Stephen Lendman

The underlying theme of this year’s US presidential campaign is stop Trump, no trick too dirty considered out-of-bounds.

Expect lots more ahead as July nominating conventions draw nearer, the dirtiest perhaps while Republicans meet in Cleveland from July 18 - 21 - anything to choose someone else as party standard bearer.

For now, Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery on Tuesday - allegedly for grabbing and bruising Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields’ arm, at a March 8 campaign event when she approached Trump to ask a question.

He denies it, calling the accusation false, saying “(s)he shouldn’t have been touching me. She had a pen in her hand. It could have been a knife. It might have been dangerous.”

She claims no one grabbed her like that before. She tweeted an image of a slight bruise on one arm, perhaps gotten when she accidentally bumped it on her own, a common occurrence affecting lots of people, battery charges against an alleged assailant not filed.

During campaign rallies drawing large crowds, people get jostled, at times perhaps lightly bruised, incidents not warranting assault charges.

With party bosses determined to stop Trump, anything able to bash him draws headlines, even incidents too minor to matter.

Did reporter Fields file misdemeanor battery charges on her own, or was she put up to it by dark forces promising to cover her legal expenses, as well as perhaps add sweeteners too tempting to pass?

Anti-Trumpism is so intense, nothing too outrageous is off-limits. He fired back at detractors, saying “I stick up for people when they are unjustly accused.”

Fields “was off-base. I don’t think (Lewandowski) knew her. She’s not a baby. She wasn’t yanked down” or accosted.

Police released a video appearing to show Lewandowski reaching his left hand between Trump, a security guard and Fields, holding her back as he passed her following Trump into a meeting room.

What apparently happened appears similar to routine occurrences at many events drawing large crowds pressed close together.

Charging Lewandowski with battery for an incident too minor to matter sounds like a pre-planned put-up job - anything to bash Trump!

Maybe he’ll face false charges next!

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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