Former campaign managers for Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump are denying a report that said they were going to appear together on the speaking circuit.
An advertisement on Leading Authorities, a well-known speakers bureau, promoted Robby Mook, Clinton’s former campaign manager, and Corey Lewandowski, one of Trump’s former campaign managers, as a duo who can “evaluate the current state of the American electorate and where it’s headed.”
Mook and Lewandowski, advertised as an “entertaining pair sure to keep any audience engaged,” would “offer a future-focused look at why Trump won, highlighting the massive demographic shifts at play and what they mean for our country,” a listing on the Leading Authorities website said.
But after reports of the unusual tandem emerged on Wednesday, Mook claimed he was in the dark on the marketing and asked Leading Authorities to remove the listing. He said in a series of tweets that he “had no appointments booked through this firm and am no longer affiliated with them.”
“To set record straight: I never committed to speeches w Corey & didn’t agree to posts on “teaming up”. It was done w/o my knowledge/consent,” he wrote.
Lewandowski, meanwhile, said he “didn’t know anything about it until it went out,” telling a reporter, “I was surprised as you were when you read it this morning.”
Lewandowski said he never agreed to anything like that and has not talked with Mook about it, though he left the door open to future pairings, saying it was common for people on different sides of the political spectrum to get together for paid speeches. Earlier Wednesday, however, he tweeted out news report about the joint speaking engagement.
A representative for Leading Authorities did not respond to a request for comment.
BuzzFeed first reported the speaking agreement.
The paid speaking circuit is a common post-campaign venue for campaign operatives and candidates to cash in. Clinton delivered hundreds of paid speeches in between her time between secretary of state and when she launched her presidential campaign in 2015.
Clinton and Trump’s top aides have not seen tensions cool after the election, so Mook and Lewandowski coming together for paid speeches would have been a rare sight.
When Clinton and Trump’s top brass came together after the election at Harvard University for a post-mortem on the election, insults flew and tensions boiled over.
“Are you going look me in the face and say I provided a platform for white supremacists?” Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s final campaign manager, asked Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton’s communications director.
“Yes,” Palmieri said. “I would rather lose than win the way you did.”
“You guys are pathetic,” Trump adviser David Bossie replied.