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More Turmoil at Breitbart News – Fields and Shapiro Quit

More Turmoil at Breitbart News – Fields and Shapiro Quit

Website publishes then removes bizarre attack on Shapiro

This story continues to get uglier. To catch up on the Michelle Fields/Trump Campaign/Breitbart News saga, see here, here, and here.

Sunday night. Breitbart News’ editor-at-large, Ben Shapiro, along with reporter, Michelle Fields, resigned. Breitbart’s Spokesman resigned last week.

Fields alleges that Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s campaign manager, manhandled her after asking Trump a race-related question. Lewandowski and the Trump campaign deny it. Since the allegations were made public, Breitbart News has seen internal turmoil over whether to defend Fields, and if so, to what extent.

Buzzfeed broke the story of the resignations Sunday night, including Shapiro’s resignation statement, which reads in full:

As a close personal friend and mentee of Andrew Breitbart’s, it saddens me tremendously to announce that as of 9:00 p.m. Pacific Time, I have resigned from Breitbart News as editor-at-large. I met Andrew Breitbart when I was seventeen years old and remained his friend until his tragic death; I signed on with Breitbart News two weeks before Andrew’s death because I believed in his mission.

I am proud of what we accomplished in the years following his death, fighting back against the leftist media and debunking the left’s key narratives. I have many good friends at Breitbart News, including editor-in-chief Alex Marlow and editor-at-large John Nolte, and I admire CEO Larry Solov for his dedication to ensuring a financial future for Andrew’s widow, Susie, and his four children.

Andrew built his life and his career on one mission: fight the bullies. But Andrew’s life mission has been betrayed. Indeed, Breitbart News, under the chairmanship of Steve Bannon, has put a stake through the heart of Andrew’s legacy. In my opinion, Steve Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda, to the extent that he abandoned and undercut his own reporter, Breitbart News’ Michelle Fields, in order to protect Trump’s bully campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, who allegedly assaulted Michelle. I spoke with Michelle the night after the incident. She told me her story. That story was backed by audiotape, eyewitness testimony from The Washington Post’s Ben Terris, physical bruises, and video tape.

Both Lewandowski and Trump maligned Michelle in the most repulsive fashion. Meanwhile, Breitbart News not only stood by and did nothing outside of tepidly asking for an apology, they then attempted to abandon Michelle by silencing staff from tweeting or talking about the issue. Finally, in the ultimate indignity, they undermined Michelle completely by running a poorly-evidenced conspiracy theory as their lead story in which Michelle and Terris had somehow misidentified Lewandowski.

This is disgusting. Andrew never would have stood for it. No news outlet would stand for it.

Nobody should.

This truly breaks my heart. But, as I am fond of saying, facts don’t care about your feelings, and the facts are undeniable: Breitbart News has become precisely the reverse of what Andrew would have wanted. Steve Bannon and those who follow his lead should be ashamed of themselves.

Shapiro and Fields aren’t the only Breitbart staffers rankled by the site’s unwillingness to stand by Fields. Leaked messages showed long-time staffers expressing their concern to management, saying they were ‘ashamed‘ of how the incident had been handled.

After Fields and Shapiro resigned, Breitbart published a bizarre attack on Shapiro, using his father’s pseudonym.

Screen Shot 2016-03-14 at 10.26.55 AM

The post contained personal attacks on Shapiro and an implied threat of legal action for Shapiro speaking out critically of Breitbart News:

Shapiro, a Harvard lawyer and member of the State Bar of California, apparently violated virtually every clause in his employment contract during an appearance on The Kelly Filelast Thursday evening.

The post eventually was removed (Google Cache here), but not before generating thousands of comments. The link now redirects to an apology from the site’s editor-at-large and in-house counsel, Joel Pollak, who penned the original post.

Breitbart Joel Pollak Statement

Following the incident, Politico interviewed Shapiro:

In an interview Shapiro denied he was looking to work for Fox News and that he has “never received” a job from the network. Shapiro, who is a Ted Cruz supporter, also said he did not violate his employment contract as the piece originally noted, since he is an “at will” employee.

The unusual piece, which can be read in full here, was even more shocking for Shapiro because it was posted under the pseudonym his father used while writing for the site — William Bigelow.

Shapiro’s father, the writer David Shapiro, also resigned from Breitbart on Sunday evening.

According to the younger Shapiro, his father was hired under the pseudonym to protect his safety since the younger Shapiro said he received so many death threats for his writings.

“Breitbart put this under his byline because they knew I’d have to out him,” Shapiro said in an interview on Monday, adding that by linking to his profile with the California State Bar the site exposed personal information, though that information is outdated. “The fact they would use my father’s pseudonym in order to attack me just exposes how despicable they are.”

More to follow, for sure.

UPDATE 3 p.m. (by WAJ): Politico reports:

Two more staffers for Breitbart have resigned from the company, citing the website’s pro-Donald Trump stance.

National security correspondent Jordan Schachtel and associate editor Jarrett Stepman sent their resignations to management on Monday afternoon.

“The company no longer resembles the ideals that inspired me to start writing for them three years ago. Some of us have been fighting behind the scenes against the party-line Trump propaganda for some time, but without any success, unfortunately,” Schachtel said in a statement. “Breitbart News is no longer a journalistic enterprise, but instead, in my opinion, something resembling an unaffiliated media Super PAC for the Trump campaign. I signed my contract to work as a journalist, not as a member of the Donald J. Trump for President media network. As recent events have proven, there is no longer a point in trying to reform the company from within, so I must step aside with my dignity intact. I wish everyone at Breitbart the best, and hope the site can redeem the legacy of its founder under much-needed new management.”…

Stepman said in his statement: “Breitbart News has always been open about being a grassroots, conservative publication, but in my opinion we are working with or perhaps even taking direction from a presidential campaign, which is unacceptable journalistic behavior. I believe Breitbart News is becoming less of a news site and more of a propaganda organization dedicated to the Trump campaign.” He added, “Breitbart News has also now openly embraced the ‘Nationalist/Populist’ viewpoint, which is in direct opposition to limited-government conservatism that channels the philosophy of the Founding Fathers. It is becoming impossible for conservatives like myself to continue working for the organization, which now relentlessly pushes a perspective directly at odds with my fundamental beliefs.”
“I believe the integrity of Breitbart News, my own personal integrity, and the legacy of Andrew Breitbart are at stake, which is why I had to resign,” he continued.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/03/breitbart-staffers-resign-jordan-schachtel-jarrett-stepman-220730#ixzz42uBx7OIH
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Comments

Drama Queens out at Breitbart. Let’s get back to news and not 24/7 coverage of Field’s someone kiss it better boo boo.

    RickCaird in reply to DaMav. | March 14, 2016 at 3:41 pm

    You are right. Can you see a real reporter complaining about such a big bad bruise. What a wimp.

BBN’s loss. I haven’t followed it closely but it truly seems they are correctly voting with their feet.

The site is too full of malware to read, so I’ll be happy to read Shapiro elsewhere.

    tobiathan in reply to Andy. | March 14, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    The Trump-haters are really turning up the heat.

    No doubt by late summer the “real” bombs will be dropped in an attempt to derail Trump.

    It won’t work.

So now a nothingburger story ostensibly—albeit unconvincingly—about Trump becomes a news story about … the news.

With each escalation it becomes less relevant, and even less interesting.

    Milhouse in reply to tom swift. | March 14, 2016 at 12:26 pm

    It is a yuuge story, about the spirit of raw thuggery that has long been evident in the Trump campaign. That the campaign manager is himself a common street thug, and that the candidate backs him in this, just shows the candidate’s nature. Trump may not be Hitler, but he’s certainly Mosely. Trump rallies are no better than Mosely’s blackshirt rallies, and the fact that they were confronted by red thugs in Chicago doesn’t change that, any more than the Battle of Cable Street made the blackshirts appear any less thuggish.

      PhillyGuy in reply to Milhouse. | March 14, 2016 at 12:46 pm

      Take your tinfoil hat off. The latest video shows Fields lied completely.She and Shapiro should have been fired.

        Mercyneal in reply to PhillyGuy. | March 14, 2016 at 1:46 pm

        Um, very wrong. Do not attack the victim. She did not lie.

          The victim in this case is Lewandowski and Breitbart News. They are the victims of Fields LIES. That is clearly established by latest video that shows Lewandowski walking past Fields and nothing happens. NOTHING.

          Gunstar1 in reply to Mercyneal. | March 14, 2016 at 3:30 pm

          Gary, watch the video again. Something does in fact happen. Her height changes relative to the molding on the far wall. She was moving forward but is the pulled backwards and shoulders twisted as if someone grabbed her arm and pulled her back and downwards.

          Which is exactly what she claims to have occurred.

          Gunstar1, I do see that her head turns down, but that could just be caused by her putting the breaks on her forward momentum as Lewandowski passed in front of her.

          Nothing happens that in any way matches what she described happened. There is clearly no stumble or loss of balance. Yet she said she was almost thrown to the floor. She said she almost fell down. Clearly she didn’t even suffer a momentary loss of balance or the slightest wobble. Clearly she did not almost fall to the floor. Yet that is what she claimed happened.

          Clearly from the video nothing happened that matches her description or is in the least news worthy.

          Gunstar1 in reply to Mercyneal. | March 14, 2016 at 8:10 pm

          She said “jolted backwards” and he “yanked me down”

          The video shows her suddenly going down and backwards.

          BTW, Terris was the one claiming she was nearly thrown to the ground. If you want to count lies regarding this it would be Corey saying he never touched her when he clearly did.

        spartan in reply to PhillyGuy. | March 14, 2016 at 5:45 pm

        Questions for you ….

        When you are saying “the latest video”, are you also saying the previous videos show the assault?
        Are you also saying there are other videos out there but you are content to go with the one that agrees with what you think happened?

        Shouldn’t you demand to see every video before you become positive about what happened?

        The funny thing, just a mere apology from Trump’s campaign manager would have ended this matter.

        ThomasD in reply to PhillyGuy. | March 14, 2016 at 9:17 pm

        Explain her lie.

        Lebandowski denied ever touching her. That was a lie.

      I agree wholehardly with your assertion that “raw thuggery” exists where The D campaigns. Would your conclusion be different if I conclusively proved to your reasonable satisfaction that 98% of the thuggery being shown is the result of Soros-funded outside agitators?

    Mercyneal in reply to tom swift. | March 14, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    Then why read this story and comment on it? Shoving a woman and giving her bruises is not a “nothing burger.”

“Drama queens may be out” may be a good way to put it down – but a lot of people liked Ben Shapiro on the Republican side for his willingness to wade in and take the liberal enemy head-on.

It does Trump good to have Breitbart’s positive coverage, but the more it becomes a subject of ridicule – much as we all ridicule NY Times for its coverage of Hillary and liberals – the more it hurts him with leaners.

My advice to the Trump true believers is find common ground vs. excommunicating everyone who has a disagreement at the margins.

It may help to include a slightly broader coalition in the general election, unless you already have it all figured out.

    PhillyGuy in reply to PrincetonAl. | March 14, 2016 at 12:50 pm

    Except that he backed a liar. Vociferously. And he is completely wrong.

      Mercyneal in reply to PhillyGuy. | March 14, 2016 at 1:48 pm

      So were you there? Washington Post reporter, who had been speaking to Lewandowski just moments before, was. Will take his word over yours any day.

        DaMav in reply to Mercyneal. | March 14, 2016 at 6:50 pm

        The Washington Post would never never never lie to attack a Republican front runner.

        /s

          Accidentally down-twinkled you trying to hit “reply” — sorry! Was just going to agree that that was a red light for me at the very beginning, a WaPo reporter who conveniently popped up to become, in his own reporting, the hero. He absolutely had a vested interest, much more so than Michelle Fields, in siccing everyone on Trump’s campaign manager. But I do now believe that Corey did grab her, and made a yuuuuge mistake in totally denying ever seeing her let alone touching her. A brief, non-committal apology & explanation (it was a crowded room, things were hectic, we were trying to get Donald out safely & efficiently, I’m so sorry if I inadvertently grabbed you while trying to clear a path) would have made this go away in about 5 minutes.

      Arminius in reply to PhillyGuy. | March 14, 2016 at 6:56 pm

      The irony is rich, PhillyGuy. In those three short sentences you’ve described every Trump supporter who comments here.

Did Shapiro really leave to go to Buzzfeed?

——-

Was he always a liberal infiltrator, or is he just white knighting for the hoaxing, attention seeking Fields?

This looks like standard growing pains for a start-up. BB was started by one person, who died, and then it grew quickly. That growth scenario usually leads to shakeups on the way, with lots of hurt feelings.

I hope both the management and former staff of Breitbart will learn from these events. One lesson is that failing to nail down the facts before publication leads to embarrassment, and another is that nailing down the facts when you are emotionally involved is most difficult. Both management and the departing staff would do well, after they have cooled down, to review the situation, take the lessons learned, and plan what they will do if and when the situation arises again (it will, if they are lucky and have long, interesting careers).

Best wishes to each and every one. I have enjoyed the site and its writers, and look forward to seeing them all prosper in the future, together or apart.

impeach obama | March 14, 2016 at 12:39 pm

I have commented on various websites for years.

With the advent of the Trump phenomenon, the level of invective by the Trump supporters even not willing any arguments which show their ‘hero’ in less then hagiographic manner leads to visions attacks.
Trump is a showman and knows how to manipulate the rubes.
How else, can anyone explain the endorsement by Palin, the mother of a disabled child to a man who mocks the disabled.
The endorsement by religions leaders to a foul mouthed man who never seeks forgiveness from G-d ?
From Carson, who he accused of being a fraud ?
From veterans, when Trump avoided the draft and has disdain for POWs and calls them losers.

He has been able to make a deal with the devil and spreads fairy dust in everyones eyes.

If Trump wins the nomination, we will have 2 democrats running for POTUS.

Now I await the flaming.

If you give me thumbs down, have the guts to tell me why or be a coward.

    Kondor77 in reply to impeach obama. | March 14, 2016 at 12:56 pm

    It’s funny, how it all started with Obama. The idea that a President could, or worse, HAD TO be infallible has done more to destroy our republican system than anything else. Everything he says is the absolute truth and by God – no one else had said it before. Oh but he changed his mind on X, Y, Z issue? No problem. Just evolving. The coincidence is absolutely lost on his supporters. Or maybe they just don’t care and want to watch the world burn.

      impeach obama in reply to Kondor77. | March 14, 2016 at 1:36 pm

      You got that right, how are we going to overcome this ?
      Or is the new reality ?

      I know that the education system is FUBAR, but aren’t there enough older people that did have a proper education and are capable of critical thinking ? Maybe not.

    MrMichael in reply to impeach obama. | March 14, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    I agree with most of what you said, IO… but I thumbed you down for that last sentence. Calling people a coward for thumbing you down? The whole post before that implies that you are better than that… emotional blackmail is SO off-putting.

      impeach obama in reply to MrMichael. | March 14, 2016 at 1:39 pm

      The coward remark was directed not at disagreement, which is ok, I am not right in all my assessments.
      The remark was directed at people who thumb down, without explanation as to why. NOT YOU, you explained.

    Wisewerds in reply to impeach obama. | March 14, 2016 at 1:59 pm

    The invective coming from both sides is ridiculous.

hightecrebel | March 14, 2016 at 1:43 pm

@impeach obama

A lot of veterans back him because we don’t really care about McCain. A little respect for being a POW, but he burned most of it with the way he’s acted the past 15-20 years (or more, that’s just all I personally have been paying enough attention for). And as far as the draft, many of us are post-draft, and couldn’t care less about avoiding it.

And a ‘showman’? Sure, but no worse than the failed Bush flunkie who saw a chance to hitch himself to the tea party movement for his own advancement. How does that whole ‘responsibility starts at the top’ apply to the culture of the Cruz campaign?

It’s not so much that everyone loves Trump’s ideas, I’m a Paul supporter myself, but I don’t trust any of the others at all, and Trump at least SAYS something. I have faith the more extreme stuff will be tempered by congressional inaction, since they never manage to accomplish anything anyways.

    impeach obama in reply to hightecrebel. | March 14, 2016 at 1:54 pm

    I am a Viet Nam era Vet, didn’t serve in country though.

    Trump attacks McCain: ‘I like people who weren’t captured’
    I don’t much like McCain either and there is plenty to criticize _BUT_ look at what Trump said – an attack on ALL POWs.

    he took advantage of people not liking McCain to attack all POWs, no excuse for that. – Especially from someone who bought hois way out of serving with a ‘heel spurs’ excuse, he is definitely a heel.

    impeach obama in reply to hightecrebel. | March 14, 2016 at 2:00 pm

    Vietnam/Southeast Asia
    Prisoners of War (Returned Alive)
    http://www.homeofheroes.com/valor/09_POWs/pow_rvn_detail.html

    These are the people that Trump doesn’t like.

M.Fields either lied or is one of the campus snowflakes for whom any discomfort or regret is justification to get a guy expelled for rape.

Video shows what she and Terris charge is a hoax. Shapiro’s mistake was buying it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NoMPxomjiw

“Video Emerges of Corey Landowski Yanking Michelle Fields, Like She Says; Trump World Claims, Fantastically, Vindication”

http://ace.mu.nu/archives/362133.php

    That video clearly shows NOTHING HAPPENED. She didn’t lose her balance didn’t jerk, didn’t dip, didn’t even change her expression.

      Arminius in reply to Gary Britt. | March 14, 2016 at 5:31 pm

      You’re blind. But then you’re a Trump supporter so I repeat myself.

      There’s an older man in a very dark suit standing still in the far background. As the short clip opens Fields is clearly moving forward relative to the stationary man. Lowandowski grabs her and she clearly stumbles as he checks her forward motion. The way she whips her hair around clearly shows she’s surprised. She appears to wince although the picture quality is poor. Because of the force Lowandowski applied to the tug on her arm she is moving backward relative to the stationary man as the clip ends.

      It’s not the crime of the century but Fields never said it was. All she wanted was an apology. It also fits her version of events. Anybody with eyes can see this. Anyone with eyes can see Lowandowski clearly lied when he said he never touched her.

      Anyone with eyes wouldn’t be supporting a con-artist like Trump, though.

      Arminius in reply to Gary Britt. | March 14, 2016 at 5:39 pm

      On the other side of the the ledger, Gary, you did put “nothing happened” in all caps which makes for a very convincing argument. It almost made me question the visual evidence.

      Excellent technique; very Trumpian. I can see why you’re voting for the guy. All caps just makes things seem truthy-er.

      Keep up the good work.

      The good thing about there being a video is that people can view it and see for themselves. In my opinion they will clearly see that your posts are the usual bullshit and drivel we have all come to expect from you.

      NOTHING HAPPENED, nothing happened. She never wobbles or loses her balance in any way. She claimed she was almost thrown to the ground. She claimed she lost her balance so badly she almost fell to the ground. The video clearly shows she never lost her balance in slightest bit and all that happened is she slowed down as Lewandowski passed in front of her.

      It is not at all clear Lewandowski touched her in any way.

      Since Lewandowski passed directly in front of her it is difficult to reconcile how, if Lewandowski was the one to grab her arm, she did not see him do it. Yet her statement is she didn’t see who did it and was told who did it by Lewandowski. That also makes absolutely no sense just like the rest of her claims.

      Rut Row,

      Howard Kurtz on anti-Trump Bret Baier says new video shows NOTHING HAPPENED and Arminus is a blind cruzbot monkey who sees what he wants to see.

      Not my words it is word for word what Howie just said on FNC. Well almost word for word.

      Trump was asked to comment and he said Arminus is a LOSER and STUPID, but he assumes a nice person.

    Arminius in reply to Rusty Bill. | March 14, 2016 at 4:57 pm

    I’m sorry, Rusty Bill. I was going for the reply button and my cursor jumped and I accidentally gave you a thumbs down.

    Ignore it, people; as of the time and date of this comment he’s still at zero negatives.

    This line at Ace’s makes me think how much alike Trump and his supporters are.

    “And… so of course Trump World is claiming this always proves they were 100% right when they were claiming the 100% opposite.

    And thus, as with Bill Clinton and the Dress, the defense moves from “never happened, she’s a delusional stalker” to “come on, it’s no big deal.”

    Check out boris. He’s already straddling that line, getting ready to shift to the “no big deal” defense while still smearing the victim.

    “M.Fields either lied or is one of the campus snowflakes for whom any discomfort or regret is justification to get a guy expelled for rape.”

    Very Trumplike, boris. No matter if she’s lying and it never happened or, ok, it happened, but the vindictive broad is trying to ruin poor Corey Landowski’s life by practically accusing him of rape, the chick is always the real criminal.

    You do realize, boris, this is exactly how Trump is going to treat you and the rest of his marks? Like some dumb broad.

    When Mexico doesn’t pay for that wall that Trump never intended to build he’ll still say he did what he said he was going to do all along. If you complain that he caved on immigration and border security he’ll say you’re lying, and then it will be no big deal so get over it. The smears and insults will pile on in layers at each step of the process.

    But we all know you and the rest of his supporters won’t complain if he doesn’t do a single thing he said he was going to do. For you guys it’s the magic of Trump. The sheer magic of Trump is going to Make America Great Again. You don’t know how he’s going to do it, and the secret is he doesn’t have a clue how to do it, but what he does know is this. If you’ve bought his sales pitch this far after he’s destroyed every reason to vote for him by running his mouth, then there’s nothing he won’t be able to spin away after he becomes President.

    It’s a great sales pitch. Thousands of people bought into the same sales pitch when the sheer magic of Trump was going to make them rich if you attended his University. Of course they’re now suing him for fraud.

UPDATE 3 p.m. (by WAJ): Politico reports:

Two more staffers for Breitbart have resigned from the company, citing the website’s pro-Donald Trump stance.

Good for them. It’s heartening to see actual conservatives who will act on the courage of their convictions.

He added, “Breitbart News has also now openly embraced the ‘Nationalist/Populist’ viewpoint, which is in direct opposition to limited-government conservatism that channels the philosophy of the Founding Fathers.

And I agree with this completely. When Breitbart named his main site “Big Government,” I don’t think lobbying for more Big Government was his goal.

As it is, the site should probably just drop the Breitbart brand and go with TRUMP’S VERY AMAZING NEW YUUUUUUGE GOVERNMENT as their new name.

Shapiro is in love with the woman no matter what she does.

Michelle Fields lost me when she claimed that Corey Landowski “violated” her.

No, Michelle. You weren’t raped. Somebody in a post-speech political scrum, somebody you admitted you never saw grabbed you. You were not “violated”. This was not Tahrir Square and you ain’t Lara Logan.

IMO Fields has played what appeared to be a pull back into an assault she called the second worst thing that ever happened to her – the first being the death of her father. Talk about being a drama queen.

Is she such a novice reporter that being brushed away from someone who you are bugging with a question is assault? Seems pretty sexist for her and Ben to be getting in such a twit for BB not demanding Trump throw his campaign man under the bus as payment for laying his hands on the delicate Ms. Fields.

She has gotten more face time on TV than ever before – this is a win for her.

    It’s not just an “assault” (Actually, legally, it’s a ‘battery’, whomever grabbed her, but I digress), according to the victim, it’s a “VIOLATION!”

Breitbart unwavering support for the racist,misogynistic,vulgarian known as Donald Trump is causing all of this. This is excellent. Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving bunch. I hear trump maybe charged with inciting a riot.

Breitbart and Trump are getting their just desserts.

    Glory be. If you live long enough, you just might be able to agree with M1.

    Hey buddy, you could have stopped with “misogynistic, vulgarian” and I would have up-voted you. Why play the race card? ‘Diamond and Silk’ in SC and Ben Carson would tend to disagree with you.

    Get back to me with the unemployment rate of Black youths in America and tell me why Barack Hussein Obama is not the racist here. Why does he choose(illegal)Brown people over American Black people? Is that just his racist white side acting that way?

And while I’m at it, let me say I’m no fan of Donald Trump. However, this little nothing burger, tempest in a tea pot episode illustrates the level of disinformation and outright delusion by Trump’s supporters and foes alike.

We have covered one point well here: There is not a single video in existence that shows Corey Landowsky “grabbing” Michelle Fields. Not One.

Mr. Landowsky said he didn’t touch her. Maybe he didn’t and maybe he did. But if he did, he is just a lying douche bag working for one. Wonderful for job security.

    And how many times in manhandling or assaults ever recorded by a video? Like almost never?

    Yet people are routinely convicted on eye-witness testimony alone. In this case, the video, audio transcript, arm bruises, and testimony of another witness all point to CL’s needless infliction of pain.

    In contrast, we have CL’s claim to have never touched her…while all the evidence points that he sure as heck did.

      Query: Would a male reporter whined like a little drama queen if he had been grabbed by the arm?

        Arminius in reply to Redneck Law. | March 15, 2016 at 11:52 am

        When did the Trump fans become enthusiasts of the trend that gender is all in your mind? Maybe that’s why I’m a Cruz guy. I’m not going to tell a girl she needs to man up.

        I’ll leave that to you Trump fans. Me? I like girls just fine as girls.

          Arminimus, if you have read all my posts in this thread, you will see that I have been critical of the reporting of this incident by Trump foes and supporters alike. (And I have disclosed often on this Blog that I’m voting for the Canadian. So, don’t assume things . . .)

No longer read Breitbart, it has turned into another Salon or Huffpo. Simply a waste of my time.

*lol* I think this incident is staged by michelle…
….she’s being paid a lot of money by someone (like George Soro’s) to try to make Trump look bad.

how convenient that they take this approach at a time when Trump leads all other candidates on the GOP ticket by double digits.

…you all know it’s this type of stuff that turns people away from Ted Cruz and Rubio more than it harms Trump, right?

All this chatter and everyone missed the most important point of these resignations – a tipping point was reached, after which those at Breitbart who were unhappy with the organization’s political slant have decided that’s it’s more important to be journalists. The allegation of a Fields/Lewandowski incident was just a match set to dry tinder. The fact that there was tinder ready to burn, and that it actually ignited, is the story here.

When do you think that’s going to happen with anyone at CBS, MSNBC, or CNN? When do you think we’re going to see Sanders supporters break ranks from their Hillary news networks?

NC Mountain Girl | March 14, 2016 at 9:32 pm

Too bad a once fine site has become infested with those who cannot find their own brains using both hands.

It will be so much fun to say, I told you so when Trump betrays his supporters. And he will, because Trump betrays all his promises.

The Trump apologists and minimizers are ignoring the telling aspects of this incident. Had Trumps campaign manager acknowledged and immediately apologized for the rough handling it would have been a “nothing burger”. But he did not.

What he (and Trump) did do was to choose to become emblematic of the brown shirt, low brow, and authoritarian image of the Trump movement – in other words they just lied and then lied some more in the face of growing evidence to the contrary. Trump suggested it was all made up, CL pretended he never reached for, or touched her.

And while the Trump supporters were smearing her, Breitbart went over the cliff with smearing its former employees for quitting – (at this point FIVE staffers have quit.).

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/14/breitbart_falls_apart_michelle_feilds_and_ben_shapiro_quit_as_the_conservative_site_taunts_its_former_employees_in_defense_of_donald_trump/

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/03/breitbart-resignations-donald-trump

This is no longer about one incident – its about a civil war over conservatism and the integrity of conservative journalism. Its a meltdown of the right, and a war between the Trumpolini populist authoritarian nationalists, and those that believe in conservatism.

And rest assured, Trump will leave the right divided and in ruins.

Mountain/molehill. I’ve been “assaulted” worse in the aisles at WalMart.

One thing in all this that women, even michelle, need to remember. If a man admits that he did anything to a woman, even unintentionally, he opens himself to a lawsuit. Women need to realize asking for a simple apology isn’t just so simple anymore.

I listened to Ben on his local show this morning, and i appreciate his wonderful defense of women, but women are leaving men in precarious positions these days. They can’t win, treat me as equal; treat me as a woman.