Following Thursday night's debate, Donald Trump shrugged off reports that Michelle Fields of Breitbart News was assaulted by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. "Perhaps she made the story up. I think that's what happened," Trump told reporters in the spin room.
VIDEO: Trump to @DylanByers on @MichelleFields incident. "I think she made it up." pic.twitter.com/VUB5LnbrTM
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles)
March 11, 2016
Washington Post reporter Ben Terris wrote that he was an eyewitness to Lewandowski's assault Fields. An audio recording corroborates their story, and Fields posted a photo of her bruised arm after the Trump campaign denied the story. The bruise was caused by Lewandowski's grabbing Fields on Tuesday night and " yanking her down toward the ground like a ragdoll," an eyewitness told The Daily Beast.
Lewandowski took to Twitter to call Fields "delusional" and claim that he had never touched her:
@MichelleFields you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_)
March 11, 2016
Sources told The Daily Beast that "Lewandowski acknowledged to Breitbart's Washington political editor, Matthew Boyle, that he did manhandle Fields. Lewandowski's explanation to Boyle, said these sources, was that he and Fields had never met before and that he didn't recognize her as a Breitbart reporter, instead mistaking her for an adversarial member of the mainstream media."