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Why Trump Loves Lewandowski
Donald Trump with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
In a year of floors falling away under one’s feet (such as the assumption that nearly all Americans demand a minimal level of civility in public life), the Corey Lewandowski story represents one more gob smack. That Donald Trump stands by the belligerent Lewandowski tells us more of what we already knew about Trump, and also hints at the coward beneath the blowhard.
First, the battery. The campaign manager – not a volunteer, not even a hired security guard – but the honest-to-goodness campaign manager, nearly shoved reporter Michelle Fields to the ground and inflicted bruises on her arm. When she protested, there was no apology. Instead, the campaign at first suggested that there was a mistake: Lewandowski mistook Fields (who worked at the time for the pro-Trump Breitbart.com) for a member of the mainstream media. Oh, so that makes shoving okay? But the campaign quickly reverted to outright lies. Hope Hicks, a Trump campaign spokesman, said that Fields’ account was “entirely false…. I did not witness any encounter … not a single camera or reporter of more than 100 in attendance captured the alleged incident.” Trump himself offered that “maybe she made it up.”
Except there was an eyewitness, Ben Terris, of the Washington Post, who confirmed Fields’ account that very day. And the following day there was an audio recording of the Terris/Field conversation immediately after the incident, which further confirmed her account. And then there were videos, one of which was enough to convince the police to bring battery charges.
Never mind. In the morality-free Trump zone, facts are optional. “You are totally delusional,” Lewandowski said of Fields. “I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.” Trumpkins disdain eyewitnesses, audio recordings, and videotape. You have your truth, as our friends on the left would say, and I have mine. Not even Bill Clinton was so brazen.
So the battery is an established fact shamelessly denied. And then there is the character assassination. Trump has suggested that Fields was an attention seeker, and sneered that she’s “not a baby, okay?” This is classic Trump – attacking those he has already wronged. Asked in an early debate about the people left holding the bag after his four bankruptcies, he dismissed them, saying they were “big boys and girls.” Actually, many were electricians, carpenters, and other working people who couldn’t afford his fancy lawyers.
Any number of Trump-enabling commentators have advised Michelle Fields to get over it, put on her “big boy pants,” and otherwise to suck it up.
Really? What about the big boy who’s running for president? Why is he so scared? Perhaps Trump’s fondness for Lewandowski is not in spite of his henchman’s willingness to get physical but because of it.
Trump seems more than usually frightened of protesters. To be sure, every candidate gets serious threats, and doubtless Trump has received some. But his threshold for feeling vulnerable seems unusually low. Before a rally in Iowa, he was told that some protesters might throw tomatoes at him. He was sufficiently alarmed to tell the crowd: “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them.” For tomatoes. Nor has he been shy about calling down violence even on those who merely attempted to disrupt his speeches (which, I hasten to add, they have no right to do), but which in no way justifies mob violence.
On another occasion, Lewandowski waded into the crowd and grabbed a protester by the collar. Trump approved of this maneuver too, explaining (if that’s the right word) to CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the man’s sign contained very bad words. Non sequitur.
The Trump campaign has changed its story several times about Michelle Fields. The latest, on CNN Tuesday night, featured Trump justifying Lewandowki’s manhandling of Fields because she approached the TV star armed with a pen “which is very dangerous.” Tomatoes, Bics, is there no end to the threats against Trump?
Donald Trump avoided the draft by claiming bone spurs in his heels – which somehow didn’t keep him off the ski slopes. Yet he had the gall to disparage the heroism of John McCain. His only real exposure to danger, his “personal Vietnam” he says, was sleeping around and risking STDs in the 1970s.
Trump is a physically large man with the courage of a mouse. Like many cowards, he loves tough talk, but he prefers to issue threats from the comfort of his private jet and to let bullyboys like Lewandowski actually get their hands dirty. Purely as a matter of national hygiene, Lewandowski should be fired. But more importantly, so should his boss.
Published in General
Posts like this make me want to reconsider my opinion that Trump is an idiot.
Huh??
Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
Didn’t he say you need to treat women like [expletive deleted]?
His campaign manager was just following what the boss said.
This hasn’t been true of Democrats in general for years.
A most ingenious paradox!
Why women in combat should be laughed at. Bruises! I’m not even sure they are tough enough to be journalists.
By the way, as a journalist, Mona should be using the word “allegedy” here. But hey, this is Trump! No rules are needed!
This post nearly made me fall off my chair and injure myself!
The videos I’ve seen of this event make me realize how many misdemeanor assaults have been committed against me when I tried to make my way to the front of the carnival crowd.
We’ll see what a jury has to say.
I’m hyperventilating! I feel faint. I need to sit down and compose myself. A political operative actually grabbed someone’s arm! We should get the Bill Clinton legal defense team to come to the rescue. It should be a piece of cake for them.
I can’t imagine a scenario where a jury hears this. The Supreme Court…maybe.
Are political operatives given special dispensation with regard to the law and simple courtesy?
I said it at the time and heard Tim Pawlenty say the same thing today on his podcast with Kudlow, that a simple apology would have defused the entire incident. Instead Trump and his minions chose to attempt to belittle and marginalize Michelle Fields. The whole thing remind me of how Nixon handled the White Water break in. It isn’t the crime. It is the attempt to cover it up that creates the scandal. In both cases it is simple bad judgment, something Trump seems best at. It reflects on how Trump sees everyone else as equal to him and, therefore, a threat. He has no sense of proportion, everything is equal in his mind, the attack of a lion and the bite of a flea.
Well, I think in Texas the defendant would have a right to request a trial by jury or a trial by judge. I would imagine in this case his lawyers would like to take it to a jury.
Not only did they attempt to belittle and marginalize her, they dared to file a police report.
Heck no! He’s a rude son of a gun.
But was this a criminal act? We’ll see how it works out in the court system.
It’s of course completely impossible the DA who filed the charges is engaged in a political prosecution. That’s unpossible….
NEW YORK – The Florida prosecutor who brought battery charges against Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, supports Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president.
An article published by the Palm Beach Post on Nov. 17, 2015, has been circulating since Tuesday evening because it lists Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg as a member 150-member Florida Leadership Council, which was established by the Democratic Party to promote Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy.
Listen to the actual audio and tell me this was “battery”.
First there is no audible protestation scream, squeal or utterance of any kind from Ms. Fields
Second, as she reported this incident to her WaPo friend, there was no mention of pain or any audible reaction.
Third, she sounds more surprised and personally offended than anything else and she is laughing when she says “going after a Breitbart reporter, like the people who are nicest to you?”
Ms. Fields sounds a lot like those easily offended snowflakes on campus today.
This may not be good, or smart or chivalrous, but it ain’t battery. My God….
And it shouldn’t be such a big story, here, or anywhere else.
Mona has a problem. [redacted]
[redacted]
Lewandowski is no centurion. Centurions knew how to have people thrown to the floor.
I grew up in an environment in which real men did not touch a woman without her permission. She did not represent a physical threat to Trump. The grabbing with sufficient force to cause bruising is an assault. If you doubt that consider what would happen to a teacher who grabbed a female student in that manner and bruised her arm for a similar cause. The likely outcome would be at minimum a hearing and disciplinary actions, at worst dismissal. As said above, who gave political operatives permission to use physical force with impunity.
I expect more respect for the truth from Ms. Charen. The surveillance video was released and the link was included in today’s Daily Shot. The video is inconsistent with this gross exaggeration made by the WaPo reporter and repeated by Ms. Charen. I’m no Trump supporter but I do value the truth, whatever the source.
Please stop repeating this absurd and dishonest characterization of the events.
Yep. I am repeating a point I made elsewhere, but this audio is more along the lines of “How Rude Was That Guy” than a description from a victim of criminal
assaultbattery.Battery: an intentional unpermitted act causing harmful or offensive contact with the “person” of another.
Hmmm….
One correction here, Mona. Police don’t bring charges; that’s the District Attorney’s job. Just as the FBI can’t bring charges against Hillary; that’s up to the DOJ. And, as others have noted, political prosecutions are not unknown. Ask Rick Perry or Ted Stevens. Relatively speaking, the abuse of power by prosecutors in using their office to persecute political opponents strikes me as being a problem even worse than thuggish campaign staff.
Also, is the word “Trumpkins” now in-bounds? We were admonished by the editorial staff a while back to avoid such “derogatory” references to the supporters of other candidates, and I have followed that directive. Although, I admit, I like (s)Trumpets better.
Then why on earth would he put out a hit on someone who’ll be lucky to win 10 states against her?
I’ve watched the video above multiple times. I can’t see any “shoving” or “pulling down” anywhere. Obviously her arm was grabbed. The “perpetrator” did not seem to be doing anything other than protecting the candidate from an unauthorized interview. There was no malice or anger that I could observe.
The “victim” was holding a cell phone or recording device loosely and during the alleged “battery” it remained in her possession.
This is nothing.
In our brave new world there is no longer a distinction between rude and criminal. Even hurt feelings are legally actionable.
Consider this counterfactual: Mr. Lewandowski apologizes immediately to Ms. Fields, explaining that he didn’t mean to be rough. Does Ms. Fields still make a criminal complaint?
N.B.: Criminal battery requires intent to inflict an injury on another. Did Mr. Lewandowski have the intent to injure?
Then he should have just apologized.
It is pretty clear to me it was battery but it is also clear to me it never would have become a police matter had Trump and his minions not publicly ridiculed the woman and dared her to press charges.
Lewandowski should keep his hands to himself.
So you are able to see into Mr. Lewandowski’s mind? Because battery requires intent to injure.
Even now, an apology would probably defuse the whole situation.
Been there, done this already, but it’s apparently still necessary. It fits the legal definition of battery.