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Just a few months ago, Omarosa Manigault was in tears over friends, including one who was set to be a bridesmaid in her upcoming wedding, cutting her off over her support of Donald Trump. The former <em>Apprentice </em>star was the director of African-American engagement for the Trump-Pence campaign.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Omarosa Manigault Joins Donald Trump's White House Staff - Us Weekly<a href="https://t.co/X6P7K38L9Q">https://t.co/X6P7K38L9Q</a> <a href="https://t.co/JflNH2pUkO">pic.twitter.com/JflNH2pUkO</a></p>
— Jerry Blanco (@Germaror) <a href="https://twitter.com/Germaror/status/819907626372894720">January 13, 2017</a></blockquote>
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"I will never forget the people who turned their backs on me when all I was trying to do was help the Black community," <a href="http://madamenoire.com/726111/omarosa-manigault-trump-support/" target="_blank">Manigault told <em>20/20</em></a> following Trump's election win. "It’s been so incredibly hard."
But what helped her dry her tears was the new job she was given in the Trump administration. Manigualt is now the director of communications for the office of public liaison and got to work while visiting <em>The View </em>late last week.
While sitting down with the hosts, Manigault was asked about her new gig and brought up the work she's currently doing planning the administration's upcoming Black History Month program. That led to a question from attorney and current co-host Sunny Hostin about whether or not <a href="http://madamenoire.com/783508/black-people-played-like-pawns-white-folks/" target="_blank">she's really just a pawn</a> for the president.
"The criticism has been that he's just using you for optics and doesn't really care about the Black community," Hostin said.
In response to an opinion that many Black people hold, Manigault set the record straight -- and both Hostin and Joy Behar in the process. You know the former reality star couldn't help but get feisty with the hosts.
"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 Donald Trump doesn't know and doesn't care about the Black community, Manigault said a major effort will be made to reach out to Black folks. You know the vast majority of us are trying to keep our head above water in the "inner cities."
"The last administration decided not to aggressively do African American outreach," she said. "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 <em>The View </em>(you know Whoopi had the day off/wanted no parts of this), including the less than pleasant moments with Hostin and Behar below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22gZxphomcM
<em>Images via Twitter and WENN</em>
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