CNN political commentator and former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski falsely claimed the Republican presidential nominee has never used undocumented workers.
During a panel discussion on CNN, political commentator Maria Cardona discussed Trump’s use of undocumented immigrants for his building projects, reported discrepancies in Melania Trump’s immigration record, and the recent story of Trump’s modeling agency employing undocumented women in violation of the law. Lewandowski falsely claimed those reports were untrue and that Cardona “ha[s] no facts to back up” her claims.
Cardona pushed back, saying “studies after studies” back her up including an August 30 Mother Jones report which chronicled Trump Model Management’s use of “foreign models who came to the United States on tourist visas that did not permit them to work here.” Thirty years ago Trump’s company also employed 200 undocumented workers to demolish a building in order to make way for New York’s Trump Tower, although Trump claimed he was unaware at the time.
From the September 6 edition of CNN’s CNN Tonight with Don Lemon:
MARIA CARDONA: So very quickly, I was pointing out other than the fact that Donald Trump doesn't care, doesn’t know, and is clueless about immigration law, there is huge hypocrisy here. There was an editorial board today by the Washington Post that focuses on the discrepancies of Melania Trump’s own legalization history, citizenship history. There’s a lot of holes there that the Trump campaign has said they are going to come clean and explain to everybody what they were. They haven’t done that. There is a modelling agency, Trump Models that just came out, a story that came out that says they used models that came over here illegally for them to work for Trump's modelling agency. He has used undocumented immigrant workers in a lot of his projects. So to underscore the hypocrisy in the immigration plan is something we need to continue to do because --
DON LEMON (HOST): Let Corey get in.
CARDONA: It underscores the lack of knowledge and the absolute lack of him caring about this
COREY LEWANDOWSKI: Maria, Maria you have no fact to back up that statement. That he has used undocumented workers. There has been no case of that and to even --
CARDONA: There have been studies after studies, Corey
LEWANDOWSKI: And to even raise Mrs. Trump in this is deplorable.
Lewandowski has received criticism recently for his continued ties to the Trump campaign including prepping Trump for the debates and travelling with the candidate to campaign stops while continuing to being paid to shill for Trump on CNN. Media Matters has urged the network to cut ties with Lewandowski.