A former “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant is calling reality-TV star turned Republican nominee for president Donald Trump a hypocrite for defending his 2005 comments describing sexual assault by dismissing the leaked tape “locker-room talk” — when he fired her for just that.
2010 “Celebrity Apprentice” contestant and professional wrestler Maria Kanellis-Bennett was booted from the NBC hit for using language the real estate mogul apparently found vulgar. Kanellis-Bennett told one of her fellow contestants, celebrity chef Curtis Stone, “The reason why I said you were so arrogant was because you came in our dressing room and you took a crap and left the stench in the room.”
Trump called the comment “below the belt” and disgusting, before declaring, “This is my boardroom. It’s not a locker room. Maria, you’re fired!” Watch the clip unearthed by “The Daily Show,” below:
Donald Trump in 2010: “This is my boardroom. It's not a locker room. Maria, you’re fired.” ¯_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/UlsP9Xjg7F
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 10, 2016
Kanellis-Bennett told the New York Daily News that she was forced by producers to apologize to Trump for her comments after her firing.
“I distinctly remember that after I said what I said, I was told I shouldn’t talk like that as a lady, and that, to me, was inequality at its best. I can’t speak my mind as a female, but he can speak his mind as a male. There’s a problem with that,” she said.
How can you make light of these comments? It’s been a horrible 24hrs for the women who have been affected by abusive comments and actions. https://t.co/cKgHenB22U — MariaKanellisBennett (@MariaLKanellis) October 8, 2016
“What I said is something that happens in the locker room, what he said is not. He fired me for what I said because I am a female,” she told the Daily News.
“My hope is that he gets fired as the Republican nominee,” Kanellis-Bennett told “Entertainment Tonight” after Trump’s odious hot-mic moment on “Access Hollywood” was leaked to the Washington Post. “He fired me for what I said, and what he said was much worse.”
“I don’t think that is locker-room talk. I have been in locker rooms for the past 12 years in wrestling companies,” she explained. “I have been backstage, I have been in green rooms and I have never heard anyone talk like that.”
