Donald Trump defended campaign manager Corey Lewandowski Wednesday morning by claiming the incident between him and reporter Michelle Fields was “minor,” and said it pales in comparison to the violence seen in the Middle East.
“When you look at what happened, it was so minor he may not even have thought about it,” Trump said on the “Today” show. “People are calling saying, what is this all about? We have people in the Middle East chopping off heads and drowning people in cages and he just brushes her. And he brushes her probably to get her hand off my arm. It was so minor he may not have realized it took place.”
Despite both Trump and Lewandowksi’s prior claims that the incident never happened, Lewandowski currently faces battery charges, and video evidence backs up Fields’ claim that she was grabbed.
However, Trump said couldn’t understand why the press was making such a big deal of the incident, as he believes Fields changed her story. Fields initially claimed she was nearly pulled to the ground by Lewandowski, but the video doesn’t bear that out.
“Well, let me go a step further. She touched me, she grabbed me, at least twice she grabbed me,” Trump said. “She made up this story … she said she was yanked down, this is before she found out there was a security camera on her.”
As Lewandowski faces charges, he will remain on the Trump campaign. The GOP front-runner also says his campaign has no plans to apologize to Fields.
“These other candidates they’re weak,” Trump said. “They said, oh you should immediately get rid of him. For what? Why? They want me to fire him?”
