Lewandowski: Trump rally in Chicago 'was not a safe environment'

Former Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski faced the wrath of a CNN panel Monday night as he justified the Republican nominee's renewed push for African-American voters in recent days.

Of particular note was Trump's decision to target his message to African-American voters in front of predominantly white crowds in Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan.


CNN's Anderson Cooper asked, "As a campaign manager, wouldn't you want your candidate saying some of these things directly to the people he's supposedly addressing?"

“You know what's amazing to me is no one remembers that Donald Trump went to go have a rally in Chicago at the university," Lewandowski responded during a heated discussion on "Anderson Cooper 360º." "And do you remember what happened? It was so chaotic and it was so out of control that Secret Service and the Chicago Police Department told him you could not get in and out of that facility safely and that rally was canceled. And you showed the footage many times of the individuals who attended that rally. Donald Trump had that rally booked."

The March rally at the University of Illinois at Chicago was called off after protesters clashed with Trump supporters inside the arena where the event was set to begin.

As other panelists asked what the site of that rally had to do with the black community, Lewandowski remarked, “That is a black community. He went to the heart of Chicago to go and give a speech to the university of Chicago [sic] in a campus, predominantly African-American, to make that argument. And you know what happened? The campus was overrun, and it was not a safe environment."

After a spirited back and forth, Lewandowski criticized panelist Angela Rye for failing to consider the substance of Trump's speech rather than the setting. African-Americans are not monolithic, Rye said, which Lewandowski acknowledged, then asking, "So whose fault is that that that particular event in Chicago was completely destroyed?”

“It’s not all black people," Rye declared. Lewandowski responded, “I didn’t say it was.”

Panelist Tara Setmayer, a conservative, interjected by declaring that Trump's March event in Chicago was not specifically tailored to African-Americans.

"It was not to go there to speak to an audience of black folks there. It was to go to a predominantly white audience, just like before," Setmayer said.

Lewandowski shot back: "That audience was not white."

"Yes, it was!" Setmayer said.

"That event is open to everybody," Lewandowski said. "So there were no African-Americans inside that event? I could see them."

Setmayer remarked that the event was "not catered to them."

"That is a complete excuse for blaming it on the venue what happened in Chicago, that's number one," Setmayer continued. "Number two, the point that was made, that's a very simple one. If you want to speak to women or if you wanted to speak a group of single mothers you're not going to go speak to white business executives about an issue that affects single mothers. Tone matters. The venue absolutely does matter."

Lewandowski then asked if it was "not good enough" that he went to Chicago, adding that the city has the "highest murder rate in the country, the most African-American people, and that's not good enough?"

"No, it's not good enough, because why didn't he go to the Urban League where there's black business owners that affect what's going on?" Setmayer asked. "Explain that to me. Explain how that makes sense."

Asked what Trump's policy prescriptions for solving the violence in Chicago are, Lewandowski responded that the candidate has met with the police department, who told him that they just want to be allowed to "do our jobs."

"That means give us the tools to make sure that we can have more people on the street, make sure we have the resources necessary to go and make sure we're stopping criminals," Lewandowski said. "We know where the criminals are."

Lewandowski then pointed to Trump being the first person to allow blacks in his Mar-a-Lago club.

"That was after the damn housing discrimination cases, Corey," Rye shot back. "You guys are not going to hold him out like he's Martin Luther King."

Setmayer added, "I'm really sick and tired of this Mar-a-Lago thing as a talking point."