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Trump campaign manager charged with battery after video evidence emerges

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Donald Trump with some of his supporters
Donald Trump with some of his supporters

So there is some news about the Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski’s assault of journalist Michelle Fields.

Here is what the Trump campaign manager claimed after the assault occured:

She's totally delusional, she's a stupid ugly bimbo
The Trump Campaign smearing and mocking women again

Trump himself backed Lewandowski’s story up.

The Daily Wire has a video posted where Trump says the attack never happened:

Upon being apprised of Fields’ accusation, here was Trump’s response:

“Nobody saw it happened. Nobody complained….I think [she] made it up.”

In this interview on the TODAY show, Trump clear says “She made up this story” and “She’s got no evidence”:

Basically, Trump thought he could cover up what happened by repeating the lies over and over and insulting and smearing the people who told the truth. And this refusal to admit fault and apologize went on and on and on.

The Washington Post reported:

He retweeted news stories casting doubt on Fields’s story, aided by the fact that the only footage that existed was, at best, sketchy. (He was also aided by exaggerations of Fields’s original claim; at no point was it suggested that she’d been pulled to the ground.)

Police in Jupiter appear to have obtained surveillance footage from inside the ballroom where the event and the incident occurred. There’s no question that Fields was not, in fact, “delusional.”

The video clearly shows Corey grabbing Michelle’s arm and jerking her away from Trump, which resulted in bruises on her arm.

Here is an eyewitness corroboration of Michelle Field’s initial report, reported by Ben Terris in the leftist Washington Post:

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 Republican 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.”

The leftist Washington Post reports on the video, and the charge of battery:

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump defended his campaign manager as a “very decent man” Tuesday, hours after the staffer was charged with battery in Florida for allegedly grabbing a reporter and yanking her away from Trump.

Corey Lewandowski, 42, faces one misdemeanor count of battery as a result of the March 8 incident. He voluntarily went to police headquarters in Jupiter, Fla., and signed paperwork ordering him to appear in court May 4.

The police also released a video of the primary-night news conference, taken from the security cameras at Trump’s own golf club. It directly contradicted what Trump and Lewandowski said about the incident in the past.

They had asserted that Lewandowski never touched the reporter, Michelle Fields.

In the video, he does — grabbing her hard enough to pull her backward.

In the past, campaign staffers have been fired for far less. But Trump did not dismiss Lewandowski on Tuesday, and neither apologized. “I don’t discard people. I stay with people,” Trump said.

It was an extreme example of Trump’s approach to campaigning, one apparently based on the idea that the only mistake in politics is to apologize.

After news of the criminal charge came out, Trump didn’t apologize – he went right back to trying to smear Fields as a delusional liar.

As the day went on, Trump offered increasingly strident defenses of Lewandowski. All ran counter to his earlier statements that the contact never occurred. Trump conceded that Lewandowski had touched Fields but implied that it was Fields’s fault for “grabbing” at the candidate — although the photo Trump posted didn’t show a grab but rather the reporter brushing the candidate with the back of her hand.

Then Trump wondered whether he could file charges against the reporter.

And then, at the end of the day, Trump was back to implying that Fields had lied about the incident — if the grab was as bad as she said, he said, why hadn’t she screamed?

“How do you know those bruises weren’t there before? I’m not a lawyer,” Trump told reporters on his plane, referring to finger-shaped bruises that Fields showed to the police. “Wouldn’t you think she would have yelled out a scream or something if she has bruises on her arm?”

In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Tuesday, Trump said that Lewandowski was merely protecting him against a potential, unidentified threat.

“She grabbed me and she had something in her hand. I don’t know what it was,” he told Hannity. “It looked like it could have been a pen. But you know, from the standpoint of where we are, who knows what it is.”

Ben Shapiro notes in this interview that slandering women is is a pattern for the Trump campaign:

The Daily Wire concludes:

Trump supporters have accused virtually every powerful anti-Trump conservative woman of some nefarious sexual activity with a rival candidate. And of course Trump himself has attacked prominent media females including Dana Perino and most egregiously Megyn Kelly (“blood coming out of her wherever”). Some of those attacks are purely political and within normal boundaries. But many of them are far more personal, obviously. This is a pattern, now, not merely a few isolated events.

Previously, I blogged about how Trump had attacked Heidi Cruz because she is supposedly not as pretty as his supermodel wife (wife number three). This seems to be a pattern that Trump has – to insult women publicly in order to shame them for opposing him.

Trump lies all the time

Earlier this week, Trump tried to argue that ads placed in Utah by a Super PAC that does not support Cruz were actually Cruz’s fault. He went on mainstream media everywhere, and blamed Cruz for the ads. That turned out to be another lie, that was disproved by sources on the right (The Weekly Standard) and the left (The Washington Post) and every source in between. Trump lied again. This is what he does. If he’s not insulting women, bragging about his penis, or giving childish answers to serious policy questions, then he’s probably lying. He’s not fit to pump gas or pack bags at a grocery store. He has one accomplishment in life – being born to a rich father. That’s it. And he used that inheritance to live a life as devoid of Christian convictions and conservative actions as could be.

For a quick 6-minute listing of some of Trump’s previous lies, please see this video featuring Ben Shapiro, who recently resigned from the Trump-supporting Breitbart News (following the Michelle Fields assault):

I would like to think that some Trump supporters would wake up to reality, but my experience with most of them is that they believe what they want to believe, regardless of the evidence. Whenever I present facts to them, they have some excuse why they get to retain their positive view of Trump.

Trump supporters cannot be persuaded with facts. They make decisions about who to hire as President with their feelings. They measure a man by his confidence, instead of by his record of accomplishments that are relevant for the job for which he is being interviewed. It’s like Americans have lost the ability to make a moral assessment of a man – they just want to choose based on feelings. We are truly living in the age of moral relativism and postmodernism.

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News

Scott Walker endorses Ted Cruz for President, Cruz trails Trump by 1 in California

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker endorses Texas Senator Ted Cruz
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker endorses Texas Senator Ted Cruz

The big news, which was reported everywhere, is that Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who was my first choice in the primary early on, has endorsed my current first choice in the Republican primary: Ted Cruz.

The Washington Times reports:

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker endorsed Sen. Ted Cruz for president Tuesday, giving Mr. Cruz a major boost ahead of the April 5 GOP primary in the Badger State.

“I am proud to endorse Ted Cruz,” Mr. Walker said on WTMJ radio. “After a lot of time looking at speeches, looking at the records, looking at what the candidates not only say but what they have done in the past, it was an easy call for me to support Ted Cruz.”

Many Republicans in recent weeks who have endorsed or supported Mr. Cruz have cited stopping GOP front-runner Donald Trump as part of their calculus. But Mr. Walker said he wanted to make sure he was supporting someone and that he wasn’t against something or someone.

Mr. Walker, who called Mr. Cruz a “constitutional conservative” capable of taking on special interests, said the Texas senator is best positioned both to win the GOP nomination and defeat Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in the fall.

Mr. Walker said he got to know Mr. Cruz a bit better during the campaign.

“He is a decent man, he loves his family, he loves his wife — he adores his children,” Mr. Walker said. “He loves his country. He and I are both preacher’s kids, so I certainly can appreciate and feel strongly about the impact that his father had on him as a minister.”

[…]In a statement, Mr. Cruz said Mr. Walker has been “an outstanding leader in the conservative movement.”

“Gov. Walker courageously stood up to special interests and won in a bitter fight in Wisconsin,” Mr. Cruz said. “His leadership has made a profound impact on the people of Wisconsin and I welcome his advice on how we can unite the Republican party and defeat Hillary Clinton in November.”

Mr. Cruz, along with Mr. Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, are in Wisconsin this week trying to build support ahead of the state’s primary next Tuesday.

Mr. Walker said he does anticipate campaigning with Mr. Cruz ahead of the primary next week.

Here’s the actual radio recording of Walker endorsing Cruz (4 minutes):

This endorsement will help Cruz a ton in Wisconsin, because Walker has a very high approval rating among Wisconsin Republicans:

“While Walker’s approval numbers have hovered below 40 percent statewide in polling after his exit from the 2016 race, his rating among Republicans is 85 percent, according to a Marquette University Law School poll taken last month. And his actions still attract attention from conservatives across the country.”

And more:

Walker was viewed favorably by 88% of all Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (a total of 9,725 voters) surveyed by Marquette between 2012 and 2014 — and unfavorably by just 10%. His popularity is highest on the right, but his negatives are low among almost all Republican groups:

  • he has a 95% favorability rating among “very conservative” Republicans, a 91% favorability rating among “conservative” Republicans and a 78% favorability rating among “moderate” Republicans (pooling Marquette’ s 27 surveys since 2012).
  • he has a 96% favorability rating among Republicans who like the tea party and a 75% favorability rating among Republicans who don’t like the tea party.
  • he has a 90% favorability rating among Republicans who are frequent churchgoers (Walker is the son of a minister and an evangelical Christian) and an 85% favorability rating among Republicans who seldom or never go to church.
  • he has a 92% favorability rating among Republicans who are opposed to abortion (Walker is staunchly “pro-life”) and an 86% rating among Republicans who favor abortion rights.

“It does bolster his claim to unify the party and appeal across lines,” says Marquette pollster Charles Franklin, who provided the polling data. While moderates and tea party opponents give Walker his lowest ratings among Wisconsin Republicans, “even they are three-quarters favorable,’ says Franklin. “They’re just not at 95%.”

Cruz is doing well in other state polls, too. In a poll of likely voters in deep blue California, conducted by the radically leftist Los Angeles Times, Cruz trails Trump by 1 point.

The Hill reports:

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump holds a razor-thin lead over rival Ted Cruz in California, according to a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times statewide poll.

Among likely June primary voters, Trump leads Cruz by just 1 point, 36 to 35 percent. John Kasich falls far behind, at 14 percent.

In all, about 75 percent of voters who were surveyed in California had an unfavorable view of Trump. Among Republicans, 43 percent had an unfavorable impression, while 51 percent had a favorable view of the front-runner.

Why is Cruz surging in the polls? Well, I think part of it is that people are realizing that Donald Trump is in no way, shape or form a conservative – not in his personal life, not in his political record. He’s been a Democrat all his life, and he’s a Democrat playing a Republican now. But I think the change in poll numbers has something to do with Trump’s constant stream of abuse against women, and in particular, against Heidi Cruz, as I blogged about before. Women voters are turning away from Trump.

But what can Ted Cruz do to convince those women voters who won’t vote for Trump to vote for him instead? That question was asked of Cruz in a town hall forum last night on CNN.

Watch Cruz respond to her:

There is a lot about his family background described in his bookI do think that you can look at a person’s family history and choice of spouse to find out more about them. Ted Cruz married a skilled, accomplished, hard-working woman – Heidi Cruz. And his mother studied math and then got a degree in computer science from Rice University.

Obviously, I think that women should stay home with young children when they arrive – that’s what is best for the children and for the marriage. But it helps a man a lot when the woman who makes that decision to put family first has a good education, good experience and maybe even some savings to help with the downpayment on the first home. And I have to say that Heidi Cruz is doing a great job of helping her husband with this election. Her education and skills are assets, not liabilities.

News

Georgia governor sides with big business and gay rights lobby against religious liberty

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Gay activist vandalizes pro-marriage sign
Gay activist vandalizes pro-marriage sign

The Republicans in the Georgia House and Senate authored and passed a bill which would protect the citizens of Georgia from being forced to affirm and participate in same-sex marriage ceremonies, as has happened in other states like Washington (florist), New Mexico (photographer), Oregon (baker) and New York (property owner).

The bill went to the governor’s desk, and he vetoed it – siding with the big corporations and the gay activists.

The Washington Times reports:

The influence of the entertainment and business lobbies were powerfully felt Monday when Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal knuckled under to a tidal wave of pressure by vetoing a religious liberty bill.

[…]He vetoed the bill after several major corporations, including Walt Disney Co., the National Football League and Intel, made clear that it would impair their ability to do business in Georgia.

A spokesman for Disney… said the company would “plan to take our business elsewhere should any legislation allowing discriminatory practices be signed into state law.”

The NFL hinted that the measure could threaten any Atlanta bid to host a Super Bowl. Other companies that urged Mr. Deal to veto the legislation included Apple, Time Warner and Salesforce.

The bill that was vetoed was re-written to remove almost all the religious protections in the original bill.

Just as an aside, big corporations are also threatening North Carolina for preventing men from using women’s washrooms, and vice versa:

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican, has invited the censure of several blue-chip corporations by signing into law a bill that says sex-specific public restrooms and changing facilities must be used according to biological sex, not a person’s preferred gender identification.

The bill was passed in a single-day special session to strike down a Charlotte city ordinance to the contrary and prevent any other local government from following suit.

[…]Several companies based in North Carolina, such as PayPal, Bank of America and Dow Chemical have denounced the law, while the National Basketball Association is threatening to move the 2017 All-Star Game, now scheduled to be played in Charlotte, in the wake of the legislation.

This is the 4th time that a state has backed off of defending religious liberty against the gay rights activists who put the right of gay people not to be offended above the right of religious people not to violate their conscience by performing actions that they believe are immoral. It happened before in Indiana, Arizona and Arkansas, and now Georgia.

I found two great articles by two articulate defenders of religious liberty, David French and Ryan T. Anderson, to respond to Deal’s decision.

Ryan T. Anderson at the Daily Signal:

The bill that the Deal vetoed was the result of a series of compromises that significantly watered down the original version. It did not offer protections to bakers, florists and similar wedding professionals, and it adopted a very narrow definition of faith-based organizations, covering only churches, religious schools, and “integrated auxiliaries”—the same unacceptable definition used by the Obama administration to exclude the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Yet liberals demagogued these very limited protections—and got the governor to veto it.

David French at National Review:

The Georgia bill that Deal refused to defend was modest in scope, protecting the right of clergy to solemnize marriages consistent with their religious beliefs, protecting the right of faith-based institutions to use their property and resources to advance their religious mission, protecting their rights to hire and fire employees on grounds consistent with religious belief and practice, and protecting a person’s free exercise of religion from a “substantial burden” unless the protected person was engaged in “invidious discrimination on any grounds prohibited by federal or state law.”

In other words, the bill as drafted could not be used to “bring back Jim Crow,” nor could it offer any person, outside clergy and faith-based employers, any effective defense against the enforcement of state anti-discrimination laws. It wouldn’t block a single gay marriage. It wouldn’t deny a single gay person access to the marketplace. Instead, it would merely offer a bare minimum of legal protections to Georgia citizens who are already confronting anti-Christian bigotry and discrimination.

That small amount of protection was too much not only for Apple, Disney, Salesforce.com, and a host of multinational corporations who are quite comfortable doing business in places like the People’s Republic of China and Saudi Arabia.

French has a solution to the problem of Republican leaders siding with corporations over the people who elected them:

Donald Trump, of course, has probably given less than nine seconds of thought to religious liberty. He’s been too busying enjoying the full benefits of the sexual revolution to think even for a moment about the conflict between sexual hedonism and religious freedom. Ted Cruz, however, has been stalwart in defense of the faithful. He is the anti-establishment politician who actually understands the role of faith in our national history and culture and understands the direct threat from the “social justice” left. Cruz would call Disney’s bluff.

Indeed, and I wrote about Cruz’s strength on the religious liberty issue. If this is your issue, then Cruz is your candidate.

 

There is supposedly a First Amendment right in this country that protects religious liberty and conscience from coercion and threats. There is no such protection in Constitution from being “offended” when someone disagrees with you on a moral question.

So what do we learn from this? What I learned is that I need to start thinking about states to live in where I can find a way to work and earn money without having to have my conscience violated by people who think that their views on moral issues are so correct that they need to force me to agree with them using fines and imprisonment. And it’s clear from the past that the correct state will be a state where there is a conservative governor, a conservative House and Senate, and no big multinational corporations who cave in to the demands of gay rights lobbying groups like the Human Rights Campaign. Indiana, Georgia, Arizona and Arkansas are off my list. Especially Georgia.