In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Donald Trump, a plentiful field of dung piled into the shape of a presidential candidate, defended his campaign manager, who is charged with assaulting a reporter. He did that by suddenly claiming the reporter tried to grab him, and then suggesting the bruises on her arms came from something else.
All of this would count to normal, non-sociopathic people as proof of a violent incident, but Trump is a special breed. He told reporters onboard his plane Tuesday that Fields was to blame, then asked “How do you know those bruises weren’t there before?”
“She was actually, if you look at her… she’s grabbing at me and he’s acting as an intermediary and trying to block her from doing that,” Trump says, adding that Fields was “running up and grabbing and asking questions, and she wasn’t supposed to be doing that.”
BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski took this fairly jaw-dropping video of Trump suggesting that Fields’ bruises were totally mysterious:
“I don’t know if they were bruises from that,” he said, in response to a reporter pointing out Fields was bruised. “Why? Who said they were bruises from that? How do you know those bruises weren’t there before?”
“That’s what the police…” a reporter responds, trailing off.
“I don’t know what the police said. How do you know those bruises weren’t there before? I’m not a lawyer. She said she had a bruise on her arm, to me, if you’re going to get squeezed, wouldn’t you think you would’ve yelled out a scream or something, if she has bruises on her arm? Take a look at her facial expression. It doesn’t even change. So you say bruises on her arm, how did they get there? Who put them there? I don’t know that he put them there?”
Trump added that “no jury would convict a man and destroy a man’s life” over the video of the incident.
Lewandowski previously claimed he had not only never touched Fields, but also never met her:
Trump, a craven liar and bad person, also told the reporters aboard the plane that he deeply respects women.
Both Lewandowski and Fields were scheduled to be interviewed on Fox Tuesday night, with Fields slated to be interviewed by frequent Trump target Megyn Kelly. Both have abruptly cancelled their interviews this afternoon.
Trump with Lewandowski, left, March 15, 2016. Image via AP.
