The morning after Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields published her account of being manhandled by Donald Trump’s campaign manager, one of her colleagues took to Twitter to publicly cast doubt on her story. “I’ve been reporting for Breitbart at Trump rallies and no one ever grabbed my shoulder and everyone was nice,” Patrick Howley wrote Thursday morning, reacting to Fields’ story of getting pulled down by Trump’s manager, Corey Lewandowski. “I think the reporter whose shoulder allegedly got grabbed should release video of the incident,” he added, without naming Fields directly. Howley has since deleted the tweets, but their sentiment adds to the fact that the notoriously Trump-friendly conservative news outlet has only offered a mild rebuke of Lewandowski’s behavior.
UPDATE: Howley has been suspended indefinitely by his employer. “Patrick Howley was speaking for himself and not for Breitbart News. Senior management at Breitbart News believes his comments were inappropriate and has decided to suspended [sic] him indefinitely effective immediately,” a Breitbart spokesperson wrote.