better with the talk and the controversy over the brennan issue versus omarosa? it s hard to say because we re talking about both simultaneously. it does suggest both the fact that the white house on wednesday afternoon had sarah huckabee sanders come out and dropped this brennan security clearance that they are worried about these omarosa tapes. the tape themselves and reporting in the washington post and new york times suggest they re unnerved by this. the question i have is whether they re unnerved by the general anxiety of having someone tape them in their private conversations for months and not knowing what could come of that or where there s concerned something specific could come out so i m going to wash whether there are other arguable
they re digging in. is it your sense that they re not going to back down? they re just going to move forward with this? yes, i think they re not going to back down at all. unlike the omarosa tapes which really put them on the defensive, i think the white house views the revoking of security clearances as something that puts them on the offensive. it s something they re able to control. i think the president feels like it gives him a sense of power. it makes him seem strong which is something that he s very concerned with. and so i think we ll continue to see, like, the drip-drip-drip of that, particularly as the omarosa thing has a drip-drip-drip effect. she certainly does. let me read you something that jeremy bash, also a contributor here, had to say. this is what he told axios today. my concern this morning is trump will strip the clearances of bob mueller and the investigative team. it s critical that congress protect the mueller investigation now by passing a law that makes i
former white house aide to president donald trump, also, perhaps you ve heard, author of a new book. before we get to the audio, i want to ask you about the timing of the release of these tapes. why today? i think it s important, as people question the credibility of everything that you see in hundr unhinged, that s what the right is saying. none of these stories are true. she doesn t have credibility. and i think it s important not only to point to these things, but to also blow the whistle on the corruption of the things that are going on in this family, in this administration and in this campaign. let s play the audio. to be clear to our viewers, to be clear to our listeners as well, you ve provided four clips. you selected these clips from a conversation you had with lara trump. all of these characterized towards the end of your book. take a listen. listen, obviously, with, like, the new york times article and stuff, you know, it s, it s what s the new york time
segment of the video, making statements, praising donald trump. she s saying how difficult it was to work for him and what awful things he did. that in itself makes her credibility come under question. if she has tapes backing up what she says, the tapes speak for themselves. it becomes not just a he said she said twitter battle, it s actually problematic things she is revealing about the way the white house or the campaign works. and that is deeply troubling. it s clearly troubling to the president in he was holding this announcement about john brenner s security clearance in pocket for almost three weeks and dropped it yesterday when the omarosa story was dominating the headlines. so you see that this is something that s very disturbing to the president and the white house. and must be concerned about what s coming next. vanity fair s gabe sherman, msnbc s gabe sherman, he tweeted a short time ago, quote, trump is fueling privately that omarosa should be arrested, per
a person briefed on the conversations. this is coming from gabe sherman. kimberly, what are you hearing, if anything, about the president s state of mind as it relates to the release of these tapes? i mean, i didn t have that particular reporting. as i said, clearly he s unhappy about this. we ve seen that from his own twitter handle and his reaction to omarosa about this. i think it s disturbing if the president s trying to find ways to arrest an american citizen for writing a book. if that s true, that s something that should concern everyone. i can t imagine what crime he thinks she s breaking, if she hasn t released anything that s classified. but it s not surprising. like i said, the president s own twitter handle backs up exactly where his emotions are regarding this. you heard the conversation there between manigault newman and lara trump. what s your take on this job