A Florida Republican Party spokesman told Politico that Donald Trump campaign campaign manager Corey Lewandowski “misled viewers” during a Sunday morning TV interview.
Lewandowski claimed that Florida GOP Chairman Blaise Ingoglia, a [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] supporter, has the authority to appoint nearly a third of the state’s delegates.
“The chairman of the party of Florida, who is an avid and outward supporter of Marco Rubio, gets to appoint 30 of those delegates,” Lewandowski said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Now, I understand those are the rules but Donald Trump won. … And now, you’ve got a person who is supporting Marco Rubio who gets to appoint 30 of the 99 delegates.”
The state GOP chairman in Florida does not, however, “appoint” delegates, but can recommend 15, rather than 30, of its 99 delegates to the state’s executive committee. Trump beat Rubio by 19 points, not 23, as Lewandowski insinuated.
“We have no idea what Mr. Lewandowski is talking about,” Wadi Gaitan, the state GOP spokesman, said in a statement to Politico. “The State Party and our Chairman have been consistently clear that we have and will continue to remain neutral during this process. It is unfortunate that Mr. Lewandowski went on national TV and misled viewers with inaccurate statements both on process and substance.”
Anonymous sources told Politico that some on the Trump team did not like Lewandowski’s comments, seeing them as hurting up a relationship the campaign was in the midst of building.
“Corey goes on national TV to talk about how he didn’t really commit battery on a woman — a terrible topic for the campaign to have out there — and then he makes it even worse by getting his facts wrong and pissing off the chairman in Florida when he didn’t need to,” a campaign official reportedly said.