The reporter who was allegedly roughed up by Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski posted images of bruises on her arm, after Lewandowski called her a liar.
As TheWrap previously reported, Lewandowski is under fire for yanking Breitbart.com reporter Michelle Fields out of the way during a Trump campaign event in Florida on Tuesday night.
Fields claims she was trying to ask Trump a question as he was leaving the press conference when apparently Lewandowski grabbed her arm and almost threw her to the ground.
But on Thursday, the Trump campaign issued a statement denying the incident ever took place.
The accusation, which has only been made in the media and never addressed directly with the campaign, is entirely false. As one of dozens of individuals present as Mr. Trump exited the press conference I did not witness any encounter. In addition to our staff, which had no knowledge of said situation, not a single camera or reporter of more than 100 in attendance captured the alleged incident.
This individual has never met Corey, nor had the only reporter that supposedly identified him. There are often large crowds aggressively seeking access to Mr. Trump and our staff would never do anything to harm another individual, while at the same time understanding that Mr. Trump and his personal space should never be invaded.
This person claims she does not want to be part of the news, and only report it, however if that was the case, any concerns, however unfounded they may be, should have been voiced directly first and not via twitter, especially since no other outlet or reporter witnessed or questioned anything that transpired that evening. We leave to others whether this part of a larger pattern of exaggerating incidents, but on multiple occasions she has become part of the news story as opposed to reporting it. Recall she also claimed to have been beaten by a New York City Police officer with a baton.
The Trump campaign’s defense that “no other outlet or reporter witnessed or questioned anything that transpired that evening,” is not entirely true. Ben Terris, a reporter with The Washington Post, said he witnessed the incident.
On Thursday in an article in The Post, Terris wrote, “I watched as a man with short-cropped hair and a suit grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the way. He was Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 41-year-old campaign manager.”
The Trump campaign quickly canceled a scheduled interview with Terris, citing “scheduling conflicts.”
The story has the potential to become a PR nightmare for Trump; Fields is scheduled for an exclusive interview on ABC’s “World News Tonight” tonight and “Good Morning America” on Friday.