BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Tom Arnold says if his search for revealing tapes of President Donald Trump yields anything, he won’t save it for the September debut of his new TV series.
Any tape that would “help our country” will immediately be released, the comedian-turned-activist told a TV critics’ meeting Thursday.
Arnold said Trump’s resignation from office is the intended goal of “The Hunt for the Trump Tapes with Tom Arnold,” which debuts Sept. 18 on Viceland.
During a half-hour Q&A, the voluble Arnold repeatedly and profanely bashed Trump and his supporters. He also criticized Trump associates who the comedian said should release tapes he claims will show Trump’s true character.
Arnold derided the president as “crazy,” racist and a serial harasser of women. He also said Trump has brought the country to the precipice of war.
Producer Mark Burnett, who hired Trump for “The Apprentice,” was singled out for allegedly hording outtakes from the series that Arnold claimed would reveal Trump’s misbehavior.
In fall 2016, the MGM studio said that it, not Burnett, owns “The Apprentice” and it would honor confidentiality and artist’s rights agreements in regard to “The Apprentice.” No outtakes were released by MGM, where Burnett is chairman of the MGM Worldwide Television Group.
The Vice show’s producers were asked why they selected a man known primarily as a comic to take on the president.
“I don’t think you can put him in just one category. I think he’s an active citizen and courageous citizen,” said executive producer Nomi Ernst Leidner.
Arnold said he and Trump have moved in the same circles for years and that the businessman was always “nice” to him. But when Trump questioned the birthplace of President Barack Obama, Arnold said he was offended because both he and Obama share Midwestern roots.
Arnold declined to speculate what his ex-wife, Trump supporter Roseanne Barr, would think of the series. Barr was scheduled as a guest on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show Thursday night.
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