The Moral Depravity Of Trump Supporter Corey Lewandowski
Trump's former Campaign Manager mocked a ten-year-old girl with Down's Syndrome who was taken away from her parents.
Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who has loyally stayed within the Trump orbit even though he was forced to leave early in the campaign after an incident in which he assaulted a reporter, hit a new low for defenders of the Administration’s family separation policy on cable news last night:
Of all the recent stories about the separation of immigrant children and parents at the United States’ border with Mexico, the Mexican foreign minister said on Tuesday that one story was particularly heartbreaking: A 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome was taken away from her mother in South Texas.
But Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s former campaign manager, offered a different response when he heard about the girl while appearing on Fox News on Tuesday night. “Womp womp,” he said.
Mr. Lewandowski was appearing on “The Story With Martha MacCallum” opposite Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist. Mr. Petkanas was telling the story of the girl when Mr. Lewandowski interrupted him.
“Did you say, ‘womp womp,’ to a 10-year-old with Down syndrome being taken from her mother?” Mr. Petkanas responded. “How dare you! How dare you!”
“What I said is you can pick anything you want to, but the bottom line is very clear: When you cross the border illegally you have given up the rights of that country,” Mr. Lewandowski said, as the two guests talked over each other. “When you cross the border illegally, when you commit a crime, you are taken away from your family because that’s how this country works.”
Reached on Wednesday morning, Mr. Lewandowski said he had no comment and would address the matter later on Fox News. In an appearance on the network’s “America’s Newsroom,” Mr. Lewandowski refused to apologize for his remarks, blamed Mr. Petkanas for “politicizing children” and said his “womp womp” response had nothing to do with the girl with Down syndrome.
“I was mocking Zac,” Mr. Lewandowski said.
He added that criticism for family separations should be directed at parents who crossed the border illegally, and said it was the families of Americans killed by undocumented immigrants who were owed an apology.
Lewandowski also tried to walk back the incident in a tweet this morning:
Lots of Fake News today. I mocked a liberal who attempted to politicize children as opposed to discussing the real issue which is fixing a broken immigration system. It’s offenseive that the MSM doesn’t want to talk about the fact these policies were started under Obama.
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) June 20, 2018
Here’s the video:
The fact that Lewandowski is dismissing this as “Fake News” is rather amusing given the fact that this occurred on a program broadcast on Fox News Channel and that there’s video to actually show us what he said and interpret for ourselves what he meant. Based on that evidence, it seems fairly clear what he intended here, as it should be to anyone else. He wasn’t just mocking Petkanas. he was mocking the story he was relating and that means he was mocking the fate of a ten-year-old disabled girl who was being taken away from her mother, perhaps for the first time in her life. This is at once sick, inhumane, and cruel. And it tells us all we need to know about the way Lewandowski thinks, and likely how many Trump supporters think.
Lewandowski was, of course, the original manager of Trump’s campaign for President and still remains a strong supporter of the President’s as a talking head on cable news networks. In March of 2016, Michelle Fields, who was at the time a reporter for Breitbart News, reported that she had been physically assaulted by Lewandowski when she attempted to ask Trump a question at the conclusion of a victory speech after winning the primaries in Mississippi and Michigan. Several days later, Lewandowski was formally charged with battery against Fields. However, those charges were ultimately dropped by the Sheriff’s Office on the ground that there was insufficient evidence to meet the elements of a crime and therefore they would decline to go forward with prosecution. Despite these charges, Lewandowski continued to serve as campaign manager until June 2016 when he was replaced by Paul Manafort in a pre-convention campaign shakeup. Despite this, Lewandowski has remained a Trump loyalist and apparently worked his way back into the President’s good graces to the extent that there has been some speculation that he could return to the White House at some point, or take on a role in Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
Given the rhetoric of the Administration and its supporters that we have seen as the family separation story has come to dominate the headlines in the past two weeks or so, I can’t say that Lewandowski’s heartless response here is all that surprising. It’s clear that neither the Administration nor its most vocal supporters care at all about how the public perceives them at this point. They either don’t have a conscience — and it’s hard to see how anyone who is mocking a ten-year-old girl with Down’s Syndrome has anything resembling a conscience or a moral center of any kind — or they are willing to sacrifice whatever morality they claim to adhere to in the name of sycophancy and gaining favor with the Dear Leader in the Oval Office, It is, quite honestly, sickening.
Lewandowski’s waiting in the wings to replace John Kelly. It may not happen till after the midterms, but I’m 90% sure it will happen. This might cause some friction with Ivanka, since she, apparently, was the one who told Daddy that either Corey went or she went, but…you have to break some eggs to make an omelet, right?
Lewandowski’s a perfect fit for Trump. He’s obsequious to Trump, and a bully to everyone else.
He’s loathsome.
@CSK:
Call him what he is – Martin Bormann
@HarvardLaw92:
Quite so. Bormann wanted to eliminate the “defective” as well, didn’t he?
Why is this shocking? People that take crying toddlers away to be put in mass detention clearly don’t give a damn about them. For all they know, these kids have medical or psychological conditions that need monitoring. You think the 2yr knows they have allergies or asthma or diabetes or Downs? They probably tossed them at an over-worked medic who gave them a quick once-over at best. No bloodwork or tests, just a basic “are you in danger of currently dying? Nope? Great, off to the yard with you”. I seriously doubt they’ve got a lab focusing on getting results back to them quick, specialists to evaluate for issues or even enough doctor coverage for sufficient care other then first aid.
There’s no damn way they haven’t missed something in all the kids they’re processing. Wait until someone gets stung by a bee, goes into anaphylaxic shock and they can’t save them. Or the kid with cancer the parents were sneaking in for treatment. What about kids with PTSD (previous or recently acquired) or depression or suicidal tendencies that would only be exacerbated by being in lockup? It will be a miracle if nothing happens but with the weather heating up, at least one medical crisis or death is almost inevitable.
This is the face of the GOP…what are Republicans going to do about it…
Let’s just call a spade, a spade.
All Dennison supporters are moral depravites.
Next topic?
Doug, when you first said this, you didn’t say it in thunder. So I’m highlighting it again with thunder.
OTB readers, listen to the thunder. Shame won’t work.
I wonder where Lewandowski got the idea this behavior was acceptable?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=MZcuWba_HgU
OT: Canada just legalized weed. We have a 5,500 miles border with them.
“You hear that Mr. Anderson?… That is the sound of inevitability…”
@James Pearce:
What do you suggest, Pearce? Oh that’s right…you only criticize.
Sometimes you have to wonder how someone has gotten through life with no one beating them to death. Low-class, obnoxious folks who somehow manage to never piss off someone prone to violent outbursts, just everyone else.
With Trump, I assume it’s just that he has a very good security team at all times. But Lewandowski doesn’t have that.
@An Interested Party: Nothing! To Republicans, this doesn’t show us anything beyond how “law and order” are supposed to work. As I noted yesterday, the obvious move about complaints was to go the Rush route and assert that the children are criminals just like their parents. It only took 6 hours.
I have a sister with Down’s, and relatively low-functioning at that. Yet she is still quite capable of showing empathy. In that respect, she is higher-functioning than about half of all Republicans.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
I suggest making a deal.
But “negotiating with the opposition” seems to have been replaced with “whoever is in charge gets to decide” as the organizing principle behind our political life, so just sit tight and hope that changes I guess.
@James Pearce:
“Shame won’t work.”
Shame won’t work on the Administration. Shame won’t work on those supporters who were rightly called deplorable (which appears to be a far higher percentage than Hillary suggested). It may work on independent voters and weak Trump supporters.
@Moosebreath:
That’s fvcking hilarious.
Have you been living under a rock for the last decade?
Oh yes…make a deal with someone who has made it very well known that his idea of making a deal is to totally annihilate and humiliate those he makes deals with…that’ll work out so well…
@James Pearce:
It appears from the latest reporting that Trump is caving.
Now, what were you saying, Neville?
@teve tory:
Or a signal that a wall is needed between Canada and the United States. Right now quite a few Canadians are thinking it might not be a bad idea …
More seriously, most of us think things will go back to normal (not that normal is good except in comparison to the current situation) once Trump is gone. But if Trump gets reelected then a wall starts to sound good.
@KM:
This is bad now, but the first kid that dies in their care will cause this whole shi# show to blow up in their face beyond any GOP expectations.
And the likely attempt to cover it up will be even worse.
I think Mitch McConnel realizes this, but since Trump no longer takes council, we have to watch and wait for the inevitable.
@george:
He’s not going to be gone.
Democrats will fail to take control of Congress in 2018.
Then, in 2020, Dennison will declare that the election system is corrupt and cannot be trusted and postpone the election until it can be fixed. Which it never will be. Ivanka will be the next in line. No Republican will question any of this, because tax cuts.
Welcome to the end of democracy…but in 2016 it was either Dennison or a woman that used her personal email for work…so what choice did we have?
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
Why did you direct this at me?
Twitter is right now full of rumors that trump’s going to cave this very day.
If he does he’s going to piss off the majority of trumpers who support taking kids away from their parents, some never to be reunited again.
@Liberal Capitalist:
What about the fact that most of these kids will never see their parents again?
http://theweek.com/speedreads/780151/former-ice-chief-predicts-many-migrant-children-never-reunited-parents
@Moosebreath:
Sorry…must have clicked the wrong reply button.
Obviously it was for Pearce.
(redundant comment erased)
@Michael Reynolds:
Neville Chamberlain gets a bum rap. Given that WWII began with a retreat on all fronts to buy time for the US and the USSR to get involved and ramp up production, it’s very likely that had Churchill gotten his way and started it two years earlier, the Axis would have won.
@Michael Reynolds:
Trump isn’t “caving,” dude. He’s going to sign an Executive Order, mostly because getting this resolved legislatively with just Republicans isn’t going to work.
You really think immigration policy is going to be better via EO from Trump versus legislation on which Democrats have left their mark? Gimme a break.
@Stormy Dragon:
I agree the Brits weren’t ready to fight a war, but not fighting a war did not require saying:
He had just sold out the Czechs to the Nazis and called it honorable. Peace for our time, indeed. A year later the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed. It is entirely possible that had Britain not rolled over, Stalin might have hesitated. Also entirely possible that the Prussian general staff might have convinced Hitler that further aggression was folly – which it was.
@James Pearce:
An EO is exactly what Trump has claimed could not be signed. Or did you forget that? The issue is kids-in-cages, if an EO ends that, good. No larger immigration deal is possible – not because of Dems – but because GOP traditionalists and Trumpaloons don’t agree.
You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t understand politics. You refuse to take any position other than criticizing Democrats who show more moral courage and integrity than you.
The line it is drawn, Pearce, the curse it is cast. Your act has lost its audience.
@teve tory:
I leave for a 10 day motorcycle trip to Newfoundland on the 5th. Just sayin’
@teve tory:
Not in a million years. They rationalize anything he does. When he calls dictators names, they cheer; when he gets in bed with those same dictators and heaps high praise on them, they cheer. When he promises to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it, they cheer; when he says Congress will pay for it, they cheer; when no wall happens, they cheer.
No matter what Trump does or doesn’t do, he’s always winning in their eyes because they don’t allow themselves to see any other possibility. To do so would be to admit they made an error in supporting him, and that they’d been played for suckers. They’d give up their right thumb (not to mention their health care) to avoid making that admission.
Ann Coulter may bellyache, just like she did after the omnibus spending bill, then he’ll grow even more popular with his base.
@James Pearce:
You refuse to accept reality.
The Democrats and moderate Republicans had an immigration deal…but Kelly and Miller and Meadows wouldn’t let Dennison sign it.
Seriously…some days you are about one half step above Tyrell.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
It’s going to lead to one of several sh^tshow scenarios:
(a) The kids get amnesty and live in US w/o family. Now, what form that takes is up in the air but it will make them a politically dicey constituency for years and frankly piss off everybody – liberals for the kids not making it home to family despite the trauma and conservatives for “rewarding” them for breaking the law. Cost to taxpayers fairly high since most will end up wards of the state and not adopted out. Resentment will be high and the lingering efforts to locate family will keep chain migration in the news for ages. Still, best case scenario over all
(b) Kids held in detention till age 18 then deported. Cost to taxpayers *enormous*. Ethical questions about schooling, care, and other child-related issues constantly in the news and will be held against the nation by allies/enemies. Potential for kids resenting the hell out the US turning to gangs or worse *extraordinarily* high since they’ve spent their lives in prison and that mentality is all they’ll know. This is the scenario where we’re officially baby snatchers and raising people to hate us and possibly do something about it. It doesn’t end well for anyone.
(c) Kids deported back w/o being reunited. Cost to taxpayers high but if you don’t really care where they’re going, why pay for a good trip? Ethical questions all over the damn map about how you can just ship kids away without confirming they’ve anywhere to go. Possible violation of international agreements depending on how it’s done. Massive public outcry the world over when the kids suffer terrible fates that we abandoned them to. This is the one that cements America is no longer a world power and kills what’s left of the worlds’ respect.
(d) Kids “disappear” in to the system. Conflicting stories about where they went. Maybe adopted, maybe deported, they didn’t keep real good records, alright? Look the point is the camps are closed, that’s what you wanted, right? They’re probably fine. (They’re not fine. Whether America cares or not greatly depends on how many morals we can retain now)
No matter the scenario, America loses big time because this Administration just *had* to do this. We’re not going to win here, only mitigate the damage done.
@Michael Reynolds:
Bear in mind that he can’t simply say “stop separating kids from their parents” if it means that they’re all just being detained together.
If he’s trying to go that route, he’ll be in violation of the Flores consent decree and it’ll be challenged at light speed. The parties that secured the decree would waste no time heading back to the district court to make the legitimate argument that the government is violating the court order.
@Michael Reynolds:
Trump wanted legislation to brag about, but he’ll take an EO.
What’d you get out of it?
Poor old Cory figured he was in a safe space and able to say the stuff out loud he used to only be able to say in private.
@James Pearce: “OTB readers, listen to the thunder. Shame won’t work.”
Oh. Except, of course, it did.
Trump is backing down.
Now he may try a few weasel tricks, but the moral pressure that you like to sneer at worked.
Love to see you admit you were wrong. But that’s even less likely than seeing Trump do it.
Puttin’ it out there.
https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2018/06/20/womp-womp-turns-out-ice-rescued-the-10-year-old-with-down-syndrome-from-smugglers/?utm_campaign=twitchywidget
Mike
@James Pearce: “What’d you get out of it?”
The end of forced familial separation and kids being locked in cages, which is exactly what this was all about.
Now you’re busily moving the goalposts — “You didn’t get the comprehensive immigration reform bill you wanted.”
This moral outrage has been about stopping the torture of children. That’s what we got out of it.
And if it turns out this is all another Trump fraud, then expect to see more of what this repulsive administration has been getting. And we’ll expect you to keep whining that everything liberals do is wrong.
@MBunge: Did you actually read this? According to your source, the child with Down syndrome was taken away from her mother — not because they’ve decided she’s a criminal, but because they’re holding her as a material witness against smugglers.
So they are inflicting this unspeakable horror on someone they already know is a victim, not a “bad guy.”
And this is supposed to be a defense?
I know you’re a troll, but are you a moron?
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
Daryl, better hold off until September at least. Then there’s going to be a bunch of provincial wrangling about enforcement and ages and stuff.
@wr:
Already in evidence.
@Pylon:
I’m beginning to wonder if I’m coming back.
@MBunge:
@wr:
After days of Bungie making a fool of himself by defending the indefensible…Dennison is sticking a shiv in his back.
Never, ever, trust a grifter.
literally 5 hours ago trump said on twitter the immigration problem was democrats’ fault, “They won’t give us the votes” to fix the problem. Now he says he’s going to sign an executive order fixing the problem.
I’m so glad I’m not a trumper being humiliated on a daily basis.
@James Pearce:
What did I get out of it? Exactly what I wanted out of it: an end to a cruel and un-American policy that hurts children.
No one who knows anything about politics thought this would lead to comprehensive immigration reform. Indeed no one I’ve seen on this or other threads has suggested any such thing. You’re trying to cover for your own bad analysis and ‘advice’ by moving the goalposts.
A bit of advice for you and JKB and Bung and the rest of the Trump apologists – Trump has no beliefs, he has no core, he just panders to audiences and lines his own pockets. When you defend him he is quite likely to cut your hamstrings for you and leave you lying limp and ridiculous. How do you not know this already?
@HarvardLaw92: ingo.
That is exactly what he is doing.
And then will turn around and use Flores as justification for their prior insistence that only legislation will fix this.
Uh huh…as if that trash knew about those details before he went, “Womp, womp”…let me put this out there…if you defend douchebags, you’re probably a douchebag yourself…
@Michael Reynolds:
You didn’t get that though. Zero Tolerance stands, and now families will be detained together.
Yay!
(You wanna know what you got? “Comprehensive Immigration Reform” from Donald Trump’s presidential pen Again….yay!)
@James Pearce:
Is this the bullshit line you’re trying to peddle to your friendly, neighborhood ‘good’ Trump cultists?
What we demanded is what we got: an end to #ChildrenInCages.
We did not demand an end to zero tolerance.
We did not demand comprehensive reform.
We demanded an end to child separations and we just got it. Trump caved.
We just got EXACTLY what we demanded and we gave up NOTHING. Which would make your advice that we had no choice but to yield, WRONG. Now, you can dance around all you like, but that’s the reality, we all saw it, we won’t forget it, we aren’t in Cult 45 and our memories are not instantly reprogrammable.
@James Pearce:
Actually, they won’t be. This EO as written violates the Flores consent decree. You can expect the ACLU & related parties to that agreement to be heading to district court any minute now, raising the entirely legitimate claim that the government is violating the court order in that matter (it is …)
These people are too stupid for their own good 🙄
@HarvardLaw92:
You saw Michael Cohen feigning moral outrage? My strong suspicion is that he’s using it to rationalize his pending flip. The beauty is that by criticizing Trump he also made a pardon increasingly unlikely. Cohen apparently did not anticipate Dear Leader’s sudden surrender.
@HarvardLaw92:
But now it is going to be the judges fault that families are being separated.
And still the Trumplicans in Congress won’t be able to put a bill together.
@Daryl and his brother Darryl:
Doesn’t really matter. The takeaway from this for his idiot base is that he folded. I’ve checked in on a few of the nutjob forums, and they are livid about it.
The primary lesson here is never – ever – let yourself and your party get mired down into a no win scenario in an election year.
Anyone who saw Die Hard will remember the loathesome Harry Ellis, the self-professed brilliant negotiator who considered himself the smartest guy in the room and who met a quick and nasty end when he put his talents to the test.
I read James Pearce, but I’m hearing Harry Ellis.
@James Pearce: You have no clue what you are talking about. For the last several weeks, Trump has said that only congress can fix this. The EO pretty much confirms that the WH has been lying this entire time.
Seriously, you should just sit this one out. Your analysis has been wrong from the start.
OT: on a brighter note, one of the nutjobs from Charlottesville, as it turns out, was an active duty Marine.
His court-martial just concluded – 28 days of confinement, reduction in rank to E-1, loss of two-thirds pay for one month, and involuntary discharge from the Marine Corps.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving person …
Yup, it is gaslighting.
Hopefully the judge sees this for what it is and offers up an alternative remedy instead of invalidating the EO.
I told people he’d be pissing off the half his supporters who want family separation, and I got some pushback. People think trumpers are principally committed to trump. They’re not. They’re principally committed to cruelty. When trump reneges on the cruelty they’ll get pissed at him too.
@James Pearce: Dude, you’re suggesting Trying to Make A Deal with someone who is known for his double-crossing, renegging, abusing, and just lying. And his weasel coterie.
That’s not a strategy of a tactician; it’s the “strategy” of a chump.
@HarvardLaw92:
@teve tory:
You’re not going to get a representative sample of Trumpist opinion by looking at the forums, which I think tends to overstate the number of ideological purists as opposed to Trump cultists. I was seeing this effect after Trump caved on the omnibus spending bill a few months ago–the right-wing forums were in freakout mode (as was Ann Coulter), but since then he’s only grown more popular among Republicans in polls. Reaction to the Korea summit, too, has highlighted how unmoored the Republican base is from any consistent belief system and how committed they actually are to the cult of personality.
Please rescue my comment from moderation.
Breitbart headline right now:
@Michael Reynolds:
You got room on your trophy shelf for a Trump executive order on immigration?
@HarvardLaw92:
I don’t expect this to be resolved in the courts. Congress is going to have to.
I understand they don’t want to. But it’s their job.@grumpy realist:
When I say “make a deal” I mean “pass a law.” I do not mean “Make a deal with Trump and shake on it.”
Pass a law.
@teve tory:
Frankly, he’s managed to hold out longer than I though he would. I predicted during the campaign he’d alienate his own base, because pissing people off is what he’s best at.
I didn’t think it would take him this long.
@teve tory:
You know, I just checked that article now, and while I only read the most recent comments-and those change constantly at a very high rate of speed–they’re all praising Trump for proving he has a heart and brain. And, of course, he’s playing 4D chess and “owning the libtards.”
I can barely bring myself to check the headlines at Breitbart, Lucienne, Gateway, etc. If I read the comments much I’d need more booze than I consume these days. 🙂
@CSK: Yikes. I just scanned a few dozen comments there.
There’s more liberal anti-trumpers on that site than I would have imagined. And I’ve never before seen this term:
“Rogan Larry Charles • 35 minutes ago
Good one, you focking judennutlicker!”
And there were a few commenters there calling trump a ‘pussy’ etc but definitely most of the conservatives were praising trump.
@teve tory:
Yeah, I know. It’s astonishing. I thought when he shanked the base the way he did this afternoon, he’d lose maybe a third of them. But no–they’ve rationalized it.
@teve tory:
What, no credit given to Stephen Miller, one of the “good ones”?
@KM: My bet is on 90% (c) and 10% (d).
@wr: You have to ask?
@grumpy realist: Pierce just has forgotten the adage–If you’re at a table and can’t see the mark, you need a mirror.
@James Pearce:
There’s no deal to be made with GOP Congress, either. There isn’t any law to be passed. Trump has been demonstrating for 6 forking months (!!!) that his game is criticize Congress for not acting, vetoing whatever they present, and then criticizing Congress for inaction again.
You need a new slogan.
@James Pearce: “When I say “make a deal” I mean “pass a law.”
Longer Pearce:
‘And only one for birthday presents, you know. There’s glory for you!’
‘I don’t know what you mean by “glory”,’ Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. ‘Of course you don’t — till I tell you. I meant “there’s a nice knock-down argument for you!”‘
‘But “glory” doesn’t mean “a nice knock-down argument”,’ Alice objected.
‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.’
@Just nutha ignint cracker:
Yes, there is. We just need diligent people of character working on it, not a bunch of poseurs only interested in tribal rivalries.
@wr: Thank you, once again, for your useful contribution.
@Michael Reynolds:
Well, he can’t be the financial directer of the RNC if he’s gonna be talking to prosecutors.
Seriously, I think he’s flipping. By the look of it Trump’s stinginess may bite him on the butt. It seems to me his minions weren’t paid by him much at all, they were expected to get by by “earning” from mere association. Like Nicky Santoro in the movie Casino, based on an actual mobster.
The mob was stingy too. Even though Anthony Spilotro was assigned to ride herd on the biggest money making operation the mob had he was still expected to “earn”, and that “earning” eventually brought the whole show down. The similarity is downright eerie.
@James Pearce: “Thank you, once again, for your useful contribution.”
I’m not actually sure how to respond to that since you’ve already announced that the phrases you use hold entirely different meanings than the ones the rest of the world understands.