MSNBC host Chris Hayes struggled to have a productive interview with Donald Trump surrogate Omarosa Manigault on Monday evening, after the former “The Apprentice” star insisted she wanted to discuss “real issues” while falsely attributing the birther movement to Hillary Clinton.
Hayes kicked off the conversation with a question about Trump’s recent strained, 30-second-long statement acknowledging that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, given that birtherism was likely to come up in the first presidential debate later in the night.
Manigault immediately went on the defense, saying Trump put the issue “to bed” and now wants to focus on issues facing Americans, including the economy and education.
“But he spent five years talking about the president not being an American,” Hayes pressed. “He tweeted that he thought that it was possible that there had been a plane crash intentionally designed to kill a state official in Hawaii to cover up the documentation. Those are very serious charges.”
“But don’t you think it’s a really big move for Donald Trump to say he now acknowledges that the president has been born here?” Omarosa replied. “I think it’s important to move on from that and focus on issues that Americans are most interested in.”
This exchange set the dynamic for the rest of the four-minute conversation, which derailed further after Maigault accused Hayes and other journalists of “floating” these distracting “conspiracy theories” around.
Haye’s team cut the interview shortly after.
Watch below:
