Republican front-runner Donald Trump launched into a theatrical display during a Tuesday rally, mocking a female reporter whose high-profile battery complaint against his campaign manager resulted in a misdemeanor criminal charge hours earlier.

He read aloud the initial statements of former Breitbart.com journalist Michelle Fields, saying her claims had 'changed big-league' between the March 8 incident with Corey Lewandowski and the emergence of video footage covering the fateful moments.

As Trump spoke to a capacity crowd of cheering backers in southern Wisconsin, there were cries of 'She’s a liar!' and 'it was bulls***'.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a member of Trump's U.S. Secret Service detail told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that Fields made physical contact with Trump twice – and was warned by agents to stop – before Lewandowski grabbed her arm to pull her away from the billionaire.

'She crossed in between agents and our protectee after being told not to,' said the agent, who was present that night in Jupiter.

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ACTING IT OUT: Donald Trump mocked reporter Michelle Fields on Tuesday in Wisconsin, acting out her initial statements about an alleged battery by his campaign manager, and claiming that her story had changed

Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski (left) was charged in Florida with simple battery after journalist Michelle Fields (right) claimed he intentionally grabbed and bruised her arm

'Before she knew she was on tape, she said: 'I was jolted backwards!'' Trump said, rendering the words in an exaggerated tone.

'Was she jolted backwards? I mean, if she was, her face stayed the same.' he insisted.

'I was jolted backwards! Someone grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. Campaign managers aren't supposed to forcefully throw reporters to the ground,' Trump continued, reading from a March 10 account published under Fields' name.

'Except she never went to the ground. She never even came – she never even flinched!'

One brief moment in the performance may generate more controversy for the businessman-turned-pol.

Asking whether his audience members had seen the video footage released by police on Tuesday, he asked: 'What did you think, right? Nothing!'

And then he began, and abruptly ended, a sentence that raised eyebrows.

'Women are so –' he said, quickly shifting gears to, 'What did you think?' as he pointed into the crowd.

It's not clear which adjective he was about to link with the fairer sex.

Trump also said he would not be firing his top campaign lieutenant, calling him 'a good guy.'

'The easiest thing' to do, he said, would be to say: ''Corey, you're fired.' I can't do that. Can't do it.'

'He's got a beautiful wife and children,' Trump said of Lewandowski, 'and I'm not gonna destroy a man for that.'

Hours later Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Trump's main Republican rival said the aide should be let go.

'Of course,' he told CNN's Anderson Cooper during a town hall broadcast.

'Look, it shouldn't be complicated that members of the campaign staff should not be physically assaulting the press. I mean, that shouldn't be a complicated decision,' Cruz added.

But when it was Trump's turn at the microphone, he told CNN's audience that Lewandowski will remain at the helm of his presidential campaign.

'We have to tell it like it is. It would be so easy for me to terminate this man,' he said, arguing that he is standing up against 'political correctness.'

'I stick up for people who are unjustly accused,' Trump said.

Donald Trump and his Arizona campaign chairman Jeff DeWit called into question the object that Michelle Fields had in her hand as she approached the candidate

The Trump campaign is now saying that journalist Michelle Fields 'grab[bed]' at the candidate first before Corey Lewandowski pulled her away

Donald Trump answered questions about the controversy this afternoon as he touched down in Wisconsin saying he supported campaign manager Corey Lewandowski

Trump's elaborate pantomime came on the same day Lewandowski was charged with simple battery for allegedly grabbing Fields, a case that hinges on her claim of unwelcome physical contact.

The Secret Service's version of events may ultimately show that she took the same action against Trump.

'Can I press charges?' Trump asked Tuesday on Twitter.

He repeated the question – mostly in jest – on CNN.

'She was grabbing me. Am I supposed to press charges against her?' Trump asked Cooper.

'Maybe I should, right? Because you know what, she was grabbing me!'

'My arm!' Trump complained in a mocking sing-song voice. 'It's never been the same, folks. Never been the same!'

Trump has said he was upset that he wasn't interviewed by Florida police in the aftermath of the incident.

Trump, in an interview with Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity to air Tuesday night, said he thought it was 'very unjust' that 'nobody' from law enforcement called him.

'You know, they're chopping off heads, they're drowning people in the Middle East,' Trump said. 'We're going to destroy a man's life?'

One still frame from surveillance video from Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter shows the real estate tycoon pulling his arm away from Fields.

Recalling his interaction with Fields during the March 8 press conference at his country club in Jupiter, Florida, Trump said Tuesday that he was 'leaving with a whole big gang of people, people pushing left and right, left and right. And all of a sudden she bolts into the picture.'

'She grabs me or hits me on the arm.'

'In fact, I'm like this, with my arm up,' he added, gesturing to match the video frame.

'And then [Lewandowski] goes by and I'm – I mean, maybe he touched her a little bit.'

Trump also suggested that his campaign manager may have been 'trying to keep her off me.'

Video shows that Fields walked alongside Trump to ask a question. She later said Lewandowski grabbed and bruised her, an account he initially denied.

The aerial footage from inside the country club ballroom, which is a series of still photographs taken at steady intervals, doesn't capture Fields making contact with Trump. But it shows him apparently pulling his arm away from her.

'We supplied those tapes and those tapes to me are very conclusive,' Trump told journalists aboard his airplane after he landed in Wisconsin.

The Jupiter Police Department released footage on Tuesday giving the public an eagle-eye view of the incident where Corey Lewandowski's grab at Michelle Fields is clear

Other photographs from March 8 indicate that Fields held something in her left hand – likely a pen or a lipstick – that Lewandowski may have seen as a threat. He said later that he didn't know who the reporter was.

Jeff DeWit, Trump's Arizona campaign chairman, told CNN on Tuesday that Fields 'lunge[d]' into Trump's 'private space to try and stop him to ask a question and she has a circular object, I don't know if it's a highlighter or something ... in her hand that she's touching to Donald Trump.'

'When you lunge out of a crowd at a leading presidential candidate who has Secret Service protection and you touch him with an object I think it's safe to say that you might get your arm grabbed,' DeWit argued.

'She lunged out from a crowd towards a leading presidential candidate with something in her hand. This keeps getting forgotten,' DeWitt said, adding that Lewandowski had served double duty as one of Trump's 'body' men – his security forces – before Secret Service took over that role a few months earlier.

Echoing DeWit, Trump dashed off a tweet showing the close-up photograph of Fields holding the object.

'Why is this reporter touching me as I leave news conference? What is in her hand??' Trump wrote.

Initial reports said Lewandowski was 'arrested,' but the Trump campaign said in a statement that he had turned himself in and signed a 'Notice to Appear' – a misdemeanor summons – a version of events that police later confirmed.

Donald Trump jumped to Corey Lewandowski's defense this afternoon on Twitter suggesting that Michelle Fields had blown the incident out of proportion

MICHELLE FIELDS PULLS OUT OF APPEARANCE WITH MEGYN KELLY Michelle Fields was to do her first media hit tonight with Fox News Channel's Megyn Kelly, according to accounts on Twitter, but later pulled out. While Fields went to police to file charges against Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Kelly has long been a foe to Trump. The Donald pulled out of a debate in Iowa, which was moderated by Kelly, after Fox released a sarcastic statement mocking Trump for polling his Twitter followers on whether he should attend the Des Moines confab. Since then Trump has gone head-to-head with Kelly once, while pulling out of another debate, which Fox was supposed to sponsor. So far today, Fields has only responded once – to the charge from Trump that her earlier account didn't match what was in the police report. 'Seriously, just stop lying,' she warned. Advertisement

'He came in by himself, without us picking him up, and signed his notice to appear,' said Officer Joseph Beinlich of the Jupiter Police Department, a spokesman who added that no booking photo was taken.

A Trump spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about the Secret Service account of the March 8 events.

But Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said on CNN that Fields 'crossed the threshold of the Secret Service,' hinting at what might be a defense for Lewandowski during a scheduled May 4 hearing.

It's unclear why agents themselves didn't intervene.

Fields will also find her own credibility under question as elements of the surveillance video disagree with her written account of the incident.

'Trump acknowledged the question, but before he could answer I was jolted backwards. Someone had grabbed me tightly by the arm and yanked me down. I almost fell to the ground but was able to maintain my balance. Nonetheless, I was shaken,' she wrote on the Breitbart site afterward.

The video appears to show Lewandowski grasping Fields on the upper arm and pulling her laterally, but there is no indication she was pulled downward or had trouble staying on her feet.

She later tweeted a photo of bruising on her forearm.

Donald Trump said Corey Lewandowski (left) is 'absolutely innocent of this charge' after his campaign manager was charged with a misdemeanor in Florida

Lewandowski pushed back at the time, calling Fields 'totally delusional. I never touched you.'

Following a debate Trump said that he believed Fields had concocted the story for attention.

In another tweet Lewandowski labeled Fields 'an attention seeker who once claimed Allen West groped her but later went silent.'

Fields filed her police report on March 11.

Tuesday's report from the Jupiter Police Department said that Lewandowski was charged with intentionally grabbing and bruising Fields' arm against her will.

'Battery,' as distinguished from 'assault,' involves touching, not harming, an individual.

Trump issued a supportive statement, saying that Lewandowski 'is absolutely innocent of this charge. He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is completely confident that he will be exonerated.'

Corey Lewandowski pushed back on Michelle Fields' charge that he grabbed her by sharing a report that said she 'claimed Allen West groped her but later went silent'

Donald Trump's campaign manager denied the incident, which Michelle Fields wrote about in first-person on the Breitbart website

The March 8 incident came as escalating violence at Trump campaign events was dominating political headlines.

And the criminal charge comes after a week in which his campaign was accused of smearing a handful of women ensnared by a speculative National Enquirer story suggesting romantic involvement with Trump rival Ted Cruz, a Texas senator.

Fields has not responded to a request for comment. She was supposed to appear on the Kelly File, alongside Trump's foe Megyn Kelly, according to the Boston Globe's Matt Viser, but she cancelled her appearance, reported Politico's Hadas Gold.

Washington Post reporter Ben Terris, who stood near her in the March 8 Trump media scrum, supported her version of events.

He wrote that he had 'watched as a man with short-cropped hair and a suit grabbed her arm and yanked her out of the way. He was Corey Lewandowski, Trump's 41-year-old campaign manager.'

Their conversation was included in the Jupiter Police Department's report.

'Holy s**t, I can't believe he just did that ... that was so hard, was that Corey? You should have felt how hard he just grabbed me,' Fields is recorded saying to Terris.

Terris then responds that Lewandowski 'just like threw you out of the way, like what threat were you?' the police report says.

Michelle Fields tweeted a photo of her bruised arm after Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski allegedly grabbed her

Michelle Fields sent out this tweet alongside a photo of her bruised arm challenging both Corey Lewandowski and Donald Trump

When police contacted Terris he reiterated the account and described Lewandowski's action as a 'yank.'

But some of the top people at Bretibart didn't immediately support her account, leading Fields and a handful of others to resign from the right-wing news organization.

In the meantime, Lewandowski found himself in more trouble as video surfaced of him tugging on the collar of a protester in Tucson, Arizona, lending credibility to Fields' charge.

Both Politico and Buzzfeed published articles, using unnamed sources, that suggested Lewandowski had a history of untoward behavior toward female members of the media.

Jupiter Police released a video, with a never-before-seen eagle eye view of the incident, to the public, along with the announcement of the criminal charge.

Previous videos showing the interaction between Fields and Lewandowski were obscured because of the large crowd of reporters circling the GOP frontrunner.

Even with the footage, Trump pushed back.

'Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes-nothing there!'

'Why aren't people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to what happened, that is before she found out the episode was on tape?' he continued on Twitter.

Fields responded directly to this claim Tuesday on Twitter – her only comment on the controversy so far – writing: 'Because my story never changed.'

'Seriously, just stop lying,' Fields added.

In the report, Fields tells police that she 'fell back but caught herself from falling,' though the video doesn't capture a full stumble.

Penning her initial account, she heightened the drama.

'Even if Trump was done taking questions, Lewandowski would be out of line. Campaign managers aren't supposed to try to forcefully throw reporters to the ground, no matter the circumstance,' Fields opined.

Trump, talking to reporters, said this sounded like she 'fell out of a building.'

In the report the officer describes the action at question as this: 'Lewandowski then grabbed Fields left arm with his right hand, causing her to turn and step back.'

'This motion cleared a path for Lewandowski to walk past Fields, allowing him to "catch up" and get closer to Trump, who was walking during this entire incident,' the report, signed by an officer Marc Bujnowski, continued.

Corey Lewandowski was charged this morning with misdemeanor battery after allegedly grabbing a reporter at a news conference in Jupiter, Florida, with enough force to leave bruising

Michelle Fields and Ben Terris' account of the incident, along with the security footage, gave Jupiter police 'probably cause' to charge Donald Trump's campaign manager with simple battery

'Based on the above-described investigation probable cause exists to charge Corey Lewandowski ...with one count of Simple Battery ... in that he did intentionally touch Michelle Fields ... against the will of Michelle Fields,' the report concluded.

Trump's political rivals quickly jumped on the story to criticize the billionaire's campaign.

Sen. Ted Cruz called the incident a 'consequence of the culture of the Trump campaign, the abusive culture.'

'When you have a campaign that is built on personal insults on attacks and now physical violence, that has not place in a political campaign and it has not place in a democracy,' Cruz continued, speaking to reporters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin this afternoon.

Cruz also called the development 'unfortunate.'

'But I think it does clarify for the voters what the Trump campaign is all about,' Cruz added.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich shook his head at the incident.

'It could have been one of my daughters,' he noted, saying he doesn't personally know Lewandowski, but talking about the ordeal with reporters made him feel 'going down in the ditch here.'

'If it was me, if I was in this circumstance, I would take some sort of action, either suspension or firing,' Kasich added.

'Campaigns reflect the values of the candidate,' tweeted Kasich's chief strategist John Weaver, backing up his boss.

'I know ours does. If this bully worked for John Kasich, he would have been fired long ago,' Weaver added.

Cruz's spokeswoman Catherine Frazier echoed the sentiment.

'Unfortunately, this abusive behavior seems to be part of the culture of the Trump campaign. Personal attacks, verbal attacks, and now physical attacks have no place in politics or anywhere else in our society,' she wrote in an email to Dailymail.com.

Even Jane Sanders, the wife of Democratic hopeful Bernie Sanders, chimed in,

'There is a tone in the Trump campaign that is disrespectful of others,' Sanders told MSNBC's Kate Snow. 'I guess it carries through, not just in the rallies but in the campaign itself.'

During his quick press conference on his plane, Trump pushed back saying there wasn't a broader takeaway about this incident that applied to his campaign.

'I think it says nothing about the campaign. If you look he was trying to block her, that's how I would look at it,' Trump said again.

Trump also said he planned to ignore calls to fire Lewandowski, like Kasich had suggested.

'Corey's a fine person,' Trump said. 'And I tell him, 'You should never settle this case, you should go all the way.' I think they've really hurt a very good person.'

'And I know it would be very easy for me to discard people,' Trump continued. 'I don't discard people, I stay with people, that's why I stay with this country.'

That's why I stay with a lot of people who are treated unfairly. That's one of the reasons why i'm the frontrunner by a lot,' he said.