Tara Conner Given Second Chance

[tag]Donald Trump[/tag] held a press conference today re: [tag]Tara Conner[/tag]: Live blogged section here. Will provide a full transcript and Tara’s remarks in a bit as an addendum to this post.

Miss USA news, the Donald is speaking, fired miss universe in 2002 because she did a terrible job. Different story with Tara, she made some bad choices. After speaking to Tara, he saw a beautiful girl with a good heart who really really tried. From a small town she got caught up in “new york”. always been a believer in second chances. Tara is a good person, she’s tried hard. She will be given a second chance.

She’s going into rehab and will be fired if she makes a mistake.

Allah has the video

Full transcript after the jump.

Welcome Gateway Pundit readers! Have a look around while you’re here. Be sure to bookmark the Norad Tracks Santa Website for Sunday night!

Donald Trump: Thank you very much. This has been a very difficult time for the Miss USA Pagent and especially for our current Miss USA, Tara Conner. It’s not been easy. Paula Shugart, all of the representatives of Miss Universe and Miss USA have been working very, very hard on a very, very difficult problem. In 2002 I fired Oksana Federova, who was Miss Universe, because, quite simply, she did a terrible job. She didn’t do her job. She was a very beautiful woman, she did not do her job. It was an easy thing for me to do.

In the case of Tara, she made some very, very bad choices. Some foolish choices. And, she will readily admit she made some mistakes. Some of those mistakes were bad mistakes. I’ve just met for a pretty long period of time with Tara. We talked about a lot of things. And to be honest I expected. fairly routinely, that we would be terminating Tara as Miss USA.

After speaking to her, I saw not only a beautiful young woman – that was obvious – I saw somebody that had a good heart, that really, really tried. She left a small town in Kentucky and she was telling me that she got caught up in the whirlwind that is New York – that we all know is New York. It’s a story that’s happened many times before – to many women and to many men – that came to the Big Apple. They wanted their slice of the Big Apple and they found out it wasn’t so easy.

I’ve always been a believer in second chances. I’ve always been. Tara is a good person. Tara has tried hard. Tara is going to be given a second chance. Young people today have a tough road – there’s no question about it. Alcohol, drugs, life and especially in this city and a couple of other cities. It’s tough. It’s not easy.

I believe, after speaking with Tara, I believe that she can do a tremendous service to young people. She’s agreed to into rehab. She knows that if she makes even the slightest mistake from here on she will be immediately replaced. I believe that Tara can serve as somebody actually even more important than being Miss USA. I believe she can be a great example for troubled people – and she’s troubled – for troubled people throughout this country, throughout lots of countries, that have problems with alcohol, that have problems with life. I believe she will be an amazing, an amazing example and with that I’d like to have Tara say a few words, please.

Tara Conner: Okay. I want to start off by saying that walking into this {unintelligible] this morning, in no way did I think that it would be possible to for a second chance to be given to me. I’ve had a very big blessing bestowed upon me.

And you’ll never know how much I appreciate Mr. Trump for saving me on this one. It truly takes someone with a wonderful heart, a heart of gold, and a blessed soul to take something that he doesn’t have to keep me around. You heard about the other things he could have said, you know, you’re fired, and I think that’s what everyone expected. Especially me. But, he’s a very, very compassionate person and obviously I’ve learned that today.

And I’m so happy I’m being given this opportunity because I know that when i do my job, I’m very passionate about it. And I guess one of the good things about having some kind of little troubles here and there is you are able to reach out to far more people and I’m willing to do whatever it takes, not only given a chance to have time to better myself, but to better me as a Miss USA and I’m walking out of this the best Miss USA that you’ve ever seen. And I promise you that and I want to thank all the people that have been behind me. I want to apologize to my family if I’ve put any disgrace upon you. But know that thank God, thank God that I have the chance to make it right.

So Mr. Trump I want to thank you. You’ll never know what this means to me. And I swear I will not let you down. And I want to thank Miss Paula Shugart and the Miss Universe Organization because they’ve had to put up with me and, you know, we’ve had some battles, but they’re right. You know, I’ve learned so much from this woman. She’s amazing and I’m so happy that I have her. And I’m so happy to have my mother. Because she has made the person that I am.

And trust in this, that I do have a very solid heart and that what I love, I love dearly. I love this job. I love the people that I work for and that I work with and I love all of the causes that I have put forth so much effort here. Especially in New York and after this reign is over, I want to continue to work with these causes. I don’t want to let this part go of my life. I’ve wanted this since I was 13 years old. I almost let it get away but this time it’s not going to happen.

I want to thank you for hearing me out. I want to thank all of the people that have been behind me and I want to thank Mr. Trump and I want to thank Miss Paula Shugart and the Miss Universe Organization for doing what they said they would do, because their goal is to empower women and to make us the best women we can possibly be. And I’ve learned so much in this eight months that I’ve been Miss USA and I have so much more to learn. I’m open and I have an open heart I’m willing it with open arms and I can’t wait to get back to work and just do my job, so thank you all for coming out and thank you Mr. Trump again and thank you Miss Paula.

Questions followed, but the reporters weren’t miked so I didn’t transcribe this part.

Welcome Gateway Pundit readers! Have a look around while you’re here. Be sure to bookmark the Norad Tracks Santa Website for Sunday night!