Donald Trump spokesman Katrina Pierson asserted the Trump team was fully behind campaign manager Corey Lewandowski after he was charged with battery on Tuesday.
A surveillance video released by Jupiter, Florida police appears to back up allegations that Lewandowski yanked the arm of former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields earlier this month when she approached Trump for a question. Lewandowski flatly denied the altercation ever happened, as did Trump, but Lewandowski turned himself in Tuesday morning. Trump's campaign insisted he would be exonerated.
Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
"Is he going to keep his job? Is he going to take a leave of absence? Does Donald Trump have total confidence in his campaign manager?" CNN host Wolf Blitzer asked.
"Yes. We actually have total confidence in our campaign manager, and we feel that he's going to be exonerated," Pierson said. "This is no different, for example, when I am in the middle of the scrum and get smacked around by television networks. I don't go and sue the television network because I have a cut on my arm from a camera. Everyone knows at these type of scrum events there is some jostling around and some pushing, and the second you cross that Secret Service threshold, you will be moved away from the candidate.
"This is no different, for example, when I am in the middle of the scrum and get smacked around by television networks. I don't go and sue the television network because I have a cut on my arm from a camera. Everyone knows at these type of scrum events there is some jostling around and some pushing, and the second you cross that Secret Service threshold, you will be moved away from the candidate.
"This is not new. Corey Lewandowski is going to beat this. He will plead not guilty, and we'll just have to let this process play out."
Blitzer asked if that meant Lewandowski would not be going anywhere in the meantime, and Pierson responded by attacking Fields' version of events.
"Absolutely," Pierson said. "That's exactly what I'm saying ... In her own words and they are out there, she specifically said he aggressively grabbed her and nearly threw her to the ground. It is very obvious that is not what happened in this case, and Mr. Lewandowski is definitely going to fight it."
Lewandowski was involved in another aggressive incident this month when he appeared to seize a protester by his collar and yank him backwards at a rally in Arizona.