CNN’s John Berman and Corey Lewandowski held a contentious conversation on Wednesday over the deterioration of civil political discourse nationwide.
Despite repeated attempts by Berman to have Lewandowski, who was President Donald Trump’s campaign manager for his 2016 bid for the White House, comment on the president’s contribution to the deterioration in civil discourse, Lewandowski repeatedly deflected and refused to address the question.
After arguing over the details of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders expulsion from The Red Hen restaurant in Virginia, Berman asked if the president was not also responsible for the low level of discourse when he repeatedly encouraged his supporters to punch and physically assault protesters during his campaign rallies.
Lewandowski did not answer the question, instead continuing to speak about the incident involving Sanders, as reported in Mediaite.
When Berman pressed him to answer the question, asking if Trump’s threats were “the same thing or worse than suggesting to leave a restaurant,” Lewandowski again refused to acknowledge the incidents, instead deflecting to the harassment of Sanders and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
After several unsuccessful attempts to get him to answer, Berman then asked Lewandowski if he had any regret for his "womp, womp" response to the story of a migrant child with Down Syndrome who was taken away from her parents amid Trump’s child separation policies.
But Lewandowski repeatedly refused to express regret or apologize, instead saying that his comment was not "directed at a child. It was directed at a left-wing Democratic activist trying to use a child as a political tool."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.