Patterico's Pontifications

3/9/2016

Report: Trump Campaign Manager Assaults Breitbart Reporter

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:13 pm



But that’s not all.

Please tell me this is not true. Daily Beast:

Fields was walking next to Trump, on his right, when she pointed her recording device at him and asked if he still disagrees, as he said last December, with late Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia’s attacks on affirmative action.

Before Trump could answer, Lewandowski grabbed Fields from behind, taking hold of her left forearm and “yanking her down toward the ground like a ragdoll,” a witness told The Daily Beast.

Fields—who on Wednesday was sporting a purple bruise as a result of the encounter—was shocked and shaken, barely managing to keep her footing as Lewandowski and the Trump scrum headed out the doors, according to colleagues.

Fields didn’t see who had grabbed her. At first, she has told colleagues, she thought it was a Secret Service agent.

“Oh my goodness!” Terris reportedly exclaimed after witnessing the encounter from a few feet behind. “That was Corey!” he told Fields in amazement.

Terris, who declined to comment for this story, has since confirmed to his newspaper that the aggressor was Lewandowski.
Nursing her bruises, Fields quickly recounted the incident over the phone to her longtime boyfriend, Daily Caller journalist Jamie Weinstein, who promptly tweeted:

“Trump always surrounds himself w thugs. Tonight thug Corey Lewandowski tried to pull my gf @MichelleFields to ground when she asked tough q.”

Weinstein followed up with a second tweet: “Say what you will abt Bush or even Obama. They would never tolerate this type of thuggery toward women.”

Fields soon received an aggrieved phone call from [Breitbart PR consultant, Kurt] Bardella, telling her that Weinstein’s tweets were “juvenile,” and “immature,” according to sources, and advising her “to get your boyfriend under control.”

This part is especially distressing:

Meanwhile, as of this writing, Fields had yet to hear any supportive words—or anything, for that matter—from Breitbart executive chairman Stephen K. Bannon or editor in chief Alex Marlow.

Matthew Boyle, however, did call Fields on Wednesday morning to ask how she was doing, the sources said.

Surely there must be more to this. Surely this organization would not treat its own reporter this way!

The worst part of all:

Lewandowski’s explanation to Boyle, said these sources, was that he and Fields had never met before and that he didn’t recognize her as a Breitbart reporter, instead mistaking her for an adversarial member of the mainstream media.

How is that an “explanation”?

Look: Rick Tyler, Cruz’s former spokesman, was fired for retweeting a misleading video — and appropriately so. Now Trump’s campaign manager assaults a reporter, yanking her toward the ground, and bruising her . . . and nothing? This sounds like it could be the subject of a criminal charge, for goodness’s sake!

While the story of the assault by Lewandowski is sourced, I’ll note that this story about the behavior of Breitbart officials is largely based on anonymous sources. I really would like to believe that the parties involved, some of whom I know personally, would not behave the way the story describes. But everyone is clamming up about it, which leaves the story to be shaped entirely by the anonymous sources.

And which is completely bizarre, given the fact that the central figure of the story is the campaign manager for the Republican front-runner.

UPDATE: Corrected to “yanking towards” instead of “yanking to” the ground. Thanks to James B. Shearer.

Terrorist Gunmen Kill American and Wound 12 in Israel; Terrorist Families Can Now Be Rewarded for Martyrdom by Iran

Filed under: General — JVW @ 2:51 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Do you think there might be some correlation between these stories?

January 16: International Sanctions Against Iran Lifted

February 25: Iran Promises to Pay Arab Families for Terror Attacks in Israel

March 8: American Veteran Killed as Palestinians Unleash Attacks in Israel

But don’t worry, folks: Joe Biden is there in Jerusalem right now visiting his “old friend” Benjamin Netanyahu and our Vice-President has condemned the attacks and condemned Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah Party for celebrating them on Twitter. Wouldn’t you love to know if Netanyahu took the opportunity to remind Biden that Israel knew all along that this would be the logical outcome of his boss’s capitulation outreach to the Mullahs?

But hey, beyond that hiccup our new warm relationship with Iran is going phenomenally well, isn’t it?

– JVW

Why Rubio and Kasich Must Be Crushed

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:34 am



Here are some controversial statements: It is more important that Marco Rubio lose Florida than that Donald Trump not win. It’s more important for Kasich to be crushed in Ohio than it is for Trump not to get those delegates.

Trump had a good night last night, but in some ways Cruz had a better one, because of Marco Rubio’s humiliating defeats in various states. Rubio appears to have amassed 2 delegates last night, while Trump appears to have taken 72 to Cruz’s 59. (Kasich won 17.)

Allahpundit asks why Cruz people are throwing water on the idea of a contested convention. As someone who has called for Marco Rubio’s utter electoral humiliation, and believes it is critical that he lose Florida (and John Kasich lose Ohio), let me try to answer.

Thomas Sowell likes to talk about “Stage One” thinking, in which people seek a certain result (Stage One) and fail to think through the consequences (Stage Two and beyond). I think that people who seek to have Rubio win Florida are Stage One thinkers. It will deny Trump delegates! Yay! Helps keep Trump from getting a majority! Yay!

This is Stage One thinking, and last night illustrates the problem. Ted Cruz would have probably won a majority of the vote in Idaho last night and swept the delegates there, but for Rubio. Without Kasich and Rubio, Cruz would have had a chance at Michigan and Mississippi as well.

With no Kasich or Rubio, Cruz would be the delegate leader.

A loss in their home states might be what we need to kick Rubio and Kasich out of this car. If they win, the result in Stage Two is that they’ll keep going, and Rubio especially will continue to suck away votes that should be going to Cruz.

As for a contested convention: let’s face the fact that the Republican party is probably going to lose this election, because it is fractured so badly. But if you want to make that possibility a certainty, concoct a scenario where the guy who is in second place in delegates — or third, or fourth, or nowhere — ends up being the nominee.

Yes, we may well be headed towards a “contested convention” where the delegate leader lacks a majority of delegates. But there will be a strong expectation that whoever is in the lead emerges the winner.

If you’re looking to buck that trend, look ahead to Stage Two. Stage One: your candidate comes from a second or third place position in delegates to be the nominee. What happens in Stage Two?

I’ll tell you what happens. The supporters of the original delegate leader walk. And the nominee loses.

It’s not that I’m against a contested convention per se. I’m against one in which the goal is to vault Mr. #2 or Mr. #3 into first place.

I’m not sure Ted Cruz wants the nomination under those circumstances. I’m not sure I want him to have it under those circumstances. Because when Trump’s voters stay home or vote for Hillary in droves, the “lesson” learned will be that real conservatism kills the GOP.

Ted Cruz must go into the convention the delegate leader, even if he does not have a majority.

It is why Rubio and Kasich must get out. And they won’t do so voluntarily. They must be crushed.


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