CNN Hires Notorious Jerk as a Political Commentator

By Stassa Edwards | June 23, 2016 | 6:45pm

Politics

In an attempt to broaden their coverage from missing airplanes, CNN has hired former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Politico reports that Lewandowski has been given a “salaried position” that will make him “exclusive to CNN, effective immediately.” CNN’s Brian Stelter confirmed Politico’s report on Twitter.

Lewandowski was fired from the Trump campaign on Monday, alleged after Trump’s children led a “coup” to remove the notoriously difficult (and probably misogynistic) aide. Perhaps most ironical is CNN’s embrace of an individual who has been uniquely and openly hostile to the media. In addition to being fired, Lewandowski is best known for having battery charges filed against him by former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Those charges were later dropped, but the incident prompted a series of deep dives on Lewandowski’s prior behavior.

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In March, BuzzFeed reported (emphasis ours):

In recent interviews with more than half a dozen sources who have worked with Trump’s top aide, Corey Lewandowski, the strategist was accused of pushing a CNN reporter who tried to ask the candidate a question; physically confronting an aide for a rival campaign in a post-debate spin room; publicly shouting threats over the phone at a restaurant; making sexual comments about female journalists; and calling up women in the campaign press corps late at night to make unwanted romantic advances.

All in all, a truly stellar resume for a newly minted member of the media. Congratulations to CNN who, in a desperate attempt to catch up to Fox News’ ratings, will apparently hire almost anyone willing to yell incoherent sentences that include the name “Donald Trump” at an increasingly pitiful Wolf Blitzer.

There’s no doubt that the women of CNN are looking forward to working with a sensitive intellect like Corey Lewandowski. After all, he’s the kind of guy that goes the extra step and reaches out to his female colleagues in the middle of the night. What woman wouldn’t want to work with a guy like that?

Update: At CNN, Stelter writes that Lewandowski’s hiring is “bound to be controversial,” but argues that his “perspective might be uniquely valuable given that he was Trump’s right-hand man.”

Image via Getty.