MSNBC host Ari Melber has locked his account on X (formerly Twitter) after threatening to sue Corey Lewandowski, a top team member on the Donald Trump campaign, for defamation during an interview. Lewandowski said Melber had previously stated Trump “had a bandage on his ear” at the Republican National Convention (RNC) after being shot “just for a spectacle.”
Melber, discussing a New York Times article saying Trump had acted as a “prop” at the RNC, had agreed Trump’s bandage was 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.”
“I quoted a New York Times article that said, at the convention, Donald Trump ‘was his own biggest prop,'” Melber insisted to Lewandowski. The Trump advisor offered to read the MSNBC host’s full quote back to him.
“It was a New York Times quote about how [Trump] had become such an important figure in rebounding from what was a horrific assassination attempt,” Melber reiterated. Lewandowski again offered to read his words back to him.
“Corey, I said I’d address it. I’m gonna finish… Fox News, which has been caught in defamation, ran a false piece falsely stating that I said something else that I didn’t say. So, I stand on that. I stand on the New York Times quote,” Melber said.
“So, you didn’t say, ‘This bandage was a prop, a spectacle from a candidate who’s obsessed with spectacles’?” asked Lewandowski.
“Uh, Mr. Lewandowski, I did not say that. That is a false quote,” the MSNBC host shot back.
“I have it right here,” said Lewandowski.
WATCH:
An MSNBC Host threatened to sue me for defamation tonight for (by definition) the opposition of defamation >> Quoting their own words.
Watch for yourself and let me know what you think. pic.twitter.com/Q97AnkWWah
— Corey R. Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) August 29, 2024
‘I’M PUTTING YOU ON NOTICE!’
“What you have is a false quote… I’m putting you on notice, if you continue to repeat falsely that I said that, you will be potentially in a defamation situation because I didn’t say that,” Melber threatened, declining Lewandowski’s offer to apologize to former President Trump for his remarks.
The far-left Daily Beast, Mediaite, and Huffington Post covered the exchange in tones suggesting Melber was in the right. However, their reports show that Lewandowski’s characterization of Melber’s statement about Trump and his bandage is correct.
Users on X began quoting Melber’s words back to him after clips of the exchange went viral, criticizing him as both a bully and a wimp for threatening a lawsuit. Melber responded by locking his account.