Lewandowski takes thinly-veiled shot at Manafort amid reshuffle

Donald Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski lauded the hiring of Breitbart executive Stephen K. Bannon and the promotion of chief pollster Kellyanne Conway while taking a not-so veiled shot at former campaign rival Paul Manafort.

"He wants to have people around him who want to win at all costs," Lewandowski said during a segment Wednesday on CNN's "New Day."


Lewandowski, who was fired in June after a power struggle with campaign chairman Paul Manafort, dismissed anchor Chris Cuomo's assertion that the sharp-elbowed Bannon makes campaign chairman Manafort "look like a puppy" and Lewandowski "look like a kitten."

"Breitbart has writers who call CNN Hitler," Cuomo remarked. "They're the most, you know, ham-fisted, fringe, fight-fight-fight, say-whatever-you-have-to-say," Cuomo continued, asking Lewandowski whether the hire of Bannon came as a surprise.

"No, I think what you have is you've got a candidate who wants to win. This is a clear indication of that. If you look at Steven Bannon and what they’ve built at Breitbart, it's win at all costs," Lewandowski responded. "And I think that makes some people on the left very afraid because they're willing to say and do things that others in the mainstream media wouldn't do. They've attacked the mainstream media on multiple occasions. And so what they’re willing to say and do, I think right now that's the type of mind set the campaign wants to prove to the Clinton people, that they're going to take this fight directly to her and that’s what he’s going to take to the campaign."

Lewandowski enunciated the importance of Conway being with Trump "as often as possible," because "he needs a high-profile woman in a senior role there that he can listen to and understand what the gender gap is right now."

"She’s going to help with that. She's an excellent person when it comes to message development. She's done this for a long time. She had a very successful polling company. She also brings a sense of calmness to Donald Trump," he continued. "She understands that when things are fired up, she has this calming effect on him and allows him to manage and message him in a way he wants to do it and he's comfortable with, not trying to tell him what to say, but highlighting some of the message points that are going to resonate better with specific items."

Lewandowski then dug into the campaign's performance since his departure, suggesting that Conway being more present with Trump would fill in leadership gaps lacking since the time of his sacking.

"So her being on the plane is something I think has been lacking which is that senior leadership on the plane for the last two months," Lewandowski said, while declining to mention Manafort by name.