An alleged assault by Donald Trump’s campaign manager — and the failure to condemn him by the candidate — amount to “completely unacceptable behavior,” the White House said Wednesday.
Asked about the charging Tuesday of Trump staffer Corey Lewandowski with one count of simple battery by the Jupiter Police Department, White House press secretary Josh Earnest sought to paint the behavior as entirely outside what’s tolerable for a political campaign. And he insisted both Republican and Democratic presidents would condemn Lewandowski if he worked for them.
“I feel confident that neither President Obama nor President (George W.) Bush would tolerate someone on their staff being accused of physically assaulting a reporter, lying about it and then blaming the victim,” he said during the daily briefing. “I’m also confident in telling you that nobody is particularly surprised that’s a behavior that Mr. Trump doesn’t just seem to tolerate, he seems to encourage.”
Lewandowski was charged in Florida Tuesday with assaulting then-Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields. The Trump campaign said he denies the charges and will fight them in court.
Speaking on his plane Tuesday, Trump called his staffer a “fine person” and insisted he wouldn’t fire him.
“I don’t discard people,” the GOP front-runner said.
The White House hasn’t shied from accusing Trump of running a “vulgar” campaign that implicitly supports violence. Obama on Monday accused Republicans of failing to speak out against the ugliness, describing a “deafening silence from too many of our leaders in the coarsening of the debate.”
Earnest said Wednesday that the allegations against Lewandowski reflected a break from agreed-upon norms.
“Assaulting a reporter is wrong. Assaulting women is wrong. And the accusations that have been raised about Mr. Lewandowski’s conduct go directly to those core values,” he said.
Later, Earnest called Trump’s openness to allowing Japan and South Korea to obtain nuclear weapons “incredibly destabilizing.”
Trump made the suggestion during Tuesday night’s CNN Republican town hall.