Update: Comedian Tom Arnold claims to have infamous unreleased Donald Trump outtakes

Update: Tom Arnold tweeted Tuesday night that he received word from Donald Trump’s camp about a potential lawsuit over the comedian’s claims of having video that shows the president-elect using defamatory language. Arnold’s response “Open Apprentice vaults 4 discovery!”

Wife told me there’s house line VM from Trump Camp about defamation suit so it’s on! Open Apprentice vaults 4 discovery! Miss Universe too!!

— Tom Arnold (@TomArnold) December 21, 2016

An hour earlier, Arnold was still defending his alleged decision not to release the tapes he claims to have.

Original story: While visiting with KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson on Friday to talk about his upcoming performance in Seattle, comedian Tom Arnold revealed a bombshell: He has the infamous unreleased outtakes of Donald Trump using inflammatory language on “The Apprentice.”

“I have the outtakes to ‘The Apprentice’ where he says every bad thing ever, every offensive, racist thing ever,” Arnold said. “I have that.”

Donald Trump Jr. tells Dori locker room talk is ‘a fact of life’

Trump’s popularity took a hit prior to the election following the leaked audio and video from “Access Hollywood” of then-Republican presidential candidate using vulgar language and claiming to have groped women. However, there were also rumors of additional footage of Trump from his TV show “The Apprentice” using vulgar and offensive language. Whether those tapes really existed have been shrouded in a bit of mystery because of confidentiality agreements.

Arnold doesn’t appear to be joking in his claims and is asked about why he didn’t release the tapes multiple times. Here is one explanation for why he never released the tapes:

I’ll tell you why. Because when the people sent it to me, it was funny. Hundreds of people have seen these. It was sort of a Christmas video they put together. He wasn’t going to be President of the United States. It was him sitting in that chair saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard, just being so mean to his own children. Oh, this is so funny, this is this guy. The Sunday before the election, I get a call from Arnold’s CAA agent, sitting next to Hillary Clinton. They said, ‘I need you to release him saying the N-word.’ I said, ‘Well, now these people – two editors and an associate producer — are scared to death. They’re scared of his people, they’re scared of they’ll never work again, there’s a $5 million confidentiality agreement.’

“The Apprentice” ran for 14 seasons, some within the same year and some as “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Trump and NBC parted ways in 2015 after Trump made comments about Mexican immigrants that network executives deemed racist. An extension of the program, called “The New Celebrity Apprentice,” will debut in January with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the new host. The Trump campaign previously issued a general denial to the statements attributed to Trump in an AP story about the alleged comments.

Arnold, who is friends with Schwarzenegger, told Monson that billionaire Mark Cuban has offered to employ anyone who releases the tapes for life and that a Vanity Fair writer has offered to go to prison to protect a discloser’s anonymity, which is why the outtakes “will come out.”

Arnold’s relationship with Trump

Arnold, known for his time on the TV show “Roseanne” and as host of “The Best Damn Sports Show Period,” said that he “can’t stand” Trump but that he has known the President-elect for 25-30 years. Monson said that when he’s spoken with Trump, he found the billionaire to be an extremely sweet man. Arnold agreed.

“That’s the problem with him, he’s so sweet,” Arnold said. “He would call my house every year, every year to ask me to do the show and I wouldn’t do it. And then once he started the birther thing, I was like, I’m completely out…. ”

Arnold later added: “Once somebody’s nice to me, it’s over so I have to stay away from him. I’ve known him for maybe 25 or 30 years. Here’s the thing, so he calls the house the last time and I hang up the phone and my wife’s like, ‘Why did you say you’d do the show?’ I go, ‘I didn’t say I’d do the show.’ She goes, ‘The last thing you said to him is, ‘I’ll see you in New York.’’ I go, ‘What, I did? Oh my God, have my agent call immediately, I’m not gonna.’ But he charms you and I didn’t even realize I’d said that. So, it’s frightening.”

Arnold was also asked if he thought the “Apprentice” tapes would have “finished” Trump as a candidate. Arnold responded: “I don’t think so. I think if the people that like him saw him saying the N-word, he’s sitting matter-of-factly in front of there has to be 30 people there, and he’s matter-of-factly saying all of this stuff. So I think they would have liked him more, the people. For being politically incorrect.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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