Asked whether President Donald Trump had ever used the N-word, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders would not definitively say, instead referring reporters to a tweet.
"The President addressed that question directly," she said, adding, "I've never heard him use that term or anything similar."
The question comes as former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman has claimed there's a tape of Trump using the racial epithet on the set of his NBC reality show "The Apprentice" -- though there is no evidence such a tape exists.
Trump tweeted Monday night: "I don't have that word in my vocabulary, and never have."
Pressed specifically on whether any recording of the President using the racial epithet exists, Sanders said: "I can't guarantee anything, but I can tell you that the President addressed this question directly."
She maintained that Trump is someone who is "fighting for all Americans," and that his policies are helpful "particularly for African-Americans," citing African-American unemployment statistics.
Sanders also claimed Tuesday that Trump's description of his former aide as a "dog" had "nothing to do with race and everything to do with the President calling out someone's lack of integrity."
The "dog" comment was one of many insults the President has used to describe prominent African-Americans, but Sanders insisted Trump insults people of other races as well.
"The President's an equal opportunity person that calls things like he sees it," she said. "He fights fire with fire."
