Michelle Fields is scheduled to be on “Good Morning America” Friday morning.
Updates below…
11:48 – Video of Trump saying that he believes the incident didn’t happen. “I think she made it up.”
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11:34 – After the CNN debate, GOP front-runner Donald Trump denied the incident happened.
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11:30 – Michelle Fields challenged Lewandowski to take a lie detector test.
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WASHINGTON D.C. March 10, 2016 – Breitbart News Network CEO and President Larry Solov released the following statement in response to the Donald Trump campaign’s attacks on Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields:
“The Washington Post just published 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. We are disappointed in the campaign’s response, in particular their effort to demean Michelle’s previous reporting. 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.”
7:12 – Politico posts the audio. Transcript is below.
6:56 – Fields: “I wasn’t going to show pictures of my bruises…until he came out and basically called me a liar.”
6:40 – Michelle Fields on ABC News
WATCH: @MichelleFields tells @TomLlamasABC: Donald Trump should “imagine if I was his daughter” https://t.co/4a4MQ0JnoT
6:32 – Trump Spokesperson Katrina Pierson defends Corey Lewandowski on Fox News but says Breitbart News is correct to stand by Michelle Fields.
Earlier – The statement was a response to the Trump campaign’s flat-out denial of the incident and a subsequent tweet from Lewandowski disparaging Fields’ history as a reporter.
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Here is Washington Post reporter Ben Terris’s eyewitness account of the incident:
When Donald Trump descended into the crowd after speaking Tuesday night, the instinct to defend kicked in.
As security parted the masses to give him passage out of the chandelier-lit ballroom, Michelle Fields, a young reporter for Trump-friendly Breitbart News, pressed forward to ask the GOP front-runner a question. I watched as a man with short-cropped hair and a suit grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the way. He was Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s 41-year-old campaign manager.
Fields stumbled. Finger-shaped bruises formed on her arm.
“I’m just a little spooked,” she said, a tear streaming down her face. “No one has grabbed me like that before.”
She took my arm and squeezed it hard. “I don’t even want to do it as hard as he did,” she said, “because it would hurt.”
Here is a Fields’ account of events and her Tweet to Trump campaign manager Lewandowski:
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The Washington Post reiterates Ben Terris’s account of events:
I spoke briefly with Terris after the statement and both tweets had been posted, and he reiterated that he clearly witnessed Lewandowski grab Fields’s arm as she tried to question Trump on Tuesday — no doubt in his mind.
Politico publishes what it says is a transcript of audio of the event:
Din of people talking, clanking of glasses, snippets of conversation, reporters telling one another to ‘move up a little’, greeting each other, saying ‘good to see you’ saying ‘OK good quote then’, then clearly action picks up as cameras start clicking.
Fields: “Mr. Trump, you went after the late Scalia for affirmative action, do you — are you still against affirmative action?”
Voice (allegedly Corey Lewandowski): “Excuse me, thank you.”
A few moments later (noise of the room can be heard)…
Terris: “You OK?”
Fields: “Holy sh*t.”
Terris: “Yea he just threw you down.”
Fields: “I can’t believe he just did that that was so hard. Was that Corey?”
Terris: “Yeah, like, what threat were you?”
Fields: “That was insane. You should have felt how hard he grabbed me. That’s insane. I’ve never had anyone do that to me from a campaign.”
Terris: “Can I put that in my story?”
Fields: “Yeah, go for it — that was really awful. That’s so unprofessional.”
Terris: “He really just almost threw you down on the ground.”
Fields: “He literally went like this and was grabbing me down. I don’t even what to do [about] what he just did to me. Oh my God, that really spooked me that someone would do that.”
Terris: “What threat were you?”
Fields: “Nothing. I was asking about affirmative action.”
Terris: “And he probably knows you, right?”
Fields: “Yeah, I don’t understand. That looks horrible. You’re going after a Breitbart reporter, the people who are nicest to you?”
Terris: “I know, I’m going to put it in my story.”
The two stop talking. Din/noise of people talking, glasses clinking continue through end of the recording.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC