Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 28 | Oh-my-rosa

Episode Date: August 14, 2018

The reality show continues, now starring former Trump aide Omarosa. We'll break down the drama, then we'll discuss why the media prefers covering trivial stories like this and the Unite the Right rally rather than the bombshell story of radical Islamists training kids to be school shooters. Lastly, a listener question.  Copyright CRTV. All rights reserved.

Hey guys, happy Tuesday. It's Ali Stucky, host of CRTV's Relatable. You are either listening to this on your phone or you are watching this on CRTV.com. I really encourage you to subscribe to CRTV using promo code Alley 20 because you can see the video of this whole episode. And you know what? I take the time to put on makeup and brush my hair and at least look cute from the waist up for you guys. So it would make all this effort worth it if you guys were watching me as well as listening to me. Anyway, Today, we are going to kind of do a little bit of a news roundup of what happened over the weekend, some things that happened last week. And the common thread through all of this stuff is going to be the media, what they decided to cover, why they decided to cover it, and what they have decided to ignore. So here is a summary of what we're going to discuss. We're going to discuss Omarosa's tapes, the Unite the Right rally. and we are going to discuss something that happened last week but was really not talked about very much and that is the compound in New Mexico wherein kids were being trained by radical Islam as long as to be school shooters. Yes, that actually happened. I am also maybe possibly

going to answer a question at the end of this from a listener. I think I will have time to do that. So this is going to make sure that you are pretty in the know about the big ticket items that have happened over the past few days. So number one, Omarosa. Amorosa. I don't really know. Who is Amarosa? Well, her full name is Omorosa, Managalton Newman, but for some reason, we all just call her

by just her first name, like Beyonce or Kesha. She used to work for President Trump as an aide. And before that, she was on The Apprentice. You know that as the show that Trump hosted and produced. And she used to be extremely loyal to President Trump. Not so anymore. She was fired by Chief of Staff John Kelly in December of 2017. Shortly after that, she was seen on the reality show Big Brother,

bad-mouting Trump and Pence. Today, she released her book Unhinged where she is dishinging on all of the allegedly horrible things that went on in the White House while she was there and she is making the press rounds to increase the hype around the book. She has released recordings of the president and John Kelly in an attempt to give credence to her book supposedly, and I'll get to those in just a second. But to give you an idea of just how drastically her views of Trump have shifted, here she was in 2016 talking about the president.

Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump. It's everyone who's ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him. it is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe. Okay. So that's a little bit idolatrous, a little bit troubling. Here she was on Monday of this week on the Today Show. He is known to be an entertainer, to exaggerate, but I never expected him to lie to the country. I thought that he would take his oath of office seriously, that he would be committed to advancing

this country. But instead, as I stated, there was a report that said he has said, at something like 4,000 lies since he's taken office. So he absolutely has an issue with the truth. And sometimes he battles with reality. And in fact, Savannah Guthrie, who was interviewing her, highlighted a different example of her flip-plopping in a similar way. Here's that. You now say not just because of this tape, but because of other matters that you believe the president to be a racist and a misogynist. This is a theme of your book. Absolutely. Let me play what you said on ABC about whether the president is a racist the day after you were fired.

Yes. Do you think this president is racist? Absolutely not. I would never sit nor work for someone who I believe to be a racist. Donald Trump is racial, but he is not a racist. In other parts of this interview, Amorosa claims to have a recording of Trump calling African Americans on The Apprentice The Inword. In multiple interviews, Amorosa says she heard this tape.

But according to NPR, that's not what her book says. Her book says that someone told her about the tape, but that she's never actually heard it herself. Now she's saying that she actually did hear it for herself and that hearing the tape is what changed the game for her and what freed her to go out and tell her story. So she's inconsistent in her testimony for one. And also, she's just kind of sketchy anyway for how she's gone about this whole thing. Remember I said that she has released recordings of the president and John Kelly. She recorded Kelly firing her in the situation room, which, as you know, is kind of a big deal in the West Wing and also recorded phone calls with President Trump.

The recording of Kelly shows him telling her that there are integrity issues with her and she needs to leave. Lawyers were also in the room. He also encouraged her to have a friendly departure so things go well for her. And so she won't have difficulty with her reputation in the future. It's a long recording, so I'm not going to play it here. But if you would like to go listen to it, you can go to NBC.com. It's in its totality there. Omarosa said on Meet the Press that this was a threat. She also said on the Today Show that being put in the situation room was false imprisonment.

Now, why Kelly even took her to the situation room for this firing, which is usually reserved for national security matters, is beyond me. And how she was able to actually record something in this room is also beyond me and also also really troubling. But she did, which a lot of analysts are saying is a major breach of security, which could have her illegal trouble. I mean, that seems like it would be obvious that that would be not okay, that that would be illegal, right? Like otherwise, any low level aid could presumably go into the White House and record whatever

they want, which would be a major threat to national security. Umma Rosa, however, claims that she is a whistleblower and so there are protections from her. I'm sure that's what her lawyer told her. I don't know if that's true. Maybe it is. I don't know for sure, but I kind of doubt it. Also, the recording itself isn't even that bad, in my opinion. She released the recording of John Kelly as if it was some bombshell and, like I said, called it threatening and called the meaning false imprisonment. Like, my response to that is just, get a grip. Get a grip. Saying we want this to be a friendly departure so you don't have problems with your reputation might be a warning, yes, but is that really different from a lot of other jobs?

If you leave a job and you didn't leave well, your employer could possibly say that, hey, you're not going to be able to expect a good reference from me. That boss might actually warn his or her other friends in the industry that, hey, this person can't be trusted. I would stay away if I were you. That would actually be a service to your colleagues and competitors and would totally be within their right. Now, of course, if General Kelly was talking about spreading lies about Amorosa in order to keep her unemployed, then that's no good. But saying, hey, please leave with respect and with dignity and we won't tell everyone what an awful person you've been and about the integrity issues that we have with you. That is not out of the norm in business and probably not in politics, especially in

the swamp that is Washington, D.C. I'm not saying it's a kind thing to do or even the most ethical thing to do, but it's not nearly as big of a deal as Amorosa is making it out to be, and I am quite sure that she knows that. I mean, there is a reason Kelly brought lawyers in the room with him to have accountability and legal protection. I doubt that he was going to say something incriminating in the presence of lawyers in the situation room. Um, Omarosa released another tape. This one was of a phone call with Donald Trump after her firing in which Donald Trump claims to not have known that she was going to get fired. He said that he doesn't like, actually I think it was, I don't love that at all, uh, that she was fired and that he knew nothing about it. Umarosa has been inconsistent on this about

whether or not she thinks Trump was lying. She's tried to make two contradicting claims about this. A, that President Trump doesn't even know what's going on in his own White House that she was able to be fired without his knowledge. And then also, B, that President Trump was lying to her during the phone call. It's either one or the other. It can't be both. He either knows or he lied.

My personal opinion is that he was lying to her. I think that he did know that she was being fired, but didn't want to take personal responsibility for it. and wanted to make sure that he was still in her good graces so she wouldn't go and badmouth him. Why do I think that? Because this is what President Trump does. He looks out for himself. He cares about his brand more than he cares about anything else.

And even though I think Omarosa just wants attention and is being deceitful in a lot of her reporting of White House events, I'm sure she has seen some sketchy stuff during her time spent with Trump. And I wouldn't be surprised if Trump didn't want her to. reveal his secrets. Here's what President Trump had to say about it on Twitter on Monday. It is a three-part threat. Wacky Omarosa, who got fired three times on The Apprentice now got fired for the last time. She never made it. Never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes. I said, okay. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. rarely see her but heard next tweet really bad things i told him to try working it out if possible because

she only said great things about me until she got fired third tweet while i know it's quote not presidential to take to take on a low life like omarosa and while i would rather not be doing so this is a modern day form of communication and i know the fake news media will be working over time to make even wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry. Oh man. Oh man. The president of the United States. The president has, uh, has had a very busy week on Twitter so far, especially on Monday morning. But we can't even get to all of that right now because it's just too much. Too much. We got to stay here. My favorite part about all of that, those three tweets, is that he admits that he wanted to keep her on because she said good things about him,

which just goes to support my view and the view of a lot of people. is that Trump is about Trump. And as I've said many times, I voted for Trump. I like so much of what he's doing and I will probably vote for him again. But that doesn't exclude legitimate criticism and observations. Trump loves Trump and he loves people that love Trump and he hates people that hate him.

It's not about principle or policy for him. It's about affection. Now, all that said, I do think that Amorosa is, in his words, wacky. I think she is wacky Omarosa. not only that, I think that like Trump, she only cares about herself. She wants affirmation. She wants attention.

She is inconsistent. She lacks integrity. She pays no heed to national security. Sarah Sanders and other members of the White House have condemned her as a liar, which I think is expected and possibly maybe justified. And you know what? I think for the most part, actually, so far, surprise, surprise. The media is doing an okay job of pressing her.

The media has this tendency you've probably seen. to demonize people until you criticize the president, then when you do, no matter what other values you hold, the media calls you a vigilante and loves you, like Stormy Daniels, like Jeff Flake, like John Kasich. As long as you speak out against the president, you are blessed in highly favored, according to the media.

But there have been some good pressing interviews with Omarosa. I think that Savannah Guthrie of the Today Show did a really good job on Monday of A, asking her tough questions and calling her on her, you know what, and B, staying cool when Amorosa was so rude to her, like so awkward and uncomfortable. Everyone should go watch that interview. She was really rude to Savannah Guthrie. Now, speaking of the media, they are, as you know, very funny. They're very particular about what they cover. Many, not all, but many in the press only like to cover stories that paint Trump in a bad light. They have loved

the Amarosa story because even if she's not credible, it shows the chaos of the Trump White House. They also loved, absolutely loved, just fell head over heels for the Unite the Right rally that happened in D.C. over the weekend. You all probably remember the original Unite the Right rally that occurred in Charlottesville last year where white nationalists marched with tiki torches chaining things like Jews will not replace us. It was condemned by people on the right and the left as really stupid and grotesque,

which is what it was. There was a counter-protester Heather. hire who was run over by a car and killed, which is terrible. And then President Trump responded to all of this by saying that there were good people on both sides. He didn't take any kind of strong position against these white nationalists, which I and a lot of people on the right said, hey, President Trump, that's not cool. It's really not difficult to stand up against white nationalism and say, nope, these are not

the kind of values that we represent. But I think Trump knew that a lot of people at the Unite the Right rally last year were nearing Nagahats and Trump didn't want to alienate his base, which is pretty reprehensible. Like, I think we can all probably admit that. He was, it was his reaction to the rally last year that people have cited over and over again since then when they accused President Trump of racism. I don't think President Trump is a racist. I think that he is self-absorbed, but not a racist.

But the media loves the narrative that Trump is not only a racist, but that he is also stoking racism in this country. and he is the fodder for white supremacy and he is causing a racial divide. That would be why they sought to breathlessly and relentlessly cover the Unite the Right Rally number two that happened in D.C. over the weekend in which legitimately, legitimately 20, 20, 20, 20 people marched. Seriously. Like a couple dozen, maybe at most, maybe people marched for white nationalism. And the media thought that these guys deserved nonstop coverage.

And whether they know it or not, the media, I kind of think they do. They give a megaphone to these kinds of views and they just add fuel to the flame of racial division. They are, in my opinion, purposely amplifying these bigoted but very rare views in order to drive the gap between Trump supporters and non-Trump supporters. So they can up the animosity against Donald Trump and make support of Donald Trump seem more and more morally reprehensible. They take the views of 20 people and say, this is true.

Trump's America. This is what it means to support President Trump racism. This is who you are if you vote for Trump, a white supremacist. This is the kind of America Trump is creating one of white nationalists. And you, Trump supporter, you are complicit in this bigotry. That's the story the media is telling. They are screaming racism so loudly that if you dare interject your points about low unemployment or economic success that you are accused of not only ignoring racism, but of being racist. You are not allowed to care about your family's well-being or even the economic well-being of minority communities, all of which are doing better under Trump, by the way, because doing so would be to minimize what the media tells you is more important

than anything else, racism. So you see the irony in that, right? That highlighting the success of black and Hispanic communities under Trump is racist because it minimizes the fact that Trump is racist. And if you minimize the fact that Trump is racist, then you are a racist. You are racist. And you wonder why. You wonder why these people on the left avoid debates with conservatives? Because all they have is a catch 22. So that's what the media wanted to cover over the weekend. This tiny protest of white nationalists who don't even consider themselves a part of the conservative movement and yet are portrayed as representative of the right and specifically as Trump's right. Meanwhile, people are getting shot and killed in a horrifically high

numbers in Chicago. Just last weekend, I think it was 66 people were shot. 12 people were murdered, including two teenagers. It's really a state of emergency in Chicago right now. Chicago has been plagued by what really can only be described as warfare for years, despite the city's strict gun laws. They've been plagued with gun violence. Democrat Rome Emmanuel is the mayor as someone who has shown relentless antipathy toward the police force. People are calling for him to resign for dereliction of duty. This has been covered, but not nearly enough and not nearly as clearly as it needs to be to really highlight the heart of the problem. And there's another story that the media has shied away from covering. You might have heard about the compound in New Mexico where investigators

found 11 emaciated kids dressed in rags and the remains of a dead child. These kids were being trained by radical Islamists to be school shooters. Yes. you heard that right. That actually happened on American soil. This has been reported on, yes, but conveniently left out has been the fact that these were Muslim extremists. There's this long CNN report on this and only once do we read the word Islamic and only once do we read the word Muslim, but way into the article and neither in connection to a motive or anything like that. The guy in charge of this horrific compound in which these kids were basically starving to death is named Saraj bin Wahaj. I don't know if that's how you say it.

His dad is a famous Imam and the leader of Muslim Alliance of North America. He also allegedly connected is connected to the World Trade Center bombings in 1993, though hasn't been convicted for a crime. The government has had its eye on this guy for two and a half decades. but I guess his son somehow slipped through the cracks and was able to start this compound, starving children and training them to be school shooters. Super comforting. Why is this not the biggest story of the year? Why are we not talking about 20 people at a white nationalist rally and not radical Islamists kidnapping kids and training them to kill people? Can you tell me that? Because it doesn't fit the media's narrative. And it doesn't match their agenda. And it doesn't match

their agenda. Their agenda is, like I said, to portray Trump and Trump's America as chaotic and racist, embigoted and divided and awful. It's only white people and only Christians that can be portrayed as problematic. We can't talk about Muslim extremists because that'll just stoke the flames of Islamophobia that Trump has worked so hard to spark, they say. The media is more concerned with Islamophobia than they are radical Islam. That's just the truth. Now, I realize the irony and all of this, that I spent the majority of this podcast talking about Omarosa in only a few minutes on the New Mexico compound, despite saying it's the biggest door of the year, which I think that it is. Well, that is the conundrum. The media often puts

us in. The only information that I really have access to is someone who doesn't actually go out and report on these stories myself. I'm not a journalist. That's not my job is what the media gives me. I can research thoroughly. I can dig into the background, but I can't get much deeper than what's being reported. There are a million and one stories on Amorosa and probably five stories on the New Mexico compound. I want you to be informed of both because I do think that both are important, but I also want you to see the completely lopsided nature of the media, that they want to control what you know based on what they think is important. And what they think is important is that you see Trump as an incompetent racist and that you don't pay attention to the radical Muslims,

literally kidnapping kids and starving and radicalizing them. It takes a lot more effort to know the things that the media don't want you to know, to draw your own conclusions, to do your own research. The media know that. They understand most readers are lazy. We all are really, which is why they put up a catchy and misleading headline, put their narrative at the top of the article, then all the inconvenient details at the bottom.

I get this question a lot about where I get my news. I do read a lot of the mainstream media because I like to see how they portray things and what people are going to be talking about. I read the New York Times and the Washington Post every day, but I also read Fox, Wall Street Journal, National Review. A lot of times New York Times and Washington Post will give you the story.

You just have to really dig for the details. And then you have to use what you already know to make reasoned conclusions, which is why it's important to read outside of the news, to study history, to understand the bigger picture of politics and morality and all these things that help us put current events into context. I think that too many people today don't have a foundation of knowledge so their worldview is basically shaped by headlines.

It shouldn't be. Actually, that's really dangerous. I would say that's why a lot of young people skew to the left because all of our news leans to the left. You should already have your worldview based on principles that don't really change. Then each headline and news story is viewed from that lens. Now, that doesn't mean that you're not. open to new ideas or that you're unwilling to be challenged, you are.

But you need to have an anchor of knowledge and wisdom that holds you steady even as the news changes. Okay. We have time for one listener question. This question is, do you have advice for those of us who want to make content but aren't as natural with extemporaneous speaking as you are? How to practice moving away from complete scripting but not ramble. to the point of boring everyone. That is a great question. So first of all, let me say this, that this is true for me. I'll say what I'm good at and then what I'm really not good at.

So speaking comes pretty naturally to me. I've just been talking for a really long time, probably since I was born. I have always enjoyed and have been pretty good at writing, performing, being in front of people, improvisation, that kind of stuff. I'm just a really verbal person and all of my energy goes to that side of my brain, which is probably why the math side of my brain just doesn't function. Now, that said, I still have a lot, a lot to improve upon. There are a lot of people that are so much better than me at this. And I have and do practice really hard before every time that I speak. I prepare a lot for TV hits, for this podcast, for interviews, for public speaking. I'm not the kind of person that goes up there and wings it. I'm just not that

confident. For public speaking specifically, I first figure out what I want to talk about. Then I do a lot of research to make sure that I have my facts trade. My favorite source for statistics is Pew Research. Then I write everything out. I am not a bullet point person. I want everything out on paper. And then I spend days editing and finessing it. Then I read it over and over again until it's basically memorized. I actually prefer to memorize the whole thing, but I just don't have time to memorize a 30-minute speech. Same with my videos. I pick a topic, research, write everything, say it a couple times and go. That's pretty much true for TV hits as well, which I personally think is probably my weakest point in this industry. I'm just not as good at the

two-minute TV slots as a lot of other people, but, you know, most people aren't as good at public speaking and writing. So we all have our strengths. But I would say that no matter how naturally good you are, you still have to know your stuff and you still have to practice. when my nerves kick in, which they always do before I do anything in front of people, I have the tendency to forget. But if I practice a lot, then it's kind of like muscle memory and I can fall back on what I've practiced. Now for this next part of my answer, the last part of my answer, I'm not speaking specifically to this person who asked because I don't know you.

So I could possibly assess your talent. This is just kind of some free career advice, something that I've learned. It is some tough love. Okay, too many people nowadays want to create online content who are not suited to create online content. Too many people want to become famous bloggers or bloggers who are not talented in that realm. Too many people think that success equals being an internet personality, and that's just not true. Having influence and a lasting impact on those around you doesn't require you to have a large social media following or require you to make videos online. And having influence is not necessarily the definition of success.

For me, I knew that I wanted to be in front of people and I always knew that that was just something I enjoyed. Most things in life, I would say I'm not good at. I am not athletic. I'm not really, I'm definitely not that academically smart. I was never that hard of a worker at school. I was not most liked or the most likely to succeed. But I was always good at articulating complicated ideas in a simple way that compelled

people to listen. So when people kind of question, you know, motives for my career, I just say that this is something that I've always, that I've always wanted to do and that I've always been interested in. So everything I do now is just kind of a manifestation of what I've always loved and what I've been told that I'm good at. So what I would advise you to do, what I would advise you to do is first ask yourself, what are you good at and then ask yourself what the world needs instead of trying to fit into someone else's definition of successful and to figure out what you're good at you can usually figure it out by

asking yourself one what do I really enjoy doing and two what have other people outside of my parents told me that I do well um if you like something but no one has affirmed that you're good at it then you're probably not really good at it um then once you found that what you're really good at you should ask yourself what does the world or even just my small section of the world need is it a good teacher? Is it a good financial advisor? Is it a good honest publicist? Or maybe it's a blogger, media personality, maybe it's a politician or an actor. Maybe it's an electrician. What do you do well and how can you use what you do well to meet the needs of others to make a positive impact, no matter how big or small. Do that to the glory of God and that's it. That's really

all of life. That's what you'll do from point A to point B. There are all of these other branches that kind of shoot out from that trunk like charity service, evangelism, love, marriage, all that stuff. But glorifying God by stewarding the talents that he gave you for the well-being of the world around you is going to be what predominantly defines your life. So that is it for today. Hope that you guys enjoyed this. And I love you. And I'll see you on Thursday.

And have a great week.