Thread by @VABVOX

The @OMAROSA story today has several important facets, none of them risible.

This is a woman who was in Trump's inner circle and who had his ear.

Prior to him calling her a "low life" on Saturday, Trump lauded her and her work in various tweets and interview comments.
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Trump wants you to believe #Omarosa is a liar, but then there is the tape she played on @MeetThePress.

Which is evidentiary.

The #GOP and #RNC are concerned---they started an #OmarosaUnhinged hashtag and are busy tweeting about her, as are Trump's surrogates.

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#Omarosa isn't "unhinged." She's vengeful. Is she a liar? About some things, verifiably. About others, verifiably truthful.

That she was able to go all over Trump's White House recording people is a cause for grave concern.

It speaks to Trump's incompetence as a leader.
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For over a year I have been asking what #JohnKelly's role is as Chief of Staff. Other than three firings--one much later than it should have been--what does he do?

Previous COS's have been obvious leaders.

Kelly is Trump's stooge and yes-man. There is utter chaos under him.
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That #Omarosa was able to do what she did with impunity speaks to Kelly's lack of leadership in Trump's White House.

More concerning is that Omarosa was in the #SituationRoom at Trump's behest and Kelly--a retired general--allowed it.

This security breech is alarming.
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What we know thus far from #Omarosa is that Trump is declining mentally and that he makes few decisions on his own.

How concerned should we be about this?

Jokes about Trump's mental state have abounded. But now we have first-hand accounts.

Should we believe them?

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#Omarosa says that Trump is in a mental decline and cannot process complex data.

We've witnessed this on camera.

She says he's excluded from major policy decisions.

We've seen this, too.

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The entirety of the 2016 election, which I covered for two long years, pivoted on #HillaryClinton's emails.

Chants of #LockHerUp were all about claims of national security being breeched.

Something Hillary Clinton never actually did, but which several Trump staffers have.
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Who is going to address these dangerous problems in the Trump White House that normally would be handled by a Vice President or a Chief of Staff? But both are just useless figureheads.

#Omarosa's revelations are disturbing at best.

We should all be worried.
More than usual.
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#Omarosa violated laws.

Will she be prosecuted?

There's a statute: 42 USC 2202. And then 18 USC 641 stipulates "criminal penalties" for "whoever steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to his [sic] use any record or thing of value of the US." The tapes are ours, not hers.

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Shouldn't Trump fire #JohnKelly? Isn't he the arbiter of these leaks and malfeasance? Shouldn't #AGSessions step in and ask these questions?

Do we imagine that under Obama or a #HillaryClinton presidency an event of this magnitude in the Situation Room would be ignored?
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Tonight's #BREAKING news is the administration is pursuing legal avenues against #Omarosa.

On a Sunday night.
This is a White House in chaos.
How did they let this happen AGAIN?

#JohnKelly.
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That no one in the Trump innner circle thought the endless leaks were a cause for concern or that #Omarosa might be a wild card bespeaks the overall incompetence of Trump's senior advisers and how really no one has control over, well, anything.

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Trump hired #Omarosa as a senior advisor. She has a masters degree in journalism. But when she worked in Al Gore's office in the 90s, she was described as "the worst hire we ever made" and "unqualified and disruptive."

Ringing endorsements for being a senior WH advisor.

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Re-watching @OMAROSA
on @MeetThePress. I am struck by how tough @chucktodd is on her when he has never been this tough on Trump or any other member of the Trump circle.

Is it because she's female? Black? Her history with @nbc? Her "attitude"?

It's a serious question.

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I re-played that exchange with #JohnKelly a couple of times.

I have no empathy for #Omarosa, but I do think Kelly's tone is quietly threatening. I do think that everything Kelly says to her is concerning. I do think the villain of this piece is not necessarily this woman.
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Everyone in this #WhiteHouse is vile, craven, manipulative, vicious and most definingly--dangerous.

This is a criminal enterprise.

I think if we fail to recognize it as such, we aren't paying attention. It's too easy to dismiss this event as anomalous and #Omarosa-driven.
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And I also think it is deeply problematic that this administration had but one quisling token black woman to represent 13% of the population in the WH and #Omarosa's been gone for the better part of a year and not been replaced.

In this deeply racist WH, that's appalling.
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I cringe at the #racism that flows out of this White House on a weekly basis. This president was a known #racist since the 1970s when the DOJ investigated him for racial bias in renting.

#HillaryClinton raised this repeatedly during the debates and election. It's endemic.

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