Trump Campaign: We Roughed Up Breitbart Reporter Because We Thought She Was The Liberal Media
On Tuesday evening, after Donald Trump’s infomercial/press conference/victory speech, Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields was manhandled by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski when she tried to approach Trump to ask an additional question. Lewandowski is the thuggish Trump lackey who has also completely ignored the GOP debate rules and threatened Megyn Kelly in an attempt to get her to drop out of moderating the second Fox News Republican debate. (Trump would eventually drop out of that event.)
In the aftermath of Lewandowski’s rough treatment of Fields, Breitbart released a statement calling for the campaign manager to apologize to Fields. The soft-worded statement was criticized by many in the media and seen as the publication not wanting to ruffle Trump’s feathers. (The publication has been in the tank for The Donald from the beginning and has been accused of taking money from the celebrity billionaire to write pro-Trump articles.) The statement also named a Washington Post writer as a witness, who was scheduled to interview Lewandowski the next day. That interview was canceled over a ‘scheduling conflict,’ leading to the belief that Breitbart’s editors were running interference for Lewandowski and Trump.
Meanwhile, the excuse from the Trump campaign for Lewandowski’s behavior was both idiotic and absolutely frightening. In an explanation from the campaign, Lewandowski stated that he only roughed up Fields because he thought she was “an adversarial member of the mainstream media.” He said that he had never met her face-to-face, so he didn’t realize she was from the Trump-friendly Breitbart.
Reading into that statement, the only thing you should take away from it is the Trump belief that those who kiss his ass and report only what he wants reported will be treated ‘fairly.’ However, anyone else who has the audacity of being ‘not nice’ or asking ‘nasty’ questions, well…you know.
While Breitbart wasn’t doing much to stand by their employee, at least one of her colleagues was vocally calling for the Trump campaign to fire Lewandowski for his violent actions. Ben Shapiro, editor-at-large at Breitbart and an extremely combative conservative pundit and writer, was quite outspoken towards both Breitbart and the Trump campaign over the treatment of Fields and the media in general.
Speaking to Politico’s Hadas Gold via email, Shapiro said he wasn’t privy to the publications editorial decisions, and that everyone in this country should stand for Fields and anyone else who is getting bullied by Lewandowski and the Trump campaign.
“I’m not privy to editorial decisions at Breitbart. As I’ve said, there is no excuse for Lewandowski’s assault; he should be fired. And every good hearted person should stand with Michelle and the rights of all Americans to be free of violence,” Breitbart editor-at-large Ben Shapiro wrote in an email. Bardella later blasted out Shapiro’s tweets about the incident, calling for Lewandowski to be fired.
Taking to his Twitter account, Shapiro fired off a number of critical tweets Thursday morning.
Everyone should be calling for Lewandowski’s firing over his battery on Michelle. Everyone. EVERYONE.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 10, 2016
No excuse for not calling for Lewandowski’s firing. None. https://t.co/p8Zyp6jfgl pic.twitter.com/Ezebot6AbH
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 10, 2016
Lewandowski, remember, is the same guy who tried to threaten @megynkelly to get her booted from the second Fox debate.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 10, 2016
It’s approaching noon Eastern. Anybody not calling for Lewandowski’s firing over his battery on @MichelleFields…your agenda is obvious.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 10, 2016
.@jaketapper Please ask Trump at the top tonight whether he stands by his campaign manager who committed battery on a female reporter.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 10, 2016
Shapiro also retweeted Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld, who sent out the following on Wednesday night:
“Obama flack physically abuses reporter” would lead the news. Just a thought.
— GregGutfeld (@greggutfeld) March 10, 2016
It is bad enough that the media allows itself to be penned up at Trump rallies. It is bad enough that reporters just sit there and take the verbal abuse that Trump heaps on them every single day, which subsequently leads to his supporters cussing and spitting at them during events. But now you have publications rolling over for his campaign and sitting idly by while Trump’s lackeys physically assault their employees. And the excuse given by the campaign is just ‘we didn’t know she was one of the GOOD ones.’
This shit has gone way too far. And the sad thing is it will get only worse over the coming weeks and months. Why? Because mainstream media will take it all for the magical ratings and clicks they are banking on for this election.
