Celebrity News
exclusive

Omarosa causes uproar at National Assoc. of Black Journalists conference

There’s some “heavy drama” in New Orleans at the National Association of Black Journalists conference after organizers decided to add top Trump aide Omarosa Manigault to a panel.

“The majority there don’t want her involved. It’s heavy drama — even the moderator is refusing. Everyone sees it as extremely offensive,” a source told us.

New York Times journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones was scheduled to moderate a panel on police brutality on Friday, which featured Valerie Castile, Sandra Sterling, and the New Yorker’s Jelani Cobb. Hannah-Jones and Cobb pulled out of the panel, and Bounce TV’s Ed Gordon stepped in to serve as the event’s moderator.

Cobb told Page Six that the reason for pulling out “wasn’t simply the addition of Omarosa. It was that she was added at the eleventh hour and it was unclear whether we would be able to discuss substantive issues regarding the administration and its policing policies. Also, the panel was very disorganized, and basic things like format were not clear.”

CNN commentator and American Urban Radio Networks bureau chief April Ryan has distanced herself from Manigault since she became an aide to President Donald Trump. The veteran White House reporter alleged on CNN comrade Angela Rye’s podcast that Manigault — who works in the public liaison office — had tried to sabotage her career.

Ryan said of Omarosa, “She was going around telling Sean Spicer not to call on me [during press conferences]. She’s calling other people, newsmakers, sources . . . trolling my Twitter . . . She wanted to kill my career.” Ryan had a testy exchange with Spicer in March, when he ordered her to “stop shaking your head.”

She added, “When you try to kill me and my career because you want to advance yourself, because you are now making money after not making money from selling cellphones, and now you’re making $180,000 a year, good for you. But you know what? Karma comes back. And I told her, ‘The sad thing about it is: No one likes you.’ ”

Manigault and the NABJ did not comment.