Lewandowski: Manafort should 'resign' if he personally signed off on Melania Trump's RNC speech
CNN
Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said Tuesday morning that current campaign chairman Paul Manafort should "do the right thing" and "resign" if he personally signed off on Melania Trump's primetime convention speech.
Portions of Melania's speech, billed as the highlight of the first night of the GOP convention, were found to have been lifted from Michelle Obama's 2008 Democratic convention speech.
Lewandowski said on CNN that the Trump campaign was "probably concerned internally" about how the narrative was focused on the plagiarism charges instead of "how great Melania Trump was and how successful this convention is going to be."
"Whoever was the staff person who wrote this speech should be held accountable and should be fired," Lewandowski, who was fired from the Trump campaign last month, said on the cable-news network. "I know accountability. I know accountability in the Trump campaign. I know what it's like to be fired from the Trump campaign."
He added: "There is accountability in everything we do. I've had that accountability. Someone should be held to that same standard."
When asked if Manafort was responsible, Lewandowski said the "buck stops somewhere at the top" and that "whoever signed off" on the speech "should be held accountable."
"And if it was Paul Manafort, he should be held accountable?" CNN host John Berman asked.
"Well, I think if it were Paul Manafort, he would do the right thing and resign," Lewandowski said.
He added: "If he was the last person who saw this and saw this happen, and brought this on the candidate's wife, I think he would resign because I think that's the type of person he would be."
Before Lewandowski was fired from the Trump campaign, multiple reports indicated that his relationship with Manafort was sour. Both, however, have publicly denied the claims.