Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has landed a job at CNN, according to Politico.
He will join the cable news network as a political commentator, the report, which is based on anonymous sources, said. His position will be salaried and he will remain exclusive to CNN.
It is unclear whether Lewandowski has a strict non-disclosure agreement with the Trump campaign that bars him from discussing the GOP candidate’s White House bid. CNN’s chief media reporter, Brian Stelter, said Thursday he was investigating the issue.
Lewandowski, whose relationship with the press has been defined recently by unofficial blacklists and fiery confrontations, was relieved as Trump’s campaign manager Monday morning.
.@CLewandowski_ :”inside the pen or I pull your credentials” as I film crowd reax to protestor this evening pic.twitter.com/Gkb2jpC6CY
— Noah Gray (@NoahGrayCNN) November 19, 2015
“The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President, which has set a historic record in the Republican primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks said Monday in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future,” she added.
The so-called firing was reportedly done at the request of Trump’s children, particularly Ivanka Trump.
“They thought [Lewandowski] was a little Napoleon asshole,” one source told the Examiner’s Gabby Morrongiello.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus suggested later that the “firing” was a “good sign” for the Trump campaign, which has struggled recently with staffing issues and fundraising.
“When you look at the shift from a primary election over to the general election, this is sort of the professionalization that continues the pivot to the presidential — I think it’s a good sign I think for the campaign,” Priebus said in a Fox News interview.
Lewandowski, who was brought on as Trump’s campaign manager in January 2015, made headlines this year when he was charged with simple battery after a reporter claimed he manhandled her at a campaign event in Florida.
He was arrested and booked in March after he turned himself in for the misdemeanor charge, which was brought against him by former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields.
She alleged Lewandowski violently pulled on her arm when she tried to ask the GOP Republican presidential candidate a question shortly after a press conference held in Palm Beach. The former Trump campaign manager at first denied he did any such thing, and said on social media, “you are totally delusional. I never touched you. As a matter of fact, I have never even met you.”
Florida law enforcement officials eventually released security footage showing he did indeed grab Fields’ arm.
In April, Palm Beach County Florida State Attorney David Aronberg announced he would not prosecute Lewandowski. The security footage released on March 29 showed the ex-campaign manager’s contact with Fields was initiated after she, “brushed or touched Mr. Trump’s arm,” his office said, adding they determined there was a, “reasonable hypothesis of innocence based on the real time facts and circumstances recorded on the video.”
However, Aronberg emphasized in a statement, “Mr. Lewandowski could have called this agent’s attention to her actions before taking action himself, if he considered her a threat. In addition, soon after the incident, Mr. Lewandowski publicly denied ever touching Ms. Fields in any way.”
Lewandowski appears to hold no grudges against his former employer, and he said in several interviews this week after his departure that Trump is an excellent candidate for the White House.
“I stand by the fact that Mr. Trump is a great candidate and is better than Hillary Clinton ever will be,” he said.
He will now take that message to CNN as a full-time contributor.
