Did He or Didn’t He Say It? If He Did, Will It Matter?

This is where we are, as a nation, in the damnable, cancerous age of Trump. Truth, decency, civility, and any adherence to our better angels… All of these things have been sacrificed on the altar of Trump.

It’s now all about “owning the libs” and MAGA.

Meanwhile, there’s nothing connected to Donald Trump that can legitimately be credited with making America better, much less great, again.

The latest buzz is about disgruntled former White House aide, Omarosa Manigault-Newman and her new tell-all book.

Manigault-Newman is a fellow reality TV alum, just as Trump is, and in fact, they know each other from Trump’s show, “The Apprentice.” She was full of only good things to say about Donald Trump before the election, even suggesting that his detractors would bow before him, once the election was over and he was kin… er… president.

Now that she’s out – ousted by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly – she’s apparently viewing her old boss in a new light.

He’s every bit the vile reprobate those of us whose consciences aren’t seared and numb from the battle have always said he was. No doubt about it.

Is she lying, though?

Well, she’s not reputable. She’s an opportunist. She’s scorned. She’s got a book to sell.

In any other time, with anybody else, she’d be immediately blown off.

In this instance, we can’t be so sure. A safe bet, given the players involved (Manigault Newman and Trump) is to take the wait-and-see approach.

So when she says there is audio out there that reveals Donald Trump using a racial slur, what are we to believe?

The president has insisted that he’s not a racist, and that the “N” word is not in his vocabulary.

Other than Manigault Newman’s claim, comedian, Penn Jillette has also hinted at “racially insensitive” language on the set of “The Apprentice.”

And let’s not forget comedian, Tom Arnold, who may not be the most reliable judge of character, but who has also claimed, even before this latest dust up, that those tapes existed.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders fielded the questions on Tuesday that we all knew were coming.

Sanders was pressed by reporters on the accusation during a White House press briefing on Tuesday afternoon. Although she called Manigault Newman’s allegations “salacious” and “ridiculous,” Sanders did not guarantee that Americans would never hear Trump saying the N-word.

“I can’t guarantee anything,” Sanders said. “I can tell you that I’ve never heard it.”

They asked if he’d used a horrible racial slur, and she basically shrugged.

Does anybody else suspect that Mrs. Sanders is suffering from battle fatigue? How tiresome must it be to bear the weight of defending the loathsome troll of a man currently occupying the White House?

I’m willing to consider that President Trump has never said the “N” word. Ever. In my gut I suspect, simply based on who he has already shown himself to be, that he’s said far worse, however.

Is it on tape? That part I have no idea about.

I mean, honestly, for Omarosa Manigault Newman to know he was the type of man who held those kind of views as far back as her days on “The Apprentice,” but for her to jump the Trump train early and ingratiate herself to him, to the point she got a fluff job with the administration speaks volumes about the kind of person she is. Playing the race card now in her attempts to gain an audience for her book really is about as pathetic as it gets.

Sanders said she had not asked Trump directly whether he had used the racial slur. “I didn‘t have to because he addressed it to the American people all at one time,“ Sanders said, referring to Trump’s denial on Twitter the night before.

Asked about Trump calling Manigault Newman a “dog” on Twitter, Sanders did her best to make it sound justified.

“Look, the president has said this has absolutely nothing to do with race and everything to do with the president calling out someone‘s lack of integrity,“ Sanders said. “He has made a number of comments about plenty of people, and to try to single that out to one group is frankly silly because I think if you did a comparison, he‘s probably got a lot more nasty things out there about some other people.“

Not helping, Sarah.

“The president is somebody who is always going to fight fire with fire,“ Sanders said.

Right. Of course he is, because he has poor impulse control and a rotten, corrupt personality.

The question isn’t really about whether Trump used the racial slur or not. Trump was never the problem. He’s simply the face of a bigger problem. We’ve become a nation that celebrates ignorance and hatefulness over decency, dignity, and intelligent, civil discourse.

If Trump is proven to have said such an ugly thing, will it matter?

I promise you, if the tapes materialize and the word is heard, the next Trump rally will be filled with loyalists proudly displaying the slur on their Trump t-shirts.