MSNBC Host to Trump Campaign Adviser: I May Sue You for Defamation

Corey Lewandowski, a recently rehired campaign adviser for Donald Trump, deflected multiple times when asked by MSNBC anchor Ari Melber why he had deliberately been dishonest to him in a prior interview.

Instead, Lewandowski accused Melber of making certain critical comments about Trump, which Melber denied, to the point where the MSNBC anchor threatened legal action for defamation if Lewandowski continued to do so.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of The Beat, Melber brought Lewandowski’s attention to a September 2019 House hearing that referenced an MSNBC interview he gave that February. In that interview, Lewandowski claimed he didn’t remember Trump asking him to be a conduit to the Justice Department. Yet Lewandowksi admitted to lawmakers he was untruthful, saying he had “no obligation to be honest with the media because they’re just as dishonest as anybody else.”

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After Melber asked Lewandowski why people should believe him now if he’s “lying about other things,” Lewandowski refused to answer.

“Ari, if we’re going down this road, are you going to state that Donald Trump had a bandage on his ear just for a spectacle? Are you going to state that that was false? The guy got shot in the head, and you said the only reason he had a bandage on his ear—I could read you the quote if you want—that you said it was just for a spectacle. So if you want to apologize, Ari—”

Melber jumped in.

“Corey, you’re not answering the question. I know what you’re referring to, and at the end of the interview we can touch base on that, but we’re going to finish this question,” Melber said.

Yet that proved difficult to do, because for the next several minutes, Lewandowski refused to drop it—even as he claimed he was there “to answer questions.”

“You can’t ask me something when you’re not willing to say you were wrong, too!” Lewandowski protested.

Eventually, after Melber said Lewandowski had been “busted” under oath, the MSNBC anchor addressed what the Trump adviser kept bringing up.

On July 16’s episode of The Beat, Melber discussed the effect of Trump’s ear bandage. He first quoted a story in The New York Times by its television critic, who wrote that Trump “was his own biggest prop” at the RNC. The story added that the bandage was “a reminder of mortality, a badge of survival—it was a blank rectangle on which the crowd could read what it wished, and that made it the most potent placard in the hall.”

After quoting those excerpts, Melber offered his own analysis, which fell along similar lines.

“That’s fair,” Melber said then. “A placard for delegates to fill in, an image for political mobilization, a spectacle for this candidate who we know is, by his own admission, obsessed with assorted spectacles.”

Melber’s use of the word “spectacle” was cited in a FoxNews.com article the next day.

On Wednesday, Melber delved into this.

“I quoted a New York Times article that said at the [Republican National] Convention, Donald Trump ‘was his own biggest prop.’ 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 told Lewandowski.

“Fox News, which has been caught in defamation, ran a false piece falsely stating that I said something else that I didn’t say,” he claimed. “So, I stand on that. I stand on the New York Times quote.”

Lewandowski sought clarification: “So, you didn’t say, ‘This bandage was a prop, a spectacle from a candidate who’s obsessed with spectacles?’”

Melber denied it. “I did not say that. That is a false quote,” he said.

After Lewandowksi maintained that he did, Melber repeated that it was “a false quote.”

“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,” he told him. “But I understand that you’re working off the internet, which has a lot of false information.”

Melber then swiftly concluded the interview.

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Later Wednesday night, Lewandowski posted to X his exchange with Melber about Trump’s bandage, along with the clip of Melber’s comments on July 16.

“An MSNBC Host threatened to sue me for defamation tonight for (by definition) the opposition of defamation >> Quoting their own words,” the Trump adviser wrote. “Watch for yourself and let me know what you think.”