Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Wednesday did not let up in his criticism of former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, calling her a “very aggressive person” in an attempt to defend his embattled campaign manager, who is charged with simple battery.
{mosads}Trump on “Fox and Friends” offered his view of security footage showing the incident between Fields and his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.
“It shows very little. It shows people walking around. She’s grabbing my arm, she’s not supposed to. She broke through Secret Service. She’s asking questions. She’s not even supposed to be asking questions,” Trump said.
“She’s got a pen in her arm, which she’s not supposed to have. And it shows that she’s a very aggressive person who is grabbing at me and touching me. Maybe I should file charges against her,” Trump said.
Video released Tuesday by the police department in Jupiter, Fla., shows Fields standing next to Trump but does not appear to show her touching the businessman. She holds a pen and phone as she attempted to ask Trump a question after a press conference on March 8 when she was allegedly pulled by Lewandowski, leading to the battery charge.
Trump has gone on the offensive against Fields after his top aide turned himself into police. The campaign has said Lewandowski intends to plead not guilty when he makes a court appearance on May 4.
Fields displayed bruising on her arm on social media and in a television interview the week of the incident. Initially, Trump’s campaign flatly denied the incident took place, with Lewandowski at one point calling Fields “delusional.”
Fox on Wednesday also played remarks from Fields’s colleague, former Breitbart editor Ben Shapiro, on Megyn Kelly’s show the night before, in which Shapiro slammed the Trump campaign for “lying” about the incident. Shapiro said Lewandowski “yanked and bruised” Fields, and noted that the Trump campaign’s narrative on the story had shifted.
“It’s another Megyn Kelly hit,” Trump responded.
When a co-host noted before moving on to another question that the audio played for Trump was not Kelly, the businessman took another shot at the anchor, with whom he has feuded for months.
“Well, it was her show. And frankly, you can have Megyn Kelly,” Trump said.
“She does a great job, she had a debate, and it was the top issue of the day,” co-host Brian Kilmeade said, defending his colleague’s segment from the previous night on Lewandowski.
“Maybe she does a good job for you; she doesn’t do a good job for me,” Trump said, before claiming that “if she wouldn’t report on Donald Trump, her ratings would go down in half.”
“That’s not true,” Kilmeade pushed back. “Her ratings were through the roof before you ran for president.”
“Oh really? And how many times was I on her show?” Trump continued.