Yesterday, Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, all to do with paying hush money to Stormy Daniels and colluding with David Pecker to shut down speculation about his affairs. It was always going to be a terrible day for Donald Trump, but hilariously, it was already pretty awful for him before the jury came back. Hours earlier, Slate published a first-person account from Bill Pruitt, who was a producer on The Apprentice for the first two seasons. Pruitt signed a strict NDA with a $5 million fine attached if he ever spoke about what he witnessed from Trump. The NDA just expired, and Pruitt told a lengthy story about how, during the first season, Trump used the n-word on-camera. He said it about one of the finalists that season, Kwame Jackson, and he used the word to suggest that America didn’t want to see a Black man win the game show.

We lay out the virtues and deficiencies of each finalist to Trump in a fair and balanced way, but sensing the moment at hand, Kepcher sort of comes out of herself. She expresses how she observed [Kwame] Jackson at the casino overcoming more obstacles than [Bill] Rancic, particularly with the way he managed the troublesome Omarosa. Jackson, Kepcher maintains, handled the calamity with grace.

“I think Kwame would be a great addition to the organization,” Kepcher says to Trump, who winces while his head bobs around in reaction to what he is hearing and clearly resisting.

“Why didn’t he just fire her?” Trump asks, referring to Omarosa. It’s a reasonable question. Given that this the first time we’ve ever been in this situation, none of this is something we expected.

“That’s not his job,” Bienstock says to Trump. “That’s yours.” Trump’s head continues to bob.

“I don’t think he knew he had the ability to do that,” Kepcher says. Trump winces again.

“Yeah,” he says to no one in particular, “but, I mean, would America buy a n— winning?”

Kepcher’s pale skin goes bright red. I turn my gaze toward Trump. He continues to wince. He is serious, and he is adamant about not hiring Jackson.

Bienstock does a half cough, half laugh, and swiftly changes the topic or throws to Ross for his assessment. What happens next I don’t entirely recall. I am still processing what I have just heard. We all are. Only Bienstock knows well enough to keep the train moving. None of us thinks to walk out the door and never return. I still wish I had. (Bienstock and Kepcher didn’t respond to requests for comment.)

[From Slate]

Yes, of course he said it. Of course he’s said that word in many other circumstances too, and he’s said the word a million different times over the years. Of course NBC has all of those tapes of Trump saying the word on camera. They also have tapes of him saying horribly misogynistic crap and sh-t about eugenics and antisemitic sh-t too. We’ve known that all along, that a lot of people have spent a lot of time, money and effort to cover up Trump’s most despicable statements and activities. And even with all of those cover-ups, it still comes spilling out all the time. I get that this guy had an NDA and it’s better late than never, but Jesus, news at seven, Trump is a racist piece of sh-t.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.