After Donald Trump’s campaign called allegations that campaign manager Corey Lewandowski roughed up a Breitbart News reporter “entirely false,” conservatives called on Trump to fire Lewandowski.
Ben Shapiro, an editor-at-large for Breitbart, led the charge, telling Politico: “There is no excuse for Lewandowski’s assault; he should be fired.”
.@MichelleFields is a terrific and intrepid reporter. Trump should fire Lewandowski immediately. No excuses.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) March 10, 2016
Conservative commentator Dana Loesch tweeted that everyone should “demand Trump fire Lewandowski” and called on Breitbart to allow Michelle Fields, the reporter involved in the incident, to file charges.
RedState founder Erick Erickson tweeted “actual men should be outraged” about the run-in.
The reaction to the assault on @MichelleFields is a reminder that Trump attracts a lot of beta males who pretend online to be alphas.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) March 10, 2016
Sean Davis, a co-founder of The Federalist, said the campaign was trying to cover up a “brutal” assault.
Hope Hicks’ dad ran the NFL’s PR operation until Sept. 2015, so experience covering up brutal assaults against women runs in the family.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) March 10, 2016
Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich also tweeted about Lewandowski “seeking attention” after he posted a tweet suggesting Fields lied about being assaulted during the Occupy Wall Street protests.
Is ripping a reporter nearly to the ground professional campaign management @CLewandowski_? Or were you just seeking attention?
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) March 10, 2016
Commentary editor John Podhoretz also had a strong response for Lewandowski after the campaign manager smeared Fields as an “attention seeker” who once claimed Allen West groped her.
Enjoy jail, you piece of shit. https://t.co/mOfk74eoPh
— John Podhoretz (@jpodhoretz) March 10, 2016
Jamie Weinstein, a Daily Caller editor who is also Fields’ boyfriend, wrote Trump “surrounds himself with thugs.”
Trump always surrounds himself w thugs. Tonight thug Corey Lewandowski tried to pull my gf @MichelleFields to ground when she asked tough q
— Jamie Weinstein (@Jamie_Weinstein) March 9, 2016
One notable dissenter was Breitbart reporter Patrick Howley, who called for Fields to release video of the incident and noted that the story was getting “a whole lot of attention” from the mainstream media in tweets that have since been deleted.
Was sent this screen grab of a Breitbart reporters tweets that appear to have been deleted pic.twitter.com/LGuYqrQwmW
— Hadas Gold (@Hadas_Gold) March 10, 2016
CNN reported Howley was “indefinitely” suspended from the conservative blog because of the remarks.
Fields wrote in a column on Breitbart that she “never sought to be part of the story” and that when she asked Trump a question after a Florida press conference, she was “jolted backwards” and nearly fell to the ground.
Ben Terris, a Washington Post reporter, told her that Lewandowski had grabbed her, Fields said.
Breitbart’s top brass was slow to condemn Lewandowski’s actions, and released a statement Wednesday night saying that “it’s obviously unacceptable that someone crossed a line and made physical contact with our reporter…if that’s the case, Corey owes Michelle and immediate apology.”
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Tickets are still available for what should be a rocking affair.
Breitbart’s top brass was slow to condemn Lewandowski’s actions, and released a statement Wednesday night saying that “it’s obviously unacceptable that someone crossed a line and made physical contact with our reporter…if that’s the case, Corey owes Michelle an immediate apology.”
In light of how the media now treats the letter-writing, sue-happy Drumpf crowd, I’m not surprised that there is hesitation to report on anything that could cast a shadow on his brand / campaign.
Oh, those conservatives. Bless their hearts. After she’s physically attacked, shrugged off by her colleague, and readers have a field day slinging insults her way, some people wake up and display that they have moral consciences. I’m shocked and amazed. In a good way. (Or is this just a principled moment in the larger ZOMG #NeverTrump Oh noes! We’ve been on the attack so much that we made conditions ripe for Drumpf and now we’re sorry so Okay dudes, fire that guy who grabbed that reporter)