Ben Shapiro, Michelle Fields Resign: Breitbart Editor, Reporter Quit After Trump Campaign Manager Alleged Assault

Breitbart News Network editor-at-large Ben Shapiro resigned Sunday in protest of the outlet’s handling of a story about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump involving. Shapiro’s resignation went hand-in-hand with the resignation of former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Shapiro says that Breitbart should have supported Fields, who claims that she was assaulted by Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski after she asked his candidate a question at a Trump rally. Instead of backing up Fields, Breitbart suspended her. In a letter to BuzzFeed, Shapiro said that current Breitbart higher-ups had “betrayed” the mission of Breitbart founder Andrew Breitbart under current chairman Steve Bannon.

“In my opinion, [...] Bannon is a bully, and has sold out Andrew’s mission in order to back another bully, Donald Trump; he has shaped the company into Trump’s personal Pravda [...],” Shapiro told Rosie Gray for BuzzFeed.

Fields has filed an assault charge against Lewandowski, saying that he grabbed her and dragged or threw her to the ground. While the Trump campaign initially denied the assault, Fields’ account of the incident was confirmed by a Washington Post reporter who was present.

“This was, in my opinion, made up,” Trump later told reporters, while Lewandowski called the allegation “totally delusional” and that he had “never touched” Fields and “never even met” her.

The incident is symbolic of a widening ideological divide between conservative media outlets that are lining up for and against Trump. A video of the alleged interaction shows Lewandowski touching Fields, bolstering the National Review’s ongoing critical coverage of Trump.

“Breitbart has been key to Trump’s rise, and now it has enabled attacks on its own reporter’s credibility when her story conflicted with the campaign’s. It is difficult to associate with thugs without being stained,” wrote David French for the Review online.

Left-leaning outlets, of course, have been having a field day. Gawker’s Gabrielle Bluestone chalked up Trump and Breitbart’s response to the incident as “gaslighting,” a term for psychological manipulation employed against victims of crimes and other situations.

“With the current state of political discourse in the GOP, it’s understandable that reporters—even friendly conservative ones—are considered the enemy. But their employers should be the ones protecting them—not vilifying and gaslighting them. It’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to work for Breitbart, if this is how Breitbart treats its own,” she wrote last Friday, before Shapiro and Fields announcements that they are resigning.