Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump accused Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields of fabricating her accusation that his campaign manager grabbed her hard enough to leave a bruise during a campaign event.
Trump told reporters after Thursday night’s GOP debate in Miami that nothing happened.
“Perhaps she made the story up. I think that’s what happened,” he said of Tuesday night’s alleged incident.
“I believe I was in the middle of a lot of Secret Service agents, and they all said that they never saw anything,” Trump said. “And these are very honorable guys, they’re fantastic people, and there were a lot of them and nobody saw anything, and to the best of my knowledge there’s no pictures.”
Police confirmed Fields has filed a criminal complaint against Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, whom she alleges grabbed her arm aggressively as she attempted to question the candidate.
Video of the moment, which another journalist – the Washington Post’s Ben Terris – confirmed to NBC News was the time of the alleged incident, shows a partial view of Fields approaching Trump. Her progress stops, but the video does not clearly establish whether Lewandowski or another person made physical contact with her.
I guess these just magically appeared on me @CLewandowski_ @realDonaldTrump. So weird. pic.twitter.com/oD8c4D7tw3
— Michelle Fields (@MichelleFields) March 10, 2016
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com.
Katy Tur
Katy Tur is an anchor on MSNBC and a correspondent for NBC News. She is the author of the New York Times best seller "Unbelievable," about her time covering Donald Trump during the 2016 election, for which she also won a Cronkite Award.
Ali Vitali is MS NOW's senior congressional correspondent and the host of "Way Too Early." She is the author of "Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet."