Trump won’t sack campaign manager charged with battery

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has defended his campaign manager who has been arrested in Florida and charged with simple battery in connection with an incident happened earlier this month.

Police in Jupiter, Florida, said on Tuesday Corey Lewandowski was charged for grabbing and bruising the arm of Michelle Fields, a reporter for Breitbart News, as she tried to ask Trump a question during a March 8 campaign event.

Trump on Tuesday night argued that Lewandowski acted appropriately by getting physically involved when Fields approached him.

“She shouldn’t have been touching me,” he said during a CNN town hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, referring to Fields.

“She had a pen in her hand,” Trump told CNN anchorperson Anderson Cooper. "It could have been a knife. It might have been dangerous.”

The Republican frontrunner said he would not punish his top aide because he did nothing wrong during the incident.

“I would have loved to have fired him, but I stick up for people when they are unjustly accused,” he said of his Lewandowski.

“She was grabbing me,” he added of Fields. "She was off-base. I don’t think [Lewandowski] knew her. She’s not a baby. She wasn’t yanked down.”

“My arm has never been the same, folks,” Trump mocked, after saying Fields touched his arm.

Fields showed police her left forearm which "appeared to show a grabbing-type injury," according to the investigating officer.

Police released a video (below) which appears to show Lewandowski reaching his left hand between Trump and a security guard and toward Fields, holding her back as he passed her and continued following the billionaire through the room.

Trump stated that bruises Fields cited as evidence may not have come from the encounter.

“How do you know those bruises weren’t there before?” he asked reporters. "If you’re going to get squeezed, wouldn’t you let out a scream or something? How did they get there? Who put them there? I don’t know, I’m not a lawyer.”

Trump, who has never held elected office, is currently leading the race for the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign has been marked by controversial statements, including disparaging remarks about women, Mexican immigrants and Muslims.

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