Donald Trump’s campaign manager said Friday he’s “thankful” for the loyalty Mr. Trump showed him in the wake of a battery charge stemming from an incident with a reporter that was ultimately dropped on Thursday.
“Obviously I’m very pleased, and first and foremost I want to thank Mr. Trump for his loyalty and his dedication to his staff and to me specifically, because a lesser person and another politician would have terminated me on the spot,” Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Friday on CNN’s “New Day.”
“And so I’m so thankful for Mr. Trump and for his loyalty to me and standing by me in that difficult time, and I’m thankful to my colleagues and my family as we went through this,” he said. “And it should have never gotten to this point and I’m glad it’s over, and I’m glad the Palm Beach County district attorney’s office has put this behind us and we’re ready to move forward now.”
The charge stemmed from a March 8 incident in which Mr. Lewandowski appeared to grab Michelle Fields, then a reporter for Breitbart News, after a press conference in Florida. But a prosecutor said Thursday that while the facts of the case, based largely on a videotape, supported probable cause for the charge, they did not meet the higher standard for prosecutors to prove the case to a jury.
Mr. Lewandowski said he called Ms. Fields that night “because I didn’t know what happened, honestly.”
“The interaction with Michelle Fields lasted a sum total of about three seconds in my entire life. I had never met her before, and the only time I’ve ever interacted with her is on that videotape,” he said. “Three seconds may sound like a long time, but it was a brief interaction — it wasn’t memorable to me, and I’m sorry about that.”
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Last month, Mr. Lewandowski had tweeted at Ms. Fields: “You are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.”
Palm Beach County State Attorney David Aronberg said the video showed Mr. Lewandowski did grab Ms. Fields as she tried to get Mr. Trump’s attention.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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