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Could it be Omarosa 2020?
Former White House aide, Omarosa Manigault Newman, who has gone toe-to-toe with President Donald Trump since leaving the White House– drawing side eyes from the black community — says she’d be open to getting in the political ring if people wanted her to.
“If an opportunity comes for me to serve in my community whether that’s an appointed or elected position,I will step up every single time, even when it’s not popular, even when people criticize me.” Newman told theGrio‘s Natasha Alford in a sit down interview.
Since releasing her tell-all book Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House, Manigault Newman has gotten under the skin of White House officials and President Donald Trump, who lashed out at her and called her a “dog.”
Trump’s degrading language has caused some of the strongest Omarosa critics to have to defend the reality show contestant from disrespect.
Let me be clear! Calling a Black woman a dog is unacceptable. This is a pattern. We saw it with the black football players moms. They were called sons of B*tches.
— AprilDRyan (@AprilDRyan) August 14, 2018
Omarosa says she would be game for whatever comes her way, whether she runs for office or someone appoints her to a role.
“The call to service is a very difficult one, where you can be criticized or cheered all in the same day,” Manigault Newman told theGrio.
Manigault Newman ran for Los Angeles School Board in 2014. She lost, coming in second to last place in a pool of seven candidates and earning only 5.3 percent of the vote.
“My first run was the most important run,” she said. “I ran to represent our children and to impact educational change. That process informed me that yes, we have to be politically engaged.”
Manigault Newman says her biggest concern is for the state of the current White House, noting there are no high level African-American outreach staff.
“We can’t just sit back and ignore Donald Trump for the next couple of years,” she told theGrio.
“We have to be in the room to impact the policy and the change that we want to see. Somehow, some way we have to have a emissary who is willing to go into the lion’s den and fight the good fight for our people. It’s a fight that’s worth fighting.”
But was Omarosa worried about the state of black America before she got fired?
Even after a tense departure, she defended Donald Trump as “racial” and not “racist.”
“I had a blind spot,” Manigault Newman told theGrio.
That blind spot may end up undermining some of her best efforts to get back into the good graces– and get the votes– of black folks who say the writing about Donald Trump was always on the wall.
Check out more of our exclusive sit-down interview with Omarosa Manigault Newman below.