After the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, for his alleged battery against former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, he took a victory lap Thursday night on Fox News.
The “exclusive” interview was conducted by Sean Hannity, who has the unique distinction of hosting 41 interviews with Trump without once making news. And the Fox News host gave Lewandowski the same softball treatment that he regularly gives the Republican frontrunner.
Instead of opening with a question, Hannity began by saying the news Lewandowski wouldn’t be prosecuted must be a “big relief” and offered him an opportunity to thank Trump for his loyalty and rail against the “distraction” the whole ordeal became.
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“Are you a little annoyed, angry, upset that they brought it up in the first place?” Hannity asked. Then, after saying he tried to look at the situation “objectively” but after viewing the tape failed to see what all the fuss was about, he added: “I can’t understand that it got the kind of media attention that it actually got.”
The incident in question took place after a speech Trump made last month. Fields, who was then a reporter for Breitbart, attempted to ask the candidate a question as he was walking away. Lewandowski was caught on camera grabbing her arm and pulling her away. Based on the video evidence, authorities in Jupiter, Florida, initially charged Lewandowski with simple battery for the unwanted touching.
Hannity did bring up Lewandowski’s most damning statement after the incident, that he didn’t even touch Fields—an assertion that was clearly disproved by the surveillance tape—but only to criticize the media for making it an issue. “Is that what we’ve gotten to in this campaign?” he asked.
Like his boss, Lewandowski went immediately to a critique of “political correctness”—or “politically correctness” as he put it.
On the possibility of a defamation lawsuit by Fields, Lewandowski said: “People can do whatever they want to do. I think I’m happy that the criminal case is over. I’m glad that the prosecutors in Palm Beach County looked at this and said there wasn’t enough evidence to move forward and get a prosecution.”
With that, Hannity happily moved on to other issues.
