Dude Who Manhandled Reporter Says He Has “A Great Relationship With The Press”

It has now been a week since buzz-cutted rageaholic Corey Lewandowski was fired as the Trump campaign manager. Almost immediately after being shitcanned, Lewandowski was given a plum job by CNN to be a political commentator, despite the fact that the network already had two pundits on the payroll whose sole job was to shill for Donald Trump.

CNN justified the move by pointing out that Corey, as a former high-level Trump staffer, could provide specific insight of Trump’s political machinations that few others could provide, due to his closeness to the former reality TV star. Of course, that was revealed to be total nonsense because it was apparent from the get-go that Lewandowski had signed a non-disparagement agreement with Trump, meaning he couldn’t publicly say anything negative or critical about his former boss. Thus, he’d be just another paid Trump supporter for the network, and not provide any actual journalistic value, like they claimed.

Following up his first appearance as a CNN employee last Thursday on Erin Burnett’s program, Lewandowski showed up on New Day Monday morning. And, just like the OutFront hit, viewers were given a heaping dose of unmitigated bullshit, with some Trump shillery as the cherry on top.

Speaking to Alisyn Camerota, the ex-police officer denied that he ever had a contentious and combative relationship with the press, despite the fact that is exactly how things in the year he served as Trump’s right-hand man.

From Media Matters’ transcript of the segment:

ALISYN CAMEROTA (HOST): On a completely separate note, Corey, I just wanted to quickly ask you, there’s been a lot of reaction to CNN hiring you as a contributor. I don’t know if you’ve heard about some of the reaction. It turns out not everybody is a fan of the decision. And I think that the crux of that, criticism, is that you never seem to be a big fan of the press or to have much respect for the press. Why did you have such strange relations during your time there at the Trump campaign with the press, do you think?

COREY LEWANDOWSKI: I don’t think that’s true. I think what you have is if you look at the individuals I work closely with on a day-to-day basis, we had great relationships. I had great relationships with the media. Those individuals who are our embeds, who got to know me the best, the individuals who I spoke to on a regular basis, the individuals on your set here earlier today —

You see that, Alisyn. Corey has a great relationship with the press because he says so. Can’t you take him at his word? Sure, he grabbed Michelle Fields that one time and then took to Twitter and the media to gaslight her after it became a big thing, forcing her to file a police report that led to his arrest. And the ordeal of that situation only caused her to quit her job with Breitbart after they took Trump’s side, and leave her apartment after Trump fans started threatening her. And all of this could’ve been avoided if he had just apologized and said ‘my bad’ in the first place, but instead, he had to call her “delusional.” But, yeah, great relationship.

Also, let’s not forget that one time Lewandowski told CNN reporter Noah Gray during a rally to get back in a media pen before he got “fucking blacklisted.”

From the Washington Post’s story of the event:

“Hey: Tell Noah, get back in the pen or he’s f—— blacklisted…Inside the pen, or I will pull your credentials. Media goes in the pen. I’m telling you. I’m telling you. Media stays in the pen.”

Camerota brought this up in her exchange with Lewandowski, asking him his thoughts on threatening reporters who got out of their pen.

CAMEROTA: Sure, just not the people you said were blacklisted if they got out of the pen.

LEWANDOWSKI: There are rules to follow. And the rules were very clear, right? The designated media areas are where the designated media areas was. And we asked people to respect those rules so the people coming to the Trump rallies by the thousands, by the tens of thousands, would have the opportunity to listen to what Mr. Trump said when he was on stage. And the rules are very simple. As long as the media was in the designated media zone 15 minutes before he got on stage, and after he was done speaking, they were free to go wherever they wanted. And all we asked was that while he was on stage, the people have to wait four and five hours in line to come and see him, have the opportunity to listen to him.

That’s a very nice spin job, Mr. Lewandowski. He then turned right around and said, once again, how great of a relationship he had with the press, along with telling Alisyn how much he loved everybody, including her.

LEWANDOWSKI: Look, I love everybody. I love you, right. Are you kidding me?

CAMEROTA: Well, I’m lovable.

[…]

LEWANDOWSKI: I’m a very emotional person. But the bottom line is I have a great relationship with the press. I have a lot of friends at all the networks. That’s the truth. Look I’ve been so lucky to interact with the press as much as I have. Doesn’t mean I always agree. Doesn’t mean I’m always going to agree. Because I’m a person who’s going to call it the way I see it. And I think if something is out of line, I’m going to tell people that.

Mind you, under Lewandowski’s ‘leadership,’ the Trump campaign pulled the credentials from at least six different media outlets, and numerous individual reporters, all because of what they perceived as unfair coverage. But, yeah, Corey Lewandowski loves everybody. Especially CNN right now, since, despite his abhorrent treatment of the free press, he’s now getting a fat paycheck to pimp his former(?) boss’s campaign.