Donald Trump used 'n-word' during 'Apprentice,' producer claims
FILE-Donald Trump appears during the season finale of the "Celebrity Apprentice" on May 10, 2009 in New York City. (Photo by Bill Tompkins/Getty Images)
A producer is alleging that Donald Trump used the "n-word" on the set of the reality show "The Apprentice" and that the racial slur was caught on tape.
Bill Pruitt worked on the first season of the show and wrote an op-ed story for Slate accusing the former president of using the derogatory word discussing first-season finalists Kwame Jackson and Bill Rancic, who is white, Deadline reported.
Citing Pruitt, Deadline noted that when informed of some of Jackson’s attributes, Trump said, "Yeah, but, I mean, would America buy a n— winning?"
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Pruitt wrote in his story that there was surprise among him and the other producers, but none of them thought to leave the room, but in hindsight, " I still wish I had."
Once the scene was filmed where Rancic is favored to win the competition and the production was almost complete, Pruitt wrote in the Slate story that no one addressed what Trump said in the boardroom, suggesting there was evidence of him saying it caught on tape, Deadline reported.
Citing the Slate story, Business Insider reported that Pruitt signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) that expired this year — roughly 20 years after "The Apprentice" first debuted.
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In a statement obtained by Deadline, Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign communications director, said "This is a completely fabricated and bullshit story that was already peddled in 2016. Nobody took it seriously then, and they won’t now, because it’s fake news. Now that Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrats are losing the election, they are bringing up old fake stories from the past because they are desperate."
Pruitt’s allegation of Trump using the n-word isn’t the first time someone claimed the Republican presidential frontrunner has done this.
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According to Business Insider, Omarosa Manigault Newman, a contestant on the first season of "The Apprentice" and a former Trump administration staffer during his presidency, asserts that she'd listened to tapes where Trump used the racial epithet.
Trump has denied the existence of the tapes at the time, referring to Manigault Newman as "wacky and deranged."
Mark Burnett, the reality TV producer and creator of "The Apprentice, who criticized Trump before the 2016 presidential election told Business Insider that he had no legal rights to release any tapes.
MGM bought Burnett's production company and confirmed to Business Insider that the company doesn't have the rights to release footage.
This story was reported from Washington, D.C.