Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s campaign is denying that there was a physical altercation between Trump’s campaign manager and a reporter during a press conference earlier this week.
“The accusation, which has only been made in the media and never addressed directly with the campaign, is entirely false,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks said in a statement, according to ABC News:
{mosads}”As one of dozens of individuals present as Mr. Trump exited the press conference, I did not witness any encounter,” she said. “In addition to our staff, which had no knowledge of said situation, not a single camera or reporter of more than 100 in attendance captured the alleged incident.”
Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski reportedly grabbed the arm of Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields during a press conference earlier this week and yanked her down. Fields said in a piece published Thursday that she almost fell to the ground, adding she was “shaken” by the incident.
The Washington Post’s Ben Terris, who was present, told Fields that Lewandowski had pulled her.
Hicks said in the statement that Fields and Terris had never met Lewandowski.
“There are often large crowds aggressively seeking access to Mr. Trump, and our staff would never do anything to harm another individual, while at the same time understanding that Mr. Trump and his personal space should never be invaded,” Hicks said.
Hicks said Fields’s claims should have been voiced directly to the campaign and not via Twitter.
“We leave to others whether this is part of a larger pattern of exaggerating incidents, but on multiple occasions she has become part of the news story as opposed to reporting it,” Hicks said.
“Recall she also claimed to have been beaten by a New York City police officer with a baton.”
In 2011, the Daily Caller reported that Fields, then a reporter there, was struck by NYPD officers when covering Occupy Wall Street’s “Day of Action.”
Fields responded to Hicks on Twitter Thursday afternoon, tweeting a picture of her bruises and saying, “I guess these just magically appeared on me.”
Breitbart CEO and President Larry Solov released a statement Thursday afternoon calling on Trump campaign to apologize to Fields.
“We are disappointed in the campaign’s response, in particular their effort to demean Michelle’s previous reporting,” he said.
“Michelle Fields is an intrepid reporter who has covered tough and dangerous stories. We stand behind her reporting, her techniques, and call again on Corey Lewandowski to apologize.”
Solov also pointed to a Washington Post report that he said gave a “very detailed, first-hand account from their senior reporter Ben Terris who is familiar with the campaign, the personalities involved, and was an eyewitness to the incident.”
In the piece, Terris said he had plans to interview Lewandowski and three other early campaign staffers the day after the press conference. But Lewandowski canceled his interview with Terris.
Lewandowski attempted to discredit Fields later Thursday in a series of tweets.
He called her an “attention seeker” and implied she may have exploited previous incidents for her own gain.