After his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was charged with misdemeanor battery yesterday for grabbing the arm of reporter Michelle Fields (which was caught on video multiple times), GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump alleged during a town hall style forum on CNN that Fields may have "had a little bomb" with her, justifying Lewandowski physically taking her away from him. Fields was holding a pen at the time.
"She went through the Secret Service, she had a pen in her hand, which Service Service is not liking because they don't know what it is, whether it's a little bomb," Trump said. "It could've been a knife. It could've been just a pen, which is very dangerous."
Trump also tweeted this earlier in the day:Why is this reporter touching me as I leave news conference? What is in her hand?? pic.twitter.com/HQB8dl0fhn
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2016
A few thoughts:
1) As Trump acknowledged, all reporters at campaign events, like regular attendees, go through Secret Service security before being allowed into a venue. The security is thorough, with a back check, wanding and a metal detector walk through. Fields wasn't carrying a knife, she was carrying a pen and if the Secret Service thought it was dangerous, they would have taken it from her at the security checkpoint before entering the room.
2) I've been to a number of debates and in the spin room where Donald Trump willingly walks through a sea of reporters holding pens, phones, recorders, microphones, cameras and other "little bomb" objects. In fact, he did so in order to smear Fields as a liar who "made up" the story about being bruised by Lewandowski.
3) For weeks and immediately after the incident earlier this month Lewandowski, the Trump campaign and Trump himself all claimed nothing happened. Lewandowski called Fields "delusional," said he "never touched" her and claimed he had never met her. So they've now moved from "Fields is delusional and nothing happened" too "well, Lewandowski saved the day because Fields may have had a little bomb."
The assertion that Michelle Fields, who went through Secret Service security to get into the Trump campaign event, had a "little bomb" in the form of a pen (an essential tool of reporters who use it to conduct journalism) is simply absurd. But, considering the source the accusation shouldn't be surprising.