In her new book, Unhinged: An Insider’s Account of the Trump White House—which came out Tuesday—Omarosa dishes some dirt about the time Betsy DeVos showed up to Bethune-Cookman University in Florida to deliver a commencement speech in May 2017. As Politico reports, she was notoriously booed during her appearance, but according to Manigault Newman, she persevered anyway and plodded through her speech.
Describing the entire incident as being “painful to experience,” Manigault Newman wrote, “Betsy got up onstage to give her speech and was immediately, loudly booed by the entire audience. Graduating students and their families stood up and turned their backs on her. I was seated onstage watching this travesty unfold. When the booing started, she should have wrapped it up, but she went on and on for twenty minutes, talking over the booing. I was thinking, It’s not about you! Abandon your full speech! Adjust, woman!”
DeVos had previously referred to HBCUs as being “real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” Yes, that really happened.
Manigault Newman wrote that she asked DeVos after the speech how she thought it went, to which DeVos reportedly said, “I did great!”
“I must have looked stunned,” Manigault Newman wrote, saying that DeVos then added: “They don’t get it. They don’t have the capacity to understand what we’re trying to accomplish.”
“Meaning, all those black students were too stupid to understand her agenda,” Manigault Newman explained in her book.