Elections

Trump’s former campaign manager doesn’t know why he was fired

By ELIZABETH KOH

ekoh@mcclatchy.com

June 20, 2016 01:51 PM

Donald Trump let go of his campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, news outlets reported Monday. Gerald Herbert AP

In his first comments since being fired from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, Corey Lewandowski said he did not know why he was fired as Trump’s campaign manager. But Lewandowski, speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash Monday, remained fiercely loyal to the candidate, vowing he would still “do everything I can” to make sure Trump is elected president in November.

“Things change as a campaign evolves,” he said, calling working for Trump “a privilege.”

“If I can [help] from outside the campaign, that’s also a privilege,” he added.

Lewandowski said he heard the news in “a nice conversation with Mr. Trump” and that a friend from the office led him out of the building Monday morning. Reports suggested that friction with other staffers, including recently hired political veteran Paul Manafort, might have contributed to Lewandowski’s firing, and that Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared had lobbied for his departure.

Lewandowski denied those reports Monday. He insisted he and Manafort worked together “amazingly well” and called the people he worked with on the campaign his friends. He also praised Ivanka as “a great asset to the campaign” and said he had always had a “great relationship with the family.”

Despite Lewandowski’s statements, Trump’s New York state campaign director Michael Caputo had celebrated openly on Twitter earlier that day when news of Lewandowski’s firing broke.

June 20, 2016
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Lewandowski dismissed Caputo as “a volunteer” for the campaign, not a full-time staffer.

Even without him, Lewandowski said, the campaign would prosper. “The money is pouring in,” he said, adding that he expects the campaign might employ more traditional methods like television advertising as the general election draws closer.

Lewandowski will still play a role at the convention in Cleveland in July where Trump will formally claim the nomination. He remains chairman of New Hampshire’s 23 convention delegates, and state GOP officials told the Associated Press that “at this point the delegation remains unchanged.”

The former campaign manager said Monday he still intends to vote for Trump.

Despite no prior national campaign experience, Lewandowski piloted Trump’s campaign through a crowded primary to his crowning as the presumptive nominee. He had spent several years in New Hampshire politics before signing on to Trump’s campaign last year, which then was viewed as a nearly impossible bid for the nomination. But Lewandowski, who juggled the details of the campaign, largely let Trump be Trump, allowing the brash businessman to catapult to frontrunner status with controversial statements that appealed to supporters seeking a plain-spoken, politically incorrect candidate.

Nor was Trump the only one dogged by controversies. Lewandowski butted heads repeatedly with other staffers, Politico reported in May. He also had a fractious relationship with reporters, even allegedly grabbing a Breitbart News reporter in March when she tried to ask Trump a question after a press conference. Though Lewandowski denied it, a security video showed him grabbing her by the arm and Lewandowski was charged with one count of battery. Trump vowed at the time to stand by his campaign manager, and the Palm Beach County state attorney eventually declined to prosecute him, citing a lack of evidence.

Trump’s standing in national polls has recently dropped as the field turns to a general election matchup with presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. But Lewandowski insisted in the interview that he was still proud of the campaign he had helped run, even with his abrupt departure.

“I have no regrets when it comes to this campaign,” he said.