Remember Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s former campaign manager who became a household name after he faced charges of battery against then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields? He might soon be in the White House to lead the president’s war room.
According to The Daily Beast, Lewandowski and David Bossie, the Trump campaign’s deputy manager, are believed to be leading candidates to be the “crisis managers” to handle the fallout of scandals plaguing the Trump presidency.
Here are five things you need to know about Lewandowski.
1. Lewandowski worked on a few congressional campaigns prior to the Trump campaign. He worked on Rep. Peter Torkildsen‘s (R-MA) campaign and was the campaign manager for the re-election campaigns of Rep. Robert Ney (R-OH) and Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH). Ney won re-election in a district that leans Democrat, but Smith lost in the primary to John Sununu. In the latter instance, Lewandowski hammered Sununu for going to an American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee fundraiser.
“If that is the type of person Congressman Sununu feels should be contributing to his campaign, then I think that may call into question his views on terrorism,” Lewandowski said. Sununu’s ancestry is part-Lebanese.
2. Lewandowski first became connected to Trump through Bossie in 2014. It was Bossie who suggested that Lewandowski meet the future president; they met at an Americans for Prosperity event, where Lewandowski was working at the time.
“He talks about all the things that he wants to do, and I’m listening, and he’s telling me about what his vision is to change the country, and I’m instantly — just enamored, would be the word,” Lewandowski told The Washington Post.
3. An incident between Lewandowski and Fields made national news during the 2016 presidential primary. As Trump was being escorted out of a campaign event, Fields attempted to ask the future president a question about affirmative action; Lewandowski suddenly intervened by grabbing Fields’ arm and yanking her downward. The Trump campaign proceeded to deny Fields’ allegation and smear her, even as video evidence proved Fields’ story to be correct. Lewandowski did face charges of battery at one point but those charges were dropped due to prosecutorial discretion.
4. Lewandowski was fired from his position as Trump’s campaign manager in June. Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, told her father that she would leave the campaign if Lewandowski stayed on board. Naturally, Ivanka won.
Ivanka had been lobbying for Lewandowski’s ouster for months, but her threat was prompted by allegations of Lewandowski circulating stories that portrayed her husband, Jared Kushner, in a bad light.
5. White House officials are not happy about the prospect of Lewandowksi joining the administration. The Daily Beast quotes one White House official as calling Lewandowski’s potential hiring a “trainwreck” and another saying, “I gagged when I [first] heard that,” since Lewandowski “would be a hothead in a [White House] that needs the opposite.”
More from The Daily Beast:
Since the campaign, Lewandowski has made his fair share of enemies within Trump’s inner circle, especially chief of staff Reince Priebus, who Lewandowski casually trash-talks about in private. Other close Trump aides, such as his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, object to Lewandowski’s style and temperament. The former Trump campaign manager is also openly loathed by Trump’s longtime political adviser Roger Stone, who calls Lewandowski a “cocksucker.”
The sources cited in the article suggest that Lewandowski is more likely to have a role in aiding Trump outside the White House than in it; however, it’s clear that many inside the White House would be displeased at Lewandowski’s hiring.