Last Monday, Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was arrested on charges that he assaulted Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields during a February news conference. Not surprisingly, Trump is standing by Lewandowski even in the face of demands from both the left and the right that he be fired for his thuggish behavior. But two of Trump’s top surrogates, Michael Savage and Pat Robertson, took it to another level. They claimed that Lewandowski was justified in roughing Fields up because she might have been a suicide bomber.
Within 24 hours of Lewandowski’s arrest, Savage launched an ugly and misogynistic attack on Fields on his radio show. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
Savage repeated Trump’s line that Fields may have bruised herself, and suggested that she was “a narcissistic maniac.” But then Savage claimed that Lewandowski was merely doing what Trump’s Secret Service detail should have done.
“What is the point of having a Secret Service bodyguard if the guy stands there like a wooden statue when this unknown woman, a so-called Breitbart reporter, runs up to the candidate after he has answered questions and harasses Donald Trump? Tell me what good the Secret Service did. The answer is no good. So naturally, the press secretary would run in and stop her, because you don’t know who she is. She could have been a terrorist. She could have stabbed him, she could have shot him, she could have blown herself up. He didn’t know who she was.”
Savage went on to say that Trump ought to press charges against Fields for assaulting a presidential candidate.
Trump himself parroted the “terrorist” line later that night on “Anderson Cooper 360,” telling Cooper that Fields’ pen might have contained a 007-style “little bomb.” The next day, Robertson got in on the act. On “The 700 Club,” the Virginia Beach Ayatollah repeated the line that Lewandowski may have saved Trump’s life. PFAW got a clip.
Robertson claimed that Fields “rushed” Trump, and Lewandowski had no choice but to act. After all, “she could’ve had a gun. She could’ve had a knife. She could’ve had a bomb.”
There’s just one problem with the surrogates’ line–it isn’t true. According to the affidavit supporting the warrant for Lewandowski’s arrest, Jupiter, Florida police officer Marc Bujnowski reviewed surveillance video from the press conference. What he saw convinced him that Lewandowski had indeed committed a crime.
“On March 12th, 2016, I obtained video footage from Trump Security at Trump National in Jupiter. I specifically obtained video from the ballroom the night and time in question. The video parallels what Fields had told me, in that Trump was walking towards the exit of the ballroom, taking questions, and signing autographs. Fields is seen on video, holding her phone up to Trump, appearing to ask him a question. Trump had looked in her direction, and then Lewandowski extended his left arm out, stepping between Trump and another male subject believed to be U.S. Secret Service. After extending his arm out, Lewandowski appeared to reach for Fields’ left arm with his left hand, allowing him to get closer to Fields.
“Lewandowski then grabbed Fields left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back. This motion cleared a path for Lewandowski to walk past Fields, allowing him to ‘catch up’ and get closer to Trump, who was walking during this entire incident.”
Cliff Notes version: this was not a valiant attempt to rescue Trump from a potential terrorist. Rather, Lewandowski simply threw Fields aside so he could get closer to his boss.
Apparently Trump’s two biggest surrogates are of a piece with Trump himself. They’re not willing to let such little things as facts get in the way of a smear campaign.
