America deserves to know if the rumored racist ‘Apprentice’ tapes exist

Even the greatest con men in history have needed accomplices to help pull off their schemes. Bill Pruitt, a former producer on “The Apprentice,” made that point explicit in an essay published in Slate on Thursday, hours before his former boss was convicted in Manhattan of 34 felony counts. He also says he heard the show’s host, Donald Trump, use the N-word during the taping of the show’s first season in 2004 and that, importantly, the exchange was caught on tape. If Pruitt’s account is true, then the video he described could shift the course of the 2024 election — but it’s doubtful Americans will ever get the chance to see it.

NBC, which is owned by MSNBC’s parent company, NBCUniversal, aired “The Apprentice” during its 15 seasons. NBC dropped Trump as the host of “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2015 soon after he launched his presidential campaign.

But in the early days Pruitt describes, the show was drawing huge ratings as the crew’s editing trickery made Trump seem much more competent than he really was. Pruitt describes laying out the pros and cons of the first season’s two finalists, Bill Rancic and Kwame Jackson, to Trump and then hearing the host express discomfort at the idea of Jackson, who’s Black, winning a one-year contract at his company. He says Trump asked, “Would America buy a n— winning?” Trump, Pruitt writes, was “adamant about not hiring Jackson.”

Pruitt writes that later in the day “Jackson and Rancic are scrutinized by Trump, who, we already know, favors Rancic. Then we wrap production, pack up, and head home. There is no discussion about what Trump said in the boardroom, about how the damning evidence was caught on tape. Nothing happens.” (Stephen Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump 2024 campaign, denied the story in a statement to Slate: “This is a completely fabricated and bull— story that was already peddled in 2016.”)

The casual racism Pruitt says Trump displayed is consistent with a man who was quick to lean into birtherism a few years later. Trump’s refusal to accept that President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. catapulted him into politics. It’s easier to believe that Trump said what Pruitt says he said because it would tap into a similar racist skepticism on the campaign trail. Many Americans didn’t buy that Obama had legitimately won the presidency, helping propel Trump to the presidency in 2016.

Former “Apprentice” contestant-turned-Trump White House staffer-turned-Trump enemy Omarosa Manigault Newman previously claimed to have heard the alleged “N-word tape.” But as NPR pointed out, Manigault Newman, in a 2018 memoir, says only that she was told about the tape. Manigault Newman did provide CBS News with a recording of Trump campaign staffers fretting in October 2016 about the tape’s potential release. Katrina Pierson, a communications staffer on the 2016 campaign, initially denied to CNN that the recorded conversation took place before trying to downplay it as an Omarosa obsession.

The concerns about fallout from the release of their boss’ offensive language were validated when the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape dropped. While it can be hard to remember now, the tape’s release on Oct. 8, 2016, was a bombshell that shook the race. A major presidential candidate’s being so vulgar and misogynistic nearly tanked his campaign as many Republican officials put distance between themselves and their nominee. It’s only because Trump won, and went on to even greater feats of offensiveness, that the “Access Hollywood” tape now feels quaint.

Some seem to be assuming that America will only shrug if the tape Pruitt says exists is played publicly. But I believe it could be a game changer. Consider how close the race is now. NBC News’ latest survey shows Trump’s lead over President Joe Biden within the margin of error. Much of Trump’s position in this race comes from winning over low-information voters who have mostly tuned out the race at this stage. A video (or even audio) of Trump dropping the N-word is the kind of thing that could cut through and lodge within voters’ memories.

The problem is that obtaining such a tape would be difficult. A 2018 profile in The New Yorker of Mark Burnett, the creator of “The Apprentice,” laid out the legal hurdles preventing MGM Studios, which bought Burnett’s company in 2015 and was later acquired by Amazon, from releasing the tapes:

On one hand, this does mean that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who could certainly eat the costs of any lawsuit filed, has the opportunity to, in the internet’s parlance, do the funniest thing ever. But the odds he would slip a copy of the scene Pruitt described to The Washington Post, which he also owns, feel like they very swiftly approach zero. And if a staffer at MGM with access to the tapes hasn’t leaked them by now, it feels improbable that such a drop will be coming any time soon.

Jackson, the finalist Trump was referring to in Pruitt’s anecdote, went on to lose the first season. He hasn’t been quiet about his dismay at Trump’s rise, speaking out alongside other former contestants back in 2016. Jackson could theoretically be able to pry them loose should he sue the show’s producers for discrimination. But onetime reality show competitors who’ve previously attempted to sue for racism haven’t fared well in court, with many of their cases thrown out before they come close to being able to issue subpoenas.

The last potential avenue to get the tapes from MGM is also an unlikely one: congressional Democrats. Congress has the power to issue investigative subpoenas to gather information that will help them draft legislation. It’s a power that Republicans have blatantly abused over the years, as they’ve pretended that their fishing expeditions to help Trump or injure Biden politically are about writing laws. In theory, Senate Democrats could subpoena the video in the name of reviewing legislation pertaining to the Federal Communications Commission’s regulatory powers over game shows. But given their baffling refusal to use hearings to their advantage on more pressing issues, it’s doubtful that Senate Democrats will even entertain such an idea.

I am willing to admit that “N-word tape,” if it even exists, fits neatly into a category of potential dei ex machina that have cropped up over the years in the hopes of finally convincing anyone still on the fence that Trump is unfit for office. He was finally convicted of 34 felony counts on Thursday, but his loyal supporters are already dismissing that as part of a biased plot against him. It’d be hard for them to do the same about a tape of Trump saying what Pruitt says he said. They can attempt to spin that all they want — and, frankly, I’d love to hear them try.