Corey Lewandowski on Monday dismissed reports that he was fired from Donald Trump’s campaign because Trump’s family, and specifically his daughter Ivanka, wanted him out.
Lewandowski told MSNBC that it “wouldn’t be accurate” to say that the family pushed him out, and said he continues to believe that letting “Trump be Trump” will allow him to be successful.
“My strategy has been, and at some level of successful, is let Trump be Trump,” Lewandowski said. “I would like to say I am a person who’s been able to help implement some of his ideas and that’s what I have been able to do. But for anybody to say that the family disagreed, I don’t think would be accurate.”
The former campaign manager expanded upon those comments soon after in an interview to CNN. He admitted that he is a “very intense person,” and hit back against Trump advisor Michael Caputo’s tweet, which read “ding dong the witch is dead.” Lewandowski said Caputo has no formal role with the campaign and is nothing more than a “volunteer.”
Lewandowski also said he has a good relationship with Paul Manafort, who has taken the reins of the campaign.
“When Paul first came in, he was going to manage the delegate process,” Lewandowski said. “Since that time, Paul and I have gotten along amazingly well … We divided things accordingly and we had a great relationship. There was no animosity between Paul and I.”
Lewandowski argued that the Trump campaign’s ongoing fundraising and struggles in bringing aboard a ground game are due to the campaign continuing to be in the GOP primary process rather than the general election stage.
“So we started raising money in the last 30 days or so because Mr. Trump has self-funded his campaign through the primary, of which we are still part of right now,” Lewandowski said. He noted that Trump has raised money recently for the RNC and their operation.
He also confirmed that he plans to remain as head of the New Hampshire GOP delegation at the Republican National Convention in less than a month in Cleveland.
