For years, there have been rumors about the existence of unbroadcast tapes from NBC's "The Apprentice" that are said to document Donald Trump using the N-word on numerous occasions.
Former "Apprentice" contestant and actor Tom Arnold has been among those pushing the idea.
While conventional wisdom may have once held that such a release would be a political catastrophe for a president, the tapes could actually help Trump in his 2020 re-election campaign, director Rob Reiner argued on Tuesday.
"I’ve heard there are tapes of Trump using the N-word during his time on The Apprentice. Based on the GOP’s support of his racism, they should ask producer Mark Burnett to release the tapes to boost the support of his base," Reiner tweeted.
The Hollywood director may actually be on a sound footing.
Not long after Reiner posted his tweet, Reuters released a new poll taken since Trump's racist comments on four young women of color in Congress.
"Support for U.S. President Donald Trump increased slightly among Republicans after he lashed out on Twitter over the weekend in a racially charged attack on four minority Democratic congresswomen, a Reuters/Ipsos public opinion poll shows," the publication reported.
The national survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday after Trump told the lawmakers they should 'go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,' showed his net approval among members of his Republican Party rose by 5 percentage points to 72 percent, compared with a similar poll that ran last week.According to the poll, 41% of the U.S. public said they approved of his performance in office, while 55% disapproved.
The results showed strong Republican backing for Trump as the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a symbolic resolution on Tuesday, largely along party lines, to condemn him for “racist comments” against the four Democratic lawmakers.
