MSNBC host Ari Melber had some harsh words for conservative commentator Corey Lewandowski after being questioned about comments he made while covering the Republican National Convention (RNC) last month.
It revolved around Melber’s characterization of Donald Trump a month ago, when he arrived with a freshly bandaged ear days after a failed assassination attempt.
At the time, Melber, 44, said of Lewandowski’s boss, ‘On the first night of this convention, Trump was his own biggest prop. [He] entered the VIP box… a large white bandage on his injured right ear,’ quoting the New York Times.
Later on, Melber added his own spin on the quote, calling the moment ‘an image for political mobilization, a spectacle for this candidate who, we know is, by his own admission, obsessed with assorted spectacles.’
On Wednesday’s The Beat, Trump’s ex-campaign manager – now reinstated as his ‘senior adivosor – questioned Melber about the second assertion and its origin. Denying it was his own, Melber responded by telling his guest was heading toward a ‘defamation situation’.
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‘I quoted a New York Times article that said, at the convention, Donald Trump “was his own biggest prop”,’ Melber told his guest Wednesday.
‘It was a New York Times quote about how he–’
Lewandowski – famously fired by Trump during his 2016 primary – went on to interject.
‘Let me read it to you,’ he said.
Melber, in turn, continued to try to finish his sentence.
‘ –how [Trump] had become such an important figure in rebounding from what was a horrific assassination attempt. Fox News–
‘Let me read it to you,’ Lewandowski, 50, again said – this time causing the progressive on the other end of the remote call to become visibly peeved.
‘Corey, I said I’d address it,’ Melber declared. ‘I’m gonna finish: Fox News,
‘many viewers may not know about this, but apparently you do, and some do,’ he continued.
‘Fox News, which has been caught in defamation, ran a false piece falsely stating that I said something else that I didn’t say.
‘So, I stand on that. I stand on the New York Times quote.’
Lewandowski, however, remained unconvinced, steadfast in his bid to point out the MSNBC staffer’s distorted memory.
‘So, you didn’t say, “This bandage was a prop, a spectacle from a candidate who’s obsessed with spectacles.”
Melber – whose program is the most-watched on MSNBC – replied: ‘Uh, Mr. Lewandowski, I did not say that. That is a false quote.’
‘I have it right here,’ Lewandowski shot back.
Melber, in response, accused the political strategist who last week joined the 2024 Trump campaign as a senior advisor of producing a false quote.
Lewandowski, not swayed, stuck to his guns
‘You absolutely said it,’ he said.
‘What you have is a false quote,’ Melber replied.
‘And if – I’m putting you on notice – if you continue to repeat, falsely, that I said that, you will be potentially in a defamation situation – because I didn’t say that.’
The accomplished anchor went on to concede: ‘But I understand that you’re working off the internet, which has a lot of false information.’
An unamused Lewandowski answered: ‘Well, this is what it said. Right here.
‘I wish you luck with that,’ Melber responded. ‘We gave you time.’
The interview ended there, after a little over 12 minutes.
The return of Lewndowski to the Trump fold comes as part of new campaign to pour cold water on Kamala Harris’ newfound momentum.
Lewandowski He took to the airwaves Friday to reveal what is and is not changing now that he is being brought on board the campaign.
‘We are 80 days from this election and really the truth is people start voting much earlier than that,’ Lewandowski told Martha McCallum on Fox News.
‘We are really only 45 days before the ballots start going out, and so it’s all hands on deck,’ he said, referencing the mail-in ballots that Trump has often criticized in favor of in-person voting. Everybody who wants to be part of the team, there is a spot for,’ he said.
McCallum introduced him as ‘senior advisor,’ then asked for clarification. ‘Something like that I guess. I don’t know if titles matter – the only title that matters is the president,’ he responded. (Trump on Thursday said he would be a ‘personal envoy.’)
‘The president has made the decision to continue to bring members into his team that want to make sure he’s going to be successful,’ he said.
After being fired weeks into Trump’s 2016 campaign just before that year’s convention, Lewandowski went on to praise Trump’s new leadership team, saying he had no plans to look at the books of the operation.
‘It is an addition campaign, not a subtraction campaign,’ he said.
‘I’m honored and humbled the president asked me to come back to bring this campaign to a winning successful election day in early November.’