Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Friday he is pleased with the Palm Beach County attorney's decision not to prosecute him for assault charges in connection with an incident involving former Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields, but insisted that he tried to call her to clear the air that night.
"It should never have gotten to this point," Lewandowski told CNN anchor Chris Cuomo on the
"New Day" program."That night — and this was never reported — but I called Michelle Fields, because I didn't know what happened, honestly.
"And the interaction with Michelle Fields lasted the sum total of about three seconds of my entire life. I never met her before, and the only time I've ever interacted with her is on that video tape."
He said the call came after he read Twitter posts from Fields' boyfriend, Jamie Weinstein, a senior editor for The Daily Caller, but he didn't hear back, and "to this day I've never heard back from Michelle."
Further, Lewandowski told Cuomo, Fields exaggerated the whole thing because "she wanted to inject herself into making it a story," and he and others tried to reach out to get to the bottom of the issue.
Lewandowski praised Trump for remaining loyal to him, and for his "dedication to his staff and to me specifically, because a lesser person, another politician, would have terminated me on the spot. I'm so thankful to Mr. Trump for his loyalty to me."
Also in the interview, Cuomo pressed Lewandowski about Trump's decision to hire veteran strategist Paul Manafort to manage the front-runner's convention strategy, but Lewandowski said that he does not answer to Manafort, but to Trump.
"I work for Donald Trump and everyone knows that," he answered. "Look, [a] campaign is about growth, and we cannot be successful in this campaign if we don't grow.
"Paul Manafort is a great, well-respected operative who has a proven record of going out delegate hunting and making sure we've got the best political operation in place. That's Paul's role."