Tom Arnold claims Mark Burnett choked him, attacked him over the Trump tapes

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I avoided reading this story all morning, and now I don’t know why, because it’s actually so bizarre and fascinating. The backstory is this: for months (years, really), Tom Arnold has insisted that Mark Burnett has a huge back catalogue of tapes from The Apprentice. Tom Arnold says that on those tapes, Donald Trump can be seen and heard doing any number of offensive things, from using racist epithets, to acting creepy towards his daughter, to sexually harassing various women and more. This has been Tom Arnold’s crusade, to somehow get Mark Burnett to release the tapes. Well, this happened at a pre-Emmy party:

After which Mark Burnett’s wife Roma Downey posted this:

Tom Arnold replied: “Bulls—t. You lie your crazy husband attacked me you psycho. I’m filing police report & suing you for defamation…. Roma knocked Bryan Fogel’s phone out of his hand after Mark Burnett chocked me. Bryan came with me. He won the Oscar this year for his amazing documentary Icarus. He has tape.”

Tom says he waited for the LAPD and gave a statement, although when The Hollywood Reporter asked the LAPD for an update, they says they were “aware” of an incident but no police report had been filed. Did this really happen? Something happened, I’m sure. But I do kind of think it was some kind of promotion for Tom’s new Viceland show, The Hunt for the Trump Tapes. Or did Burnett really try to choke him? I can’t wait to see the tape.

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42 Responses to “Tom Arnold claims Mark Burnett choked him, attacked him over the Trump tapes”

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  1. Tiffany says:

    I…….believe Tom, I really do. Burnett always struck me as someone who was one word away from beating the crap out of someone.

    • Henny says:

      I know. Who knew this is where we’d be when Tom Arnold first entered the public realm? Is he legit? Who knows. There’s probably a lot of exaggeration, but, yeah, at it’s heart I believe the Burnett’s are awful people.

    • Mee says:

      Something about Burnett and Roma has always struck me as off. Their hyper religiousness coupled with their ‘put anything on tv and make money’ drive, puts me off.

    • jwoolman says:

      There must be a legal problem preventing Burnett from just setting the tapes on fire and tossing the ashes into the ocean. Since the game show scandals decades ago, they are required to keep the cameras running whenever the host is there (which in this case was Trump). There must be rules about keeping the tapes archived as well. People on the show have confirmed that there are indeed tapes of everything and also the way Trump talked and acted, just as Arnold has been saying.

      Tom Arnold may be hyper but I doubt that he is lying about all this. Burnett may be under a lot of pressure from Trump’s mob about those tapes as well – remember the goons who raided Trump’s doctor’s office to whisk away the originals for Trump’s records. That is not normal at all. They wanted to destroy the originals because something politically or legally inconvenient was in them.

  2. Natalie S says:

    I’m picturing all of these events happening with Tom Arnold’s hyper kind of energy and his breathless way of speaking.

  3. Jerusha says:

    I’d love to see Burnett go down based on the lousy crap he puts on tv. If it can also take down Sh1thead-in-Chief, so much the better.

  4. tw says:

    Maybe the tapes are in David Pecker’s safe. Jesus these people are the scum of the earth.

  5. lucy2 says:

    I generally don’t find Tom Arnold to be a trustworthy/reliable type person, and him doing this for a TV show definitely adds to that, but…I also believe Dump did and said those things on tape, and that Burnett is covering for him. So I guess I’m Team Tom on this one.

  6. Renee says:

    I’m sure there are tapes. I totally believe it. However, Tom Arnold has no more credibility with me than Mark Burnett. They are both opportunists.

  7. JaneEyreApparent says:

    Hmmm, that bruise came on really quickly for something that had happened that night

  8. Veronica S. says:

    My whole thing is – what could possibly be on those tapes that isn’t already available on regular public viewing? His supporters aren’t going away. They’re terrible people supporting a terrible man. They don’t care. He validates their awfulness.

    • Esmom says:

      Yeah, sigh, I tend to agree. He could have tapes of Trump murdering someone in cold blood and I don’t think it would matter.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      I think if he is on tape insulting southerners (like he did to Jeff Sessions) or people who live in rural areas, it might make a difference. I don’t think they would care about racial slurs or misogynistic language.

  9. whatWHAT? says:

    that bruise looks like a older, faded one.

    do bruises show up that quickly? I ask because I’ve NEVER had one show up that soon after the trauma/impact. usually, it shows up a day or two later and I’m like “how’d I get that?”.

    I believe Tom Arnold.

    • Christin says:

      Several people posted typical bruise color charts to her feed, so I think others noticed.

      My next question is, why did she allegedly feel a need to knock a phone (camera) out of another person’s hand, especially if she believed her husband was being attacked? Wouldn’t she want it documented?

  10. isabelle says:

    There are tapes but think Tom exagerrates a lot despite it…the whole lot a bunch of high school fools.

    • Esmom says:

      Thanks for the link. Her perspective seems to be sadly inconclusive, she didn’t see who initiated it. Rats.

  11. Icantremembermyusername says:

    Man is a fool.

  12. Janet says:

    Wow, what? I can’t even follow what is happening. FWIW, Alyson Hannigan was literally behind Tom when this ish broke out, and even she didn’t quite know what happened. Nuts.

  13. Annie says:

    If an Academy Award winner, Kevin Bacon and Patton Oswalt are his witnesses of course he’s not lying. And Mark Burnett is a coward for sitting on those tapes. He could have ended Trump ages ago. History will judge him.

    • holly hobby says:

      He won’t end it. He was sitting side by side with that Orange $hit stain at the prayer breakfast. I’m surprised he didn’t have his wife sit next to it.

  14. Darla says:

    omg I had NO idea she was married to Mark Burnett! I vaguely remember her from that angel show, which my mom loved and i hated.

    I think there was a fight only because of Alyson Hannigan saw it. But I agree Arnold is not trustworthy. I also believe there absolutely are tapes that Burnett is sitting on.

    • Amelie says:

      Hahaha I used to love Touched by an Angel! My grandmother loved the show and this was when I was still young and impressionable and still believed in all the mystical elements of Catholicism. The show held a magic for me which today I would probably find extremely preachy and corny. But honestly Della Reese was the best (I still remember her singing the theme song).

  15. C says:

    Rich people can be so trashy and yet they give poor people so much sh-t.

  16. RBC says:

    Maybe Mark doesn’t want any tapes released because some may also show himself acting badly? When the Access Hollywood recordings came out Billy Bush’s career went down in flames, yet 45 still managed to become president with little if any fallout. Same thing could happen again with Mark

    • whatWHAT? says:

      good point. he is Mr. IMACHRISTIAN! so if he’s on those tapes saying anything untoward, he could go down in flames, too.

    • Nic919 says:

      Burnett is financially connected to the Dump mob family. I don’t know if he’s “acted badly” so much as he has some shady investments with them.

  17. KidV says:

    I think it’s pretty sh*tty of Tom Arnold to make a TV show and make money off these tapes.

    I also think Trump is paying Burnett bigly money to hide the tapes.

    I’ve heard so much about these tapes, from Trump groping Ivanka to beating Malania in an elevator, which TMZ is helping to cover up. I also just saw a tweet that said Ronan Farrow now has the tapes.

    And sadly, I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if all of it was true. That’s where we are now.

    • RBC says:

      TMZ probably has damaging information on so many celebrities. They seem to have “sources” all over the place. Maybe one day Ronan Farrow could do a expose on Harvey Levin’s dirty secrets. He is slime

  18. Andrea says:

    Tom was married to Rosanne. He’s garbage…. but on a side note…Trump supporters do not care about his past. I mean…he is already on tape saying some gross things and not one supporter cared. These people are not looking for a perfect, upstanding man. They appreciate his flaws…it makes him appear authentic. All this does is rally everyone that supports him.

  19. holly hobby says:

    I think Alyson Hannigan tweeted that this fight literally happened in front of her. There were a lot of witnesses. People on Twitter are also calling out “Touched by an Angel” as showing an old bruise as a new one.

    US even said Jeff Probst jumped into the fray to try to peel Burnett off. Yeah it feels like a reality show.

    I do think something happened. There were too many people around to hide that.

  20. GreenTurtle says:

    Roma looks like Steven Tyler in that bottom photo.

  21. iconoclast59 says:

    Roma’s bruise doesn’t prove anything. When you get to be our age (she’s 1 year younger than me), your skin does get thinner and bruise more easily. These days a vigorous handshake is all it takes to leave marks, not to mention the “mystery bruises” (I have NO idea how I got them) that crop up on a regular basis.

    Tom Arnold has a rep because of his hyper-manic personality and often-thirsty behavior — a little of him goes a long, long way. That being said, he’s never struck me as being especially asshole-ish. Gotta’ go with Team Tom on this one.