Donald Trump continued to defend his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski against battery charges, vowing to back Lewandowski until the end.
Trump told reporters ahead of his Tuesday event in Janesville, Wis., that he doesn’t “discard people” and promised to back him until his case is over. He also questioned the bruises on former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields’ arm, saying they might have been there prior to the incident.
“Those tapes are very conclusive,” Trump said, before moving on to his defense of Lewandowski. “I told him, ‘You should never settle this case, you should go all the way.’
“I know it would be very easy to discard people. I don’t discard people. I stay with people,” Trump told reporters on his plane. “He was very, very seriously maligned, and I think it’s very unfair.”
Later on Trump said that Fields wasn’t “even supposed to ask questions” when she did, noting that it was after his initial press conference. He also argued that it doesn’t say anything about his campaign given the various incidents of violence at his events.
“I think it says nothing about the campaign,” Trump said. “[Lewandowski] was trying to block her. That’s the way I would view it, and she was grabbing me and asking questions. She’s not even supposed to ask questions.”
“I don’t know if there were bruises from that. Why? Who said there were bruises from that? How do you know those bruises weren’t there before?” Trump said. “She said she had a bruise on her arm. To me, if you’re going to get squeezed, wouldn’t you think she would let out a scream or something if she has bruises on her arm … I don’t know that he put them there.”
