In the hours after police in Jupiter, Fla., announced they had filed a police report accusing Donald Trump‘s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, of battery, it seemed Fox News was sitting on a major coup: both Lewandowski and the woman who made the claim against him, Michelle Fields, were booked for interviews in prime time.
Lewandowski backed out of his scheduled interview on The O’Reilly Factor, and Fields later canceled her appearance on The Kelly File. Her former Breitbart colleague, Ben Shapiro, explained Fields is “having a tough time,” despite having her allegations against Lewandowski confirmed by surveillance tape released Tuesday.
But Tuesday afternoon, Trump met with reporters and forcefully claimed the videotape proved Fields had exaggerated her story–with the reporter perhaps posing a threat to Trump himself.
Shapiro said those comments weighed on her decision not to appear with Megyn Kelly. “I’ve been encouraging Michelle to come on TV and tell her part of the story since she’s obviously being lied about by Mr. Trump and presumably by the rest of the Trump campaign all day…she didn’t want to be the center of the story.”
In a comment at the end of the hour, Kelly noted she had spoken to Fields. “One thing is clear. Michelle Fields feels very much under attack. She stands by her story and she wants not to be the news, but instead to be covering it.”