Fox Business Invites Discredited Trump Supporter Roger Stone To Defend Trump's Campaign Manager Accused of Battery

Roger Stone: “The Good News Is That [Lewandowski] Will Ultimately Be Cleared”

Written by Media Matters Staff

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Fox Business' Lou Dobbs hosted discredited Trump ally Roger Stone to defend Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, after Lewandowski was charged with battery against former-Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields. Dobbs asserted “three producers of this broadcast and myself [...] concluded that there is no video of Lewandowski touching Michelle Fields,” prompting Stone to declare that Lewandowski “will ultimately be cleared in trial.” Dobb's decision to invite Stone contrasts with decisions made by CNN and MSNBC, who have banned Stone following reports of Stone's racist tweets. From the March 29 edition of Fox Business' Lou Dobbs Tonight:

LOU DOBBS (HOST):  Roger, are those Democrats or Republicans doing the policing and prosecuting in Palm Beach County?

ROGER STONE:Look, Corey Lewandowski is entitled to his day in court. I must tell you Lou, I looked at all the films and it's inconclusive to me, so this is an open question. At the same time, it's never a good thing when the campaign manager becomes a distraction from the candidate and his main message.

DOBBS: But let me interrupt you, Roger, because you may not be aware that at the beginning of the broadcast, we devoted about 10 minutes to that video, the surveillance video from the Trump property that shows the entire sequence of events, I shouldn't say the entire, because there are gaps as surveillance tapes do have gaps, and we concluded, three producers of this broadcast and myself, we concluded that there is no video of Lewandowski touching Michelle Fields. You can infer but the fact of the matter is there's not a single piece of video that shows the actual touching.

 STONE: Well look, I saw the video, Lou. I've watched it over and over again myself.

DOBBS: You agree?

STONE: It appears that way, but to me it's inconclusive. The good news is that he will ultimately be cleared in trial, he's pleading not guilty. Trump, who doesn't run away from friends, and doesn't run away from a fight is supporting him. Otherwise, this is a distraction. The good news for the Trump campaign is I don't think there's going to be any mechanical distraction. Yesterday, the campaign announced Paul Manafort, former partner of mine, the single best vote counter and convention strategist in the Republican Party, He's intently focused on all the delegate selection moving forward, both primaries, caucuses, conventions, party meetings, he's focused on the rules, he's focused on credentials, he's focused on the establishment's beginning to nibble delegates from Donald Trump in Louisiana, in South Carolina --

DOBBS: As long as they don't get piggy. Do you think they'll get piggy about those delegates?

STONE: Yeah, I really do. There are strategists for John Kasich running around saying they think this can be stolen, and they attempt to try to steal it.