By Hayes Brown\MSNBC
Photos: YouTube\Wikimedia Commons
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.” READ MORE…
