Michelle Fields, a Breitbart.com reporter and a former Fox News contributor, was grabbed by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and yanked "toward the ground like a ragdoll," an eyewitness tells the Daily Beast. The altercation occurred Tuesday night following Trump's press conference in Florida after Fields tried to ask Trump a question about his past criticism of late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The Daily Beast's Lloyd Grove reports:
Fields—who on Wednesday was sporting a purple bruise as a result of the encounter—was shocked and shaken, barely managing to keep her footing as Lewandowski and the Trump scrum headed out the doors, according to colleagues. Fields didn't see who had grabbed her. At first, she has told colleagues, she thought it was a Secret Service agent. "Oh my goodness!" [Washington Post reporter Ben] Terris reportedly exclaimed after witnessing the encounter from a few feet behind. "That was Corey!" he told Fields in amazement. Terris, who declined to comment for this story, has since confirmed to his newspaper that the aggressor was Lewandowski.
The Trump campaign has not commented on the incident, but Grove reports that Lewandowski's excuse for manhandling a female reporter is that he thought she was an "adversarial member of the mainstream media" and not a reporter with the Trump-friendly Breitbart.com.
Breitbart.com issued a mealy-mouthed statement criticizing Trump's campaign manager, but at least a couple of Breitbart writers have taken a tougher line and have called for Trump's campaign manager to be fired.
Update: In response from the Trump campaign's denial that the altercation occurred, Michelle Fields posted a photo of her bruised arm on Twitter:
I guess these just magically appeared on me @CLewandowski_ @realDonaldTrump. So weird. pic.twitter.com/oD8c4D7tw3
— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields)
March 10, 2016
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris reported Thursday afternoon that he did in fact see Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski accost Fields:
As security parted the masses to give him passage out of the chandelier-lit ballroom, Michelle Fields, a young reporter for Trump-friendly Breitbart News, pressed forward to ask the GOP front-runner a question. I watched as a man with short-cropped hair and a suit grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the way. He was Corey Lewandowski, Trump's 41-year-old campaign manager. Fields stumbled. Finger-shaped bruises formed on her arm. "I'm just a little spooked," she said, a tear streaming down her face. "No one has grabbed me like that before." She took my arm and squeezed it hard. "I don't even want to do it as hard as he did," she said, "because it would hurt."
Correction: This article originally identified Fields as a Fox News contributor. She is a former Fox News contributor.