John Jefferson
MSNBC host Ari Melber threatened Donald Trump campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski with a defamation lawsuit during a heated spat live on air on Wednesday night.
Lewandowski, who joined Trump’s presidential campaign team just two weeks ago after he was fired from his campaign in 2016, appeared on Wednesday’s episode of The Beat to speak about the Republican nominee’s stance on abortion, RFK Jr’s endorsement, and vaccines.
But, surprisingly it was a different topic of discussion that led to a fiery exchange, after the campaign advisor targeted Melber for his reporting about the Republican National Convention last month.
Days after the failed assassination attempt on Trump on July 13, Melber cited a New York Times article touching on the “large white bandage” on the former president’s right ear.
“On the first night of this convention, Trump was his own biggest prop,” quoted the attorney and journalist.
He then added in his own words that the moment was “an image for political mobilization, a spectacle for this candidate who, we know is, by his own admission, obsessed with assorted spectacles.”
Melber highlighted to his interviewee that he was quoting an article and not speaking in his own words.
“It was a New York Times quote about how he had become such an important figure in rebounding from what was a horrific assassination attempt,” he said, while Lewandowski repeatedly tried to read out what he claimed Melber said.
“Let me read it to you,” Lewandowski said.
“Corey, I said I’d address it. I’m gonna finish,” he continued. “Fox News, many viewers may not know about this, but apparently you do, and some do. 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.”
Unsatisfied, Lewandowski pushed further. “So, you didn’t say, ‘This bandage was a prop, a spectacle from a candidate who’s obsessed with spectacles’?”
“I did not say that. That is a false quote,” replied Melber.
“I have it right here,” continued his guest.
Standing firm, Melber told him had a “false quote.”
Equally stubborn, the response was, “you absolutely said it.”
Repeating that he had a false quote, Melber warned the campaign advisor that “I’m putting you on notice.”
“What you have is a false quote. 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. But I understand that you’re working off the internet, which has a lot of false information,” he said.
Lewandowski, with raised eyebrows, claimed again that he had quotes suggesting Melber made the comment himself “right here.”
Melber ended the chat telling him “I wish you luck with that… we gave you time.”
The Independent has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.
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