Breitbart spokesman resigns over Trump incident

Maureen (GNS) Groppe, USA TODAY

The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran

Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, makes a campaign stop at the Dayton International Airport. A large group of supporters came out early to hear his speech.

A spokesman for the conservative outlet Breitbart has stepped down, citing the website's treatment of a reporter who said she was manhandled by Donald Trump’s campaign manager.

“When you reach a point where you can’t give 100 percent to people you represent it’s not tenable to continue representing them,” Kurt Bardella tweeted Friday.

He told CNN that Breitbart hadn’t adequately supported Michelle Fields, a Breitbart reporter who said her arm was yanked by Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski as she was trying to ask Trump a question Tuesday.

“Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards,” Fields has written. “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.”

The Trump campaign denied the accusation and tried to discredit Fields.

The Washington Post identified the person who grabbed Fields as Lewandowski and the Daily Beast reported that Lewandowski acknowledged to a Breitbart editor that he grabbed Fields. Lewandowski said he did not recognize Fields as reporter for the site, which is friendly to Trump.

Bardella said Breitbart has been looking for a reason to disprove the incident, when all the evidence strongly suggests Fields' version is accurate,

"I just disagree with the course of which they’ve been covering this, and how they’ve treated Michelle," he told CNN.

Bardella’s public relations firm teamed up with Breitbart in 2013. Bardella was to “help Breitbart News take more of a part in shaping the national conversation and narratives on politics and culture with the fighting spirit that is a hallmark of Breitbart News,” according to an announcement of the hiring.

Bardella implied Tuesday that there’s too much fighting spirit at Trump events.

My own personal observation is that there is an escalating cycle of behavior that happens only at Donald Trump events.

— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) March 11, 2016

What we saw last night with the #ChicagoProtest is only the beginning ... we are headed for a stain on our democracy and process

— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) March 12, 2016

He also indicated that his dissatisfaction goes behind recent events. Bardella tweeted that for months “I sat on the sidelines and watched. I didn’t do anything. I didn’t stop anything. I took their money and stayed silent.”