintained that she was not fired by the administration, but that she resigned to Chief of Staff John Kelly in the situation room.
Considering she was reportedly hired for her “loyalty,” her comments to Matthews about the president were certainly less than steadfast.
“I was haunted by tweets every single day,” she whined to Matthews. “What is he going to tweet next?”
Matthews asked, “Does anybody say to him, ‘What are you doing?’”
She responded, “Honey, I tried to be that person and then all of the people around him attacked me. It was like ‘keep her away,’ ‘don’t give her access,’ ‘don’t let her talk to him.’ It’s like, Ivanka’s there, Jared’s there.”
Manigault Newman continued, “It’s not my circus. It’s not my monkeys. You know, I’d like to say, not my problem, but I can’t say that because it’s bad.”
.@Omarosa opens up to @helloross about her time in the White House on tonight's Celebrity Big Brother. In the meantime, don't miss a minute of the action on the #BBLF: https://t.co/H9nnS6VGdW pic.twitter.com/8x6dFBZxD2
— Big Brother (@CBSBigBrother) February 8, 2018
RELATED: It sounds like Omarosa could be in for one heck of a payday from her newest gig on reality TV
In the episode, she slammed the administration of backstabbing as they pushed her out.
“There’s a lot of people that want to stab me in the back, kind of similar to the White House,” she said. “The one thing I learned from politics is you have to watch your back, and sometimes you have to watch your front, too.”
After the clip was shared online, and before the full episode aired, White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah weighed in Manigault Newman’s comments with a mocking jab at her “Apprentice” failures.
“Omarosa was fired three times on ‘The Apprentice’ and this is the fourth time we let her go,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said. “She had limited contact with the president while she was here. She has no contact now.”
Raj Shah on Omarosa's bleak White House comments: "Omarosa was fired three times on 'The Apprentice.' This is the fourth time we let her go" pic.twitter.com/97bZSwHVNC
— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) February 8, 2018
After her humiliating exit from the administration, Omarosa appeared on “Good Morning America,” intimating that she’d be spilling White House secrets.
“When I have a chance to tell my story, Michael, I have quite a story to tell,” Manigault Newman said to Michael Strahan at the time. “As the only African American woman in this White House, as a senior staff and assistant to the president, I have seen things that made me feel uncomfortable, that have upset me, that have affected me deeply and emotionally. That has affected my community and my people. And when I can tell my story, it is a profound story that I know the world will want to hear.”
She looks to be using the “Big Brother” house cameras to do just that.
