“This shit just sucks,” said the former spokesman for Breitbart. He is quoted in an article in HuffPost today by Ryan Grim. Kurt Bardella resigned his position over the “news” site’s response to the assault on their own reporter, saying it had “become untenable” for him personally to continue, as he couldn’t represent his client 100%.
The money quote is so important:
"There is this escalating pattern of behavior that's only happening at Donald Trump events. It's incredibly dangerous. His rhetoric is unmistakable and it is calculated and it is intentional," Bardella said.
Further developments in the story:
- Police confirmed that the reporter, Michelle Fields, filed a complaint against Trump campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski.
- Breitbart is front-paging its responses today to this moving story. The latest post are frames from C-SPAN footage that show Lewandowski reaching towards something (or someone), but do not show Fields or Lewandowski touching her.
Okay, he’s reaching towards her...no shots of anyone else reaching, though. It’ll be interesting if a clearer shot emerges, and Breitbart’s latest response indicates the news org thinks that could happen.
Let me add that this kind of harrassment has been rising for awhile. In 2006, the George Allen campaign shoved a left-leaning reporter/blogger to the ground and into a glass door. They also roughed me up a bit at an event in Charlotte, VA during that campaign — other reporters formed a circle around me to help. Much appreciated...I’m 5’3”, 60 years old, while the bully was a young guy about 6’3” or so.
I can say that this kind of behavior is utterly unacceptable...but there’s probably few (if any) people who would disagree with that on this site! My husband thinks large numbers of silent protesters should show up at Trump rallies wearing brown shirts.