Sen. Ted Cruz says he would fire Corey Lewandowski over the allegations that he assaulted a female reporter if Lewandowski was Cruz’s campaign manager.

During a Republican presidential town hall, host Anderson Cooper questioned Cruz, “As you know, you talked about it a little bit today, Donald Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski charged today with simple battery. If he was your campaign manager, would you ask him to resign?”

“Of course,” Cruz replied.

“Look it shouldn’t be complicated that members of the campaign staff should not be physically assaulting the press,” he continued. “I mean that shouldn’t be a complicated decision.”

Cooper noted that Lewandowski claims to be innocent of all charges and asked Cruz if he thinks it was assault.

“You know he’s just been charged. I know that the reporter alleged that she was physically assaulted,” Cruz replied. “That, that, I will say it’s consistent with the pattern of the Trump campaign.”

The culture of the campaign has been a campaign built on attacks, on insults, and I think there is no place in politics for insults, for personal attacks, for going to the gutter and there should be no place for physical violence either.

In February Cruz asked for the resignation of his own national spokesman Rick Tyler over a false post regarding then candidate Sen. Marco Rubio. Cruz said at the time, “Our campaign should not have sent it. That’s why I’ve asked for Rick Tyler’s resignation.”

Breitbart News previously reported:

Tyler posted a video that falsely claimed (using subtitles) Rubio told a staffer that there are “not many answers” in the Bible. The truth is that Rubio said, “all of the answers” are in the Bible. Once the truth came out Monday morning, Tyler published an apology on Facebook. Rubio didn’t let it go. The Florida Senator demanded accountability, and now Tyler is out.

Trump attacked Cruz accusing him of making the suggestion of Rubio. The GOP frontrunner posted a series of Twitter posts accusing Cruz of “dirty tricks” over the Tyler incident.

Trump defended Lewandowski on Tuesday after news broke of his campaign manager’s misdemeanor battery charge. He made the defense on Twitter and in an impromptu press conference where he questioned whether the reporter’s bruises were in fact from the incident being discussed.

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