The Tab talks with Omarosa

Aeons ago (ie last Saturday, the 10th November) some of you might remember that a certain Omarosa Manigault came to the Cambridge Union as their guest speaker. Whilst the former Trump aide was in Cambridge, The Tab was lucky enough to have been given the chance to interview her. What followed was potentially one of the most surreal experience of our two editors who interviewed her, and whilst a good half to just-over-half of the interview ended up being off the record, we nonetheless managed to put together a transcript for you, our lovely readers.

Just a heads-up: From the transcript, it looks as if we had a completely normal interview. Yet this was anything but the case, Trump may have a book written about him called "Fire and Fury" but in all honesty such a moniker could just as aptly be used to describe Omarosa. The 15-20 minutes of round-table discussion we had with other members of the student press operated more in the form of a one-woman lecture/rant/show than a Q&A.

The charisma Omarosa exudes is legendary, at one point I (Edan) was so intimidated I think I might have ended up trying to flirt with her out of nervousness (I'm a gay man as well, please don't make me try to explain this) just so you're aware of how bizarre an experience it was. Anyhow, here's our transcript, which in spite of its relative brevity still packs a punch. Enjoy!

The Tab: With your key inside information, what is your understanding of Trump's relationship with Melania? We have seen these videos of her batting his hand away, and her somewhat pointed campaign of "anti cyber-bullying", what did you pick up from their dynamic?

Omarosa: They were engaged when I met them back in 2003, so I got to see her being the girlfriend, fiancé, the wife, the mother and now the first lady. So watching the evolution of this relationship, a decade and a half later, one thing I know is that she has come into her own, and through this whole journey she has found herself and her own way to communicate her message to the world. One way I talk about in the book is how she uses fashion to communicate.

The Tab: Oh, like with the coat? [Melania infamously wore a jacket to visit the New Hope Children's Shelter in McAllen, Texas, on 21 June, that said on the back "I really don't care, do you?"]

Omarosa: Yes, you must look at that section in the book. Remember, she was in the business of fashion before she became the First Lady, she knew every single choice she would make from the designer she uses to the colour of her stilettos, it would send a clear message.

And so, I see a strained relationship.

The Tab: After the Midterms, what is the best way for the Democratic Party to combat Trump in 2020? And can you identify any potential candidates who could beat him?

Omarosa: So many questions, I like these big questions.

Now they have the House, they will have so many investigations against him, they will have so many hearings it will be a death by a thousand cuts. Every committee will try to get his tax returns. You will see it get to the point where he will not be able to get anything in his legislative agenda accomplished, because everything will come to a screeching halt. That's the first thing.

And when you ask about which candidates, my husband and I like Mitch Landrieu from Louisiana, keep an eye out!

We have seen some break-out stars like Beto in Texas, Gillum in Florida and Stacey Abrams in Georgia. So there are these unexpected Democratic stars who are emerging, quite like how Barack Obama emerged after he gave that speech in the Democratic Convention. So I think that the crowd will be so vast, there will be such a crowded Democratic primary field, much like what we saw with the Republican field when Trump was running. There were like 17 or 18 candidates, there were so many! You'll see that on the Democratic side now.

The Tab: It is interesting how most of those candidates you identified as the rising stars actually lost their races, or it is going to a runoff?

Omarosa: Not yet, the results are still coming in. I will say this having lost my first race when I ran for School-Board in Los Angeles, which to put into context, LA has the second largest school board in the nation. This is a race that cost millions of dollars. It was in that loss, that I learnt the most important lessons about winning. There is actually a silver lining to them not winning the races. It's where they get that dedication to come back, and analyse every single move they made and where they went wrong, and they'll come back bigger and stronger.

After this fraught experience we just chilled and watched her essentially repeat everything she said to us in the interview only to the whole chamber, so there's not much exciting to report on in terms of what Omarosa said after the interview-but we did have some good cider from the press gallery so here's a cute pic of us!