Donald Trump’s former campaign manager on Tuesday suggested the campaign’s current chairman, Paul Manafort, should resign if found responsible for the apparent plagiarism in Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention.
“I think Paul needs to take a deep look inside, and understand what the process was, make sure the protocols were in place,” Corey Lewandowski, who now works as a commentator on CNN, said on the network. “Make sure that there is a check and balance of every speech that’s going to go forward and whoever signed off, was the final sign-off, that allowed this to go forward should be held accountable.”
“I think if it was Paul Manafort, he’d do the right thing and resign,” he added.
Trump parted ways with Lewandowski in June after months of concerns from party officials about his leadership and competence. The controversial New Hampshire native developed an intense rivalry with Manafort, who was initially brought in to manage the campaign’s delegate operation before taking over the campaign.
Lewandowski’s remarks on Tuesday are his first substantial commentary regarding his time spent on the Trump campaign. Due to a reported nondisclosure agreement, he has mostly stuck to delivering talking points in support of Trump. He is also apparently receiving severance pay from the campaign.
Manafort, for his part, denied the allegation on Tuesday that parts of Melania’s speech had been plagiarized from one delivered by Michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. No one from the campaign will be fired over the episode, he added.
“To think that she would do something like that, knowing how scrutinized her speech was going to be last night, is just really absurd,” Manafort told CNN’s Chris Cuomo on “New Day.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
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