By Alana Wise, Reuters Media Express
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of contestants on Donald Trump's former reality television show "The Apprentice" put their old boss in the hot seat on Friday, saying the U.S. Republican front-runner had widened racial divisions and should not be president.
Trump's one-time admirers, most from racial minorities, urged the New York billionaire to tamp down his divisive rhetoric as he campaigns to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama in a Nov. 8 election.
"We are all disappointed and in some ways shocked to see what is being spewed from Donald regarding his views on women, immigrants, and the list goes on," said Randal Pinkett, winner of the 2005 fourth season of the reality television show.
"We strongly condemn Donald's campaign of sexism, xenophobia, racism, violence, and hate," he said at a news conference in Manhattan.
Running for 14 seasons, "The Apprentice" gave Trump a national platform. His often blunt and unfiltered style helped make the show a major hit. The show featured groups of business-minded contestants vying for a titular apprenticeship in Trump's organization. At its peak, nearly 21 million people watched the show.
Pinkett cited private conversations, time spent off-screen and images projected from the billionaire businessman’s blustery rise to the top of the Republican heap as evidence that Trump "is not worthy of the highest office of the land.”
Trump's proposals to ban Muslims and build a wall at the Mexican border have drawn criticism even within his party. His campaign has been accused of tacitly encouraging violence at large and rowdy rallies where Trump supporters have at times clashed with protesters.
Pinkett told Reuters he had contacted former "apprentices" and said their effort was independent and timed to precede a crucial nominating contest on Tuesday in New York.
It seemed unlikely their effort would dent Trump's comfortable advantage in New York opinion polls against rivals Ohio Governor John Kasich and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
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In an apparent bid to establish a more presidential footing, Trump turned from his usual platform of Twitter to the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal to denounce the Republican National Committee over a nomination process he said was rigged.
Friday's piece, along with an endorsement by the tabloid New York Post, signaled a possible detente with media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose company News Corp owns both newspapers. News Corp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Murdoch took to Twitter last year to denounce Trump's comments that many illegal immigrants from Mexico were bringing crime to the United States, tweeting: "Trump wrong." The Journal in July called Trump a "catastrophe" in a withering editorial.
Trump on Wednesday met privately with Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly after a feud that had lasted months. Murdoch's company 21st Century Fox owns the channel.
At the news conference, Pinkett was joined by former "Apprentice" contestants Tara Dowdell and Kwame Jackson; Marshawn Evans Daniels participated via video link.
In response to the criticism, Trump on Friday derided his former aspiring protégés as "failing wannabes out of hundreds of contestants."
"How quickly they forget. Nobody would know who they are if it weren't for me," he told CNN in a statement. "They just want to get back into the limelight like they had when they were with Trump. Total dishonesty and disloyalty."
The show's network, NBC, cut ties with Trump last year as he rose to the top of opinion polls with his descriptions of some Mexican immigrants as criminals and rapists. Trump’s other well-known NBC venture, the Miss USA pageant, was also dropped from the line-up around that time.
Other "Apprentice" contestants have backed Trump, including actors Stephen Baldwin, Gary Busey and Lou Ferrigno, former basketball star Dennis Rodman and reality television star Jesse James.
But in remarks directed at Trump, Pinkett said, "I am calling, we are calling, for you to do better."
