Revisiting the incident between Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity said video of the incident did not show an “assault.” With a cheering crowd at a town hall style event with the Republican front-runner in Milwaukee on Monday, Trump and Hannity seemed to both agree that Lewandowski’s grabbing of Fields was much ado about nothing.
“I watched the videotape at least 150 times. Did anybody see anything that looked like an assault?” asked Hannity to the audience, who loudly responded in the negative. Lewandowski was charged with simple battery in Florida following the incident between himself and Fields.
Seemingly praising Trump for doing what he implied was the more difficult decision of not acquiescing to critics’ demands to fire Lewandowski, Hannity asked the real estate mogul why he decided to stand by his campaign manager.
“When I saw the tape, first I saw [Michelle Fields’s] statement that she was practically thrown to the ground,” replied Trump, saying he would have fired Lewandowski had events been as Fields had described them.
“How can I fire a man and ruin a man’s life?” asked Trump rhetorically about the prospect of firing Lewandowski, adding that he demonstrated loyalty to his campaign manager candidate just as he would demonstrate loyalty to America as president.
Fields mentioned Hannity in a tweet moments after the aforementioned comments.
Immediately following the town hall’s conclusion, Hannity responded to Fields on Twitter.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.