Trump Still Insists His Campaign Manager Is Innocent of Assaulting Reporter

Gerald Herbert/AP

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Donald Trump is defending his campaign manager to the very end, despite mounting evidence against him.

On Tuesday morning, Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was charged with misdemeanor battery for forcibly grabbing reporter Michelle Fields at an event in Jupiter, Florida, on March 8. A video released Tuesday clearly shows Lewandowski grabbing Fields. But on Tuesday afternoon, Trump took to Twitter to defend the man running his campaign for president—and claim the new footage proves nothing.

This is not the first time the Trump team has denied the incident—indeed, there is a long list of denials and smears targeted at Fields. Lewandowski intends to plead not guilty.

Update 3:15 p.m. ET: Trump suggested later on Tuesday that Fields should be the one facing charges for grabbing him and “shout[ing] questions.”

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

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