Rep. Peter King (R-NY) suggested Tuesday that the reporter who accused Donald Trump’s campaign manager of grabbing her arm earlier this month at a campaign event should be “embarrassed.”
“If you’re in the middle of a political scrum, those things happen. You bump into people. Reporters put their arms in trying to get interviews, sticking a tape recorder in the guy’s face and pushing people out of the way,” King said in a radio interview on WABC, which was flagged by Buzzfeed News. “When she was on television describing it afterwards, I think she said it was the worst moment in her life, and how terrible it was. I’d be embarrassed to even talk about it.”
Police in Jupiter, Florida, charged Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, with a misdemeanor battery charge on Tuesday. The charge came after former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields filed a complaint against Lewandowski with the police department.
Both Trump and Lewandowski have insisted that the campaign manager is innocent, and a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign said that Lewandowski wouldn’t be fired even if he were convicted of the charge.
King continued to defend Lewandowski, saying that his staff knew of him when he worked in Washington. He also made reference to a video released by police that appeared to show Lewandowski grabbing Fields’ arm.
“You know, before I saw the video yesterday, I thought he had hit her with a baseball bat or something,” King told WABC. “I haven’t practiced law in a while but I never heard of somebody being charged for touching someone on the arm, unless you’re talking about some kind of a sexual thing.”
Republican representatives, including Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) and Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA), who endorsed Trump have reaffirmed their support for him in light of the charge against Lewandowski.
King has not endorsed anyone for the presidency, but has publicly railed against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’s campaign, saying Cruz should “go back under a rock.”
Why is TPM reporting this?
Just kidding. I just wanted to get that out of the way.
Shorter King: “It’s not like her arm was ripped off and she was beaten with it. Come on.”
Misogygny, thou ugly head from the mouth of a Republican.
I didn’t realize Peter King was a young woman…
Why doesn’t he attack the police?
They saw it as an assault and arrested the fucker.