Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s controversial campaign manager, was demoted to body man and scheduler on April 18, only a day before the New York primary.
The announcement comes amid reports of the Trump campaign shuffling its staff, with veteran Paul Manafort, hired just weeks prior as Trump’s Republican convention manager, replacing Lewandowski.
CBS news is reporting that a source said national field director Stuart Jolly also tendered his resignation after Trump’s reorganization plans were announced.
The source told CBS that Jolly was almost “universally disliked,” and was “amateurish, arrogant, and substandard,” but was hired by Lewandowski, with whom he is close with.
Lewandowski was involved in a scandal last month involving Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields, who said he assaulted her while she was trying to question Trump in Jupiter, Fla., after a press conference.
On April 14, the battery charges against Lewandowski were dropped by a Florida judge on the grounds that there was not enough evidence to convict him.
He has also faced criticism for attacking the GOP in Florida for its allocation of delegates, accusing the chairman of Florida’s Republican Party, Blaise Ingoglia, of being overtly biased against Trump.
“The chairman of the party of Florida, who is an avid and outward supporter of Marco Rubio, gets to appoint 30 of those delegates,” Lewandowski said.
“Now, I understand those are the rules but Donald Trump won. … And now, you’ve got a person who is supporting Marco Rubio who gets to appoint 30 of the 99 delegates.”
Politico listed three areas Lewandowski was wrong in this case.
Lewandowski’s comments were wrong on three counts: Ingoglia remained neutral before and after the state’s March 15 GOP primary; the chairman doesn’t “appoint” any delegates; and the chairman is in charge of recommending 15 — not “30 of the 99” — delegates to the state executive committee.
Even staffers inside the Trump campaign were frustrated at the former manager’s performance and interview.
“Corey goes on national TV to talk about how he didn’t really commit battery on a woman—a terrible topic for the campaign to have out there—and then he makes it even worse by getting his facts wrong and pissing off the chairman in Florida when he didn’t need to,” one Republican inside the campaign told Politico.
After a lot of controversy and frustration at Corey Lewandowski’s handling of the campaign and the battery incident, the Trump campaign is doing what many have already suggested—distance themselves from Lewandowski and the scandals surrounding him.
