MSNBC’s Ari Melber wasn’t having it with Trump campaign senior adviser Corey Lewandowski after he tied a “false quote” to the host on Wednesday.
“I’m putting you on notice,” Melber told Lewandowski in a contentious live interview.
“If you continue to repeat falsely that I said that, you will be, potentially, in a defamation situation, because I didn’t say that. But I understand that you’re working off the internet, which has a lot of false information.”
Lewandowski, an ex-campaign manager for Donald Trump’s 2016 bid, tried to dodge a question about saying he has “no obligation to be honest with the media” and instead pointed to the host’s coverage during the Republican National Convention in July.
Melber, at the time, cited a New York Times critic who called Trump “his own biggest prop” prior to writing on his bandaged ear in the wake of the assassination attempt that month.
“A reminder of mortality, a badge of survival — it was a blank rectangle on which the crowd could read what it wished, and that made it the most potent placard in the hall,” the NYT piece read.
Melber, after quoting part of the piece on air, added: “A placard for delegates to fill in, an image for political mobilization, a spectacle for this candidate who we know is, by his own admission, obsessed with assorted spectacles.”
On Wednesday, the Trump adviser accused Melber of stating Trump had a bandage on his ear “just for a spectacle” before the host, who tried to clarify his on-air analysis from July, issued a warning.
“Fox News, which has been caught in defamation, ran a false piece falsely stating that I said something else that I didn’t say,” Melber said of the RNC coverage. “So, I stand on that. I stand on the New York Times quote.”