Just hours after former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said, under intense pressure from Democratic committee attorney Barry Berke, that he is under “no obligation to have a candid conversation with the media,” CNN booked him on the morning show.
According to Yahoo News, Berke extracted the statement from a frustrated Lewandowski Tuesday evening after playing him a series of clips from interviews he’d done during which he provably lied.
CNN did not immediately respond to request for an explanation as to the booking decision.
Berke succeeded at the end of the hearing where congressional Democrats had failed, hammering away at his points and successfully circumnavigating Lewandowski’s gleeful (and specious) insistence on executive privilege. At one point, Berke punctured holes in Lewandowski’s armor by pointing out that he had published conversations with senior White House officials in his book “Let Trump Be Trump.”
Lewandowski continued his performance during his early Wednesday CNN appearance, insisting that he was muzzled by executive privilege, then dodging questions about why that would apply to someone who never worked in the White House.
He also insisted that the Mueller report concluded that there was “no obstruction, no collusion” despite the fact that both the report does not exonerate President Donald Trump of obstruction and Lewandowski has now said many times that he hasn’t read even read it.
Host Alisyn Camerota tried to force Lewandowski to explain why he didn’t deliver Trump’s message about limiting the scope of the Russia investigation to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but he avoided it by crowing about his devotion to his children and taking them on vacation.
He finally wouldn’t address his own comments about the lack of obligation he feels to tell the truth to the media, turning the conversation to Andrew McCabe and shouting over Camerota when she tried to repeat her question.
The interview devolved as Lewandowski quibbled with every question Camerota asked, constantly yelling her name and accusing her of being “disingenuous” and her network of being part of the “fake news” machinery.
Lewandowski also appeared on Fox News Tuesday night, though that network is nearly always a safe haven for those looking to give Trump-pleasing performances, no matter the veracity of the content.
