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I have stayed away from the story about Omarosa Manigault-Newman and her book tour for two reasons. The most important one is that she isn’t telling us anything we didn’t already know about Donald Trump. The fact that he is a liar as well as being racist and sexist is not news to anyone who has even been paying a modicum of attention. This tweet captures the other reason:

Thank God everything's back to normal in Flint, Puerto Rico and California so we can all focus on really important things like Omarosa's new book. — Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) August 13, 2018

Given that, there are couple of things about this story that are worth talking about. The first is that a lot of people in the media seem obsessed with this question:

As Josh Marshall noted, the qualifiers are rather obvious.

The fact that Manigault is herself a con-artist and a grifter barely matters since her tapes speak for themselves. Her lack of character is also hardly a defense since her absurd behavior is as much an indictment of Trump, who hired her, as it is of her.

I suppose that the idea that all of this is some kind of contest of character between Trump and Omarosa makes for good television, but it has no significance at all to our current political situation. The truth is that the president has always surrounded himself with liars and grifters, not to mention criminals. Any staff person who turns on him is going to have a questionable character—see Michael Cohen for exhibit A on that one.

In this culture we are basically programmed to read everything as a good guy vs. bad guy plot. That is never going to be an accurate portrayal of conflicts between Donald Trump and his associates. The only important information that can come out of revelations that surface as people turn on their former boss are things that can be verified. What’s noteworthy is that both Cohen and Manigault (as well as how many others in the White House?) knew from the beginning that Trump could turn on them in a heartbeat and at least occasionally taped their conversations for when that day might come.

The other thing worth noting about this saga is also nothing new, but always important to keep in mind. It is how the current president reacts to situations like this. Here’s his twitter tirade from yesterday:

Wacky Omarosa, who got fired 3 times on the Apprentice, now got fired for the last time. She never made it, never will. She begged me for a job, tears in her eyes, I said Ok. People in the White House hated her. She was vicious, but not smart. I would rarely see her but heard…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

…really bad things. Nasty to people & would constantly miss meetings & work. When Gen. Kelly came on board he told me she was a loser & nothing but problems. I told him to try working it out, if possible, because she only said GREAT things about me – until she got fired! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

While I know it’s “not presidential” to take on a lowlife like Omarosa, and while I would rather not be doing so, this is a modern day form of communication and I know the Fake News Media will be working overtime to make even Wacky Omarosa look legitimate as possible. Sorry! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2018

Manigault is now “Whacky Omarosa” who Trump only kept on because she said GREAT things about him. Oh, and she’s also a vicious, but not smart, lowlife.

Then today, the president went even deeper into the gutter.

When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out. Good work by General Kelly for quickly firing that dog! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2018

You don’t have to be a defender of Omarosa to recognize that the only person who is degraded by that kind of attack is the man who happens to work in the Oval Office right now. He is a shame and disgrace to our country.