Trump-Omarosa feud plays out on TV, Twitter

Omarosa Manigault Newman declared "I will not be silenced" by the Trump campaign.

Manigault Newman spoke to The Associated Press hours after the president's campaign announced it was filing an arbitration action against the former aide alleging she broke a secrecy agreement.

In an interview with AP, Manigault Newman said she believes the action was intended to keep her from telling her story. She says she "will not be intimidated."

"I'm not going to be bullied by Donald Trump," she says.

Manigault Newman, nonetheless, declined to answer several questions about her time in the White House, citing the arbitration action.

But she continued to unleash criticism of Trump, suggesting he's unfit to be president and is intentionally sowing racial division.

The White House is wrongly insisting that past administrations have forced presidential aides to sign non-disclosure agreements similar to the one some aides to President Donald Trump were asked to sign.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders tells reporters, "Every administration prior to the Trump administration has had NDAs" - particularly for anyone with a security clearance. She says, "This White House is certainly no different."

But past administrations have asked employees to sign agreements pertaining to classified information - not the kind of broad pledge never to criticize the president, his businesses or anyone in his family that former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman says she was asked to sign.

Sanders said Tuesday that Trump's tweets referring to Manigault Newman as "crazed" and a "dog" reflect his "frustration" with her comments. Manigault Newman has responded that Trump has "absolutely no respect" for women or African-Americans.

Sanders says Trump hired Manigault Newman as an assistant to the president because he "wanted to give her a chance." She was a contestant on his reality show "The Apprentice" and a former campaign aide.

Manigault Newman has been releasing audio recordings of private White House conversations as part of her book roll-out tour. She was fired in December 2017.