DC Trawler

Trump Reminds Breitbart Who’s Boss

Donald Trump

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Jim Treacher Blogger
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What would you say if a Hillary Clinton staffer assaulted a Media Matters employee in front of witnesses, admitted it to another Media Matters employee, and then lied about it and maligned the Media Matters employee he assaulted? Would you tell me to drop it?

This is all disheartening to write, because I know some of these people. But here goes:

On Tuesday night, Trump aide Corey Lewandowski allegedly assaulted Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields at a campaign event. According to Lloyd Grove, Lewandowski admitted to Breitbart reporter (and noted Trump groupie) Matthew Boyle that “he did manhandle Fields,” but only because “he didn’t recognize her as a Breitbart reporter, instead mistaking her for an adversarial member of the mainstream media.” In other words, he wouldn’t have hurt her if he’d known she was a friendly.

Boyle has neither confirmed nor denied this, so I’m assuming that’s exactly what happened. Otherwise, he’d be speaking up to defend either his colleague or his candidate.

Also, Breitbart has suspended yet another of their reporters, Patrick Howley, for publicly questioning Fields’ story. So the higher-ups at Breitbart are finally standing up for their own employee who says she was assaulted. Better late than never.

Fields has posted a picture of the bruise she says Lewandowski left her:

So we have a confession, and we have physical evidence. From now on, I’m dropping the “allegedly.” This assault happened.

And how does Lewandowski reply?

And the coup de grâce:

How could it be assault if they were never formally introduced?

And his boss is telling the lie to the whole world:

So now Trump is publicly humiliating a news outlet who has done more for his campaign than any other. He’s putting them in their place: “I’m the boss, and what I say goes. I don’t care about facts and evidence. I don’t care about your reporter. Toe the line, you losers, or it’s war.”

In other words, Donald Trump is treating Breitbart the way he treats everybody else. Did they really think they’d be exempt?

Breitbart is making at least a token effort to fight back. We’ll see how long it lasts.

And Hillary is loving it, because Trump has just given her even more damning footage for her attack ads next October. “Donald Trump hates women. I’m Hillary Clinton, and I approve this message.” And she’ll be right. He really does hate women, or else he wouldn’t protect his underlings who hurt them. This isn’t some dopey menstruation joke. This isn’t insulting a woman’s looks. This is assault.

Trump could’ve made this a one-day story. He could’ve made himself the hero: “Yeah, my guy did this, and I won’t tolerate it. I told him: You’re fired.”

But his ego won’t allow that. It never has, and it never will.

If you can bring yourself to vote for this creep, go right ahead. I’m #NeverTrump for life, and every passing day just gives me another reason.

Update: This is not going away.

Update: And now we have Zapruder 2016. I didn’t figure Breitbart would stand by their own reporter for long, but I didn’t realize it would be this quick.

Update: Great minds think alike, but so do Ace’s and mine.

Update:

Update: On Tuesday, Breitbart PR flack Kurt Bardella told Fields, “Get your boyfriend under control.” Today, Bardella resigned.