A media interview descended into threats of legal action when a host accused his guest of lying. MSNBC’s Ari Melber recently interviewed Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski and asked why his guest lied to him during a prior encounter. In February 2019, Lewandowski told Melber that he did not remember Trump asking him to act as a conduit between the White House and the Justice Department. A few months later, he said the opposite during Congressional testimony and expressed no regret about lying to journalists because “they’re just as dishonest as anybody else.”
In the recent discussion, Melber asked Lewandowski why viewers should believe him when he had previously admitted to lying, but the guest turned the tables and accused the host of minimizing the assassination attempt on Donald Trump and accusing the former President of using the bandage he wore on his ear at the Republican National Convention (RNC) as a “prop.”
The 44-year-old host insisted that he had merely quoted a New York Times article that said Trump was “his own biggest prop.” Melber later added his own remarks and noted that the image of the former President at the RNC was a call for “political mobilization” and a “spectacle.”
A furious war of words followed about who had labeled the bandage a “prop” and ended with Melber cautioning Lewandowski that he was heading toward “a defamation situation.” He then abruptly ended the interview.
Corey Lewandowski recently rejoined Trump’s campaign team amid a reshuffle that saw other prior advisers brought back into the fold. The campaign expanded its team as Trump fell behind Kamala Harris in the polls, and Republicans worried that the former President was struggling to find a coherent argument against the Vice President. This caused him to question her racial identity and sparked a significant backlash.
Lewandowski was ousted from the Trump team in 2021 following allegations of sexual harassment from a donor. Trashelle Odom accused Mr. Lewandowski of touching her without her consent, stalking her, and using sexually graphic language when communicating with her. Odom and her husband demanded their donations be returned unless Lewandowski was removed from the Make America Great Again PAC.
