The incident occurred on March 8 of this year after a Trump press conference in Jupiter, Florida, when Fields attempted to ask Trump a question about his views. According to Fields,
before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground, but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken.Another reporter, Ben Terris, of The Washington Post, witnessed the event and identified Lewandowski as the man grabbing and yanking Fields away from Mr. Trump. A few moments after the event Terris and she spoke and discussed what had just happened. The conversation happened to be recorded since Fields intended to record her interview with Trump. A part of that discussion is given below verbatim (except for a short ellipsis) from a transcript of the recording.
Terris: “[H]e just threw you down.”
Fields: “I can’t believe he just did that that was so hard. Was that Corey?”
Terris: “Yeah, like, what threat were you?”
Fields: “That was insane. You should have felt how hard he grabbed me. That’s insane. I’ve never had anyone do that to me from a campaign.” ...
Terris: “He really just almost threw you down on the ground.”
Fields: “He literally went like this and was grabbing me down. I don’t even what to do [about] what he just did to me. Oh my God, that really spooked me that someone would do that.”
A short time later Fields published a photo of a bruise left on her arm after the incident.
Probably a simple apology for the offense from Trump, Lewandowski or the campaign would have settled the matter, but apologies don't seem to be in their game plan. Instead, after this was reported, the campaign went into damage control. Everyone in the campaign denied that it happened, and accused Fields of making up the story. This effort was then amplified by Trump's supporters in the media and the Internet.
Hope Hicks, Trump's campaign spokeswoman called Field's integrity into question suggesting that Fields demonstrated "a larger pattern of exaggerating incidents" basing her claim "on multiple occasions she has become part of the news story as opposed to reporting it." Hicks gave as proof a single illustration in which Fields reported being roughly treated by the New York Police Department during her coverage of Occupy Wall Street during 2011. There is little doubt, however, that Fields' report of that incident was accurate, and not exaggerated at all.
Later Lewandowski weighed in and rather than acknowledge what happened, he added to the effort to discredit Fields with this tweet:
However, the article linked in the tweet does nothing to prove that "Fields is an attention seeker." Indeed, the article proves otherwise stating that Fields refused to comment for the article. That is not the behavior of someone seeking attention.Michelle Fields is an attention seeker who once claimed Allen West groped her but later went silent. https://t.co/J86Ej42eYx— Corey Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) March 10, 2016
Trump, never satisfied with his surrogates slide in the mud, added his denials to the mix saying a few days after the event his belief that Fields made everything up.
Even Breitbart, the news site for which Fields wrote at the time of the incident added to the accusations against her. After the original report of the incident, the official line at Breitbart was that she may have misidentified Lewandowski and that it was actually one of Trump's Secret Service protectors who pulled her away. Additionally, Breitbart reporters were told to be careful about what they wrote on the incident effectively squelching any negative press toward Trump about the matter.
Not surprisingly Michelle Fields has resigned from the paper because of its lack of support for her, but several other conservative reporters have resigned as well.
At first, the only public evidence of the event consisted of statements from Michelle Fields and Ben Terris. Skeptics rightly demanded proof and suggested that the absence of video evidence was proof that the allegation was false.
Then several videos surfaced that seemed to show Lewandowski reaching toward Fields, and Fields drawing away from Trump, but the crowd around Trump was so large that important parts of the action were blocked, and the videos could be interpreted a number of ways. However, the videos did show that something happened involving Trump, Fields, and Lewandowski that bolstered the credibility of Fields' charge.
Still the denials and personal attacks against Field continued from Trump and his supporters.
Yesterday however something happened to cause a turn. Lewandowski was arrested by the Florida Juniper police department on a charge of simple battery as a result of a complaint filed by Fields a few days ago. The arrest occurred voluntarily with Lewandowski appearing in compliance with an order from the department.
Apparently the department began to investigate the matter after the complaint and received a security video from the hotel where the incident occurred. The combination of Fields' description of the incident and the security video gave the police enough to charge Lewandowski. Lewandowski has been ordered now to appear before a court of law May 4 for the matter to be judged.
The video from the hotel clearly shows all of the players involved in the incident from overhead. One demerit of the video, however, is that the frame rate is very low; some frames occur 0.5 seconds after the previous frame, and some come a full second after the previous frame. The entire incident from the point that Fields reaches Trump to the time she is pulled away and left behind takes place within six seconds and is seen in 11 frames.
Because of the slow frame rate, it is still difficult to discern exactly what happens. Not impossible, but difficult. The Trump machine takes advantage of that again to cast more doubt on Fields' story, but also to illustrate a new narrative about the event. Now they admit that the event happened (the video belies their earlier story), but they say it was Fields who battered Trump. Oh, the irony! The video doesn't support that theory either.
Here are the pertinent six seconds from the security video:
It goes by fast, does it not? Without knowing what to look for nothing really significant is obvious. So let us take a closer look at the video to see if we can see more than meets the eye at first glance.
First, look at the first frame and identify the principle players.
In the center this image you can see Donald Trump in a dark suit and red tie. To his left is Michelle Fields orienting her upper body toward Mr. Trump but she is walking parallel with Mr. Trump. Her right leg is back, and her left leg is forward.
Behind Trump on his right side is Ben Terris wearing a red checkered shirt with a shoulder strap across his right shoulder. He appears to be looking in the direction of the Secret Service agent I have identified with a dark suit and tie. And to the agents left, already oriented toward Michelle Fields is Corey Lewandowski wearing a dark suit, colored shirt, and a light colored tie.
Notice that there appear to be many Secret Service agents in the picture, both in front and behind Mr. Trump. All of the male agents are wearing dark suits, and, at least, one female agent wearing dark pants and a light-colored coat.
To make it easier to see what happens we will compare congruent frames together alternating between them. The first two frames show changes that occurred over 0.5 seconds.
There are several things to notice in this sequence. First, you can see Trump's right arm starts down on his right side. In the same frame, Fields' left hand barely appears below her right hand slightly below or behind Trump's right arm. This is hard to see but follow a line from the bottom of right arm cuff to where Trump's right elbow should be. Unless Trump's upper arm is longer than normal, Field's hand is not touching Trump's arm. At worst she may have brushed the back of her hand against his sleeve.
In the second frame, Trump has raised his right arm up to his chest. Trump now claims based on this video that Fields grabbed Trump's arm first and that he reacted by raising his arm and looking down, but it does not appear in these frames that any grabbing occurred at all. Looking at these frames and the successive frames it appears that Trump is only reaching into his shirt pocket to draw something out of it.
Behind Trump and Fields, there is more action to see You can see the security agent extend his right arm possibly to get Fields to move away from Trump. This is a job he has been trained to do, so there is nothing unusual in that. Secret Service agents know how to apply the proper degree of force for the situation they are in. Never would one of these agents use more than a light touch impede a reporter unless it was absolutely necessary.
But you can also see Lewandowski moving in for the kill. Corey Lewandowski is not a security agent. He is Trump's campaign manager. He has not had training on the use of force and does not know when force is appropriate and when it is over the mark. So why is he doing what he is doing? Perhaps he is not satisfied with the agents' light touch, but that is not his call to make.
In frames two and three the sequence continues and gives weight to our analysis of the previous sequence.
In these frames, we can see that Fields continues to walk along side of Mr. Trump. Her left hand has not changed positions significantly, but it does appear that Trump is reaching in and down into his pocket under the left side of his coat.
Behind Fields, the agent appears to have his hand on her left shoulder, but so far he does not appear to have made a move to move her away from Trump. Lewandowski, however, is still closing in, having to put himself between the agent and Mr. Trump. He is, in fact, interfering with the agent's work.
At this point, the agent has stepped past Ben Terris.
Notice also in front of Fields another agent wearing a light gray tie turns to his left and looks back toward Trump.
The time span between the next two frames is one second instead of 0.5 seconds, so the changes between the frames a little more dramatic.
Mr. Trump appears to have found whatever he was reaching for in his pocket, and is now drawing it out. At the same time, he turns his head away from Fields and looks toward his right hand as he removes the hand from the pocket.
All of the parties are roughly in the same general location in relation to one another except for Ben Terris who has stepped behind the agent in the back. He seems to have caught Corey Lewandowski's attention because the latter has turned and appears to look at Terris eye to eye. Lewandowski is still reaching between the agent and Trump for Fields with his left hand.
The agent in front of Fields now has raised his left arm apparently toward fields possibly to move her back away from the candidate. Neither of the two agents identified, however, appear to be in any hurry to act.
In frames 4 and 5 we have a span of 0.5 seconds again. In the latter frame Trump and moved his right arm back down to his midsection and has brought his left hand up even with it. It appears that he may be writing something with a pen or pencil.
The forward agent has lowered his left arm back to his side. The agent in the back has removed his hand from Fields' shoulder apparently due to interference from Lewandowski who has turned his head back to Fields and now he appears to be straining to reach her.
Interestingly Terris has turned his right-hand palm up in a gesture of appeal. He may be attempting to engage the manager in an interview. Note that Terris is in a perfect spot to watch what is about to happen.
Frames 5 and 6 are similar to one another.
There is still some movement toward the lower right, but the principles are still situated the same as before with Lewandowski reaching in to grab Fields. It appears that Terris is still trying to engage Lewandowski.
In this sequence, we look at four frames instead of two in order to see how Corey Lewandowski first pushed and then jerked Michelle Fields away from Donald Trump. The time span from the first frame to the last frame is two seconds. If each frame is a moment in time, the first moment is one second before the second. The second is 0.5 seconds before the third, and third comes 0.5 seconds before the fourth moment.
Within the second that transpires between the fifth and sixth frame Lewandowski appears to have first pushed Fields away from Trump about the distance of a foot. To counterbalance, she moved her right foot out to the right.
Next, Lewandowski jerks her arm violently toward him. Her right foot again moves but now forward to catch her balance. At the end of the pull, she and Lewandowski are practically face to face. She seems to have a slight slant backward making her appear to be slightly out of balance.
Ben Terris is looking right at Fields and Lewandowski. He saw the whole thing. Lewandowski "really just almost threw [Michelle Fields] down on the ground.”
The ninth and tenth frames present another one-second sequence so the changes are generally twice as great as in other two frame sequences.
In these frames Fields either falls back into Terris, whose continued momentum brings him up behind her, or Lewandowski pushed her back before continuing on his way to follow Trump. Notice that Fields was pulled between Trump and the reward agent, and he has now circled to Fields' right to remain in place behind Trump.
The Tango that Lewandowski danced with Fields appears to have created a small traffic jam by the table on the lower left.
In the last two frames, Lewandowski continues on his way as if nothing has happened, or as if this is something that happens all the time.
One thing to notice is that almost everyones eyes were on Trump, so unless you were right on top of the action as Ben Terris was, you probably would have missed this incident. Even if you saw it, unless you were watching carefully it might not have seemed to have been a great deal. And of course, if you are a Trump supporter, you would not have seen anything even if you were right on top of it.
But if you were the one grabbed, pushed, pulled, and then possibly pushed again, it would have been a great deal to you. If Fields' arm was held tightly, it would have been painful, and at least slightly injurious. This is a photo that Field published shortly after the event of her left arm.
Whether this push and jerk amount to a punishable battery is a matter for the courts to decide, but it certainly does appear to be a stupid offense that never should have happened. Does Corey Lewandowski think that the Secret Service agents are inept? The agents were practically ubiquitous there. Trump himself did not appear to be in any distress.
What great offense did Michelle Fields do to raise his ire?
And why wasn't this problem handled more smoothly after it happened? A simple apology would have resolved the matter to everyone's satisfaction.
But that is not the Trumpian way. Donald Trump makes no apologies and admits no error. He is the great one who has come to make America great again. To admit a mistake is a sign of weakness, and that just can't be allowed.
Still, don't you think someone asking for your vote to become the President of the United States should be bigger than this? Alas, the real Donald Trump is a little man.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome but monitored for appropriate content.