Michelle Fields: A few thoughts
A few quick thoughts on the Michelle Fields situation.
(1) After reviewing all the different videos, it seems pretty clear to me that Corey Lewandowski did grab and yank then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, hard enough to make her stumble and to leave bruises on her arm. Was it what most people think of as assault? No. Is it technically assault and battery? Yes.
Then whoever wrote this is an idiot. Stumble? Bruises? Only if you are a one-legged toddler with hemophilia. If that's technically assault and battery then I see it committed a thousand times a day. Why just this morning I saw a woman about to step into a pool of vomit outside Target. I tapped her on the upper arm and pointed to the puke. Arrest me.
(2) Was it somewhat exaggerated in the retelling? Yes, I think so. Ben Terris's initial account in The Washington Post makes it sound like Michelle Fields was seriously shaken. But in the audio of the conversation between Fields and Terris on the scene, caught on Fields's own audio recorder and published by Politico, she sounds at the most nonplussed and annoyed, and at times amused. (One pro-Trump blogger has ludicrously suggested that she staged the incident including the audio; but if that were the case, wouldn't she have put on an act of fear and distress?) I think Terris overdramatized the incident a bit, and others turned it into Fields being nearly thrown to the ground, perhaps because of an earlier incident of a Time photographer being shoved to the ground (by a Secret Service agent) at a Trump rally.
Overdramatized a bit? How about lied like a motherfucker?
(3) Does that mean it's a non-issue? No. Lewandowski's behavior was clearly inappropriate. The Trump campaign could have quickly neutralized the issue by apologizing. Instead they circled the wagons and called Fields a delusional liar.
Clearly inappropriate? In what world? Pussyland? You're really going to tell me you've never seen a person with some responsibility in regard to the safety and security of another person establish a perimeter by edging people back? There's "assault and battery" by every 'get back' coach at every high school, college and pro game. There's assault at every Mardi Gras parade by police. There was assault at the Elton John concert when security held the drunk man's arm and pointed him to his seat.
THIS is what's wrong with America. Apologize? Apologize for what? Behavior was ASTONISHINGLY APPROPRIATE given the circumstance. That bitch wasn't supposed to be in his personal space as he was leaving a crowded area. She got edged back as she well fucking should have. She is a motherfucking delusional "let's bash Trump and make a stink out if it" liar. She's a fucktard. I support 1 billion percent the "fuck you, you whining whore" stance they took. I'm glad they did. I'd have been pissed if they apologized beyond "Sorry she embarrassed herself by acting like an idiot."
(4) Would this have been a non-issue if Fields had been a man? I think there's a certainly chivalry factor on both the left and the right, but Lewandowski has also been criticized for grabbing a male protester by the collar. Some of the pro-Fields commentary has stressed the fact that she's a woman more than I would like. On the other hand, some of the Fields-bashing has been rather overtly sexist, along the lines of "women lie."
(Incidentally, it's not unheard-of for men to use exaggerated claims of assault for political advantage. There was an incident in my area in New Jersey some years ago in which a male local politician filed an assault charge against a female pol with whom he was feuding because she snatched a paper from his hand during an argument at a meeting, which he claimed gave him a paper cut.)
This is a stupid attempt at a point and makes sense only to a moron. Waste of effort.
(5) I have somewhat mixed feelings about the letter in support of Fields with an all-female list of conservative signatories. I don't think gender should be an issue here. But generally, I agree with the points made in the letter.
Fuck anybody who supports this flighty cum reservoir.