‘I’m Putting You on Notice:’ Ari Melber Threatens Trump Adviser Corey Lewandowski with Defamation Lawsuit Over ‘False Quote’

MSNBC host Ari Melber warned Corey Lewandowski he was entering a “defamation situation” during Wednesday’s episode of The Beat .

Lewandowski, who recently joined the campaign of former President Donald Trump as an adviser after serving as his campaign manager in 2016, appeared on MSNBC in what was a predictably contentious interview.

Toward the end of the segment, Lewandowski went after Melber over comments he made while covering the Republican National Convention last month.

Just days after the failed assassination attempt on Trump, Melber cited the New York Times , quoting , “On the first night of this convention, Trump was his own biggest prop. [He] entered the VIP box… a large white bandage on his injured right ear.”

Later, Melber added his own words, calling the moment “an image for political mobilization, a spectacle for this candidate who, we know is, by his own admission, obsessed with assorted spectacles.”

Here is Melber’s exchange with Lewandowski:

MELBER: I quoted a New York Times article that said, at the convention, Donald Trump “was his own biggest prop.” It was a New York Times quote about how he –

LEWANDOWSKI: Let me read it to you.

MELBER: –how he had become such an important figure in rebounding from what was a horrific assassination attempt. Fox News–

LEWANDOWSKI: Let me read it to you.

MELBER: Corey, I said I’d address it. I’m gonna finish. Fox News, many viewers may not know about this, but apparently you do, and some do. Fox News, which has been caught in defamation , ran a false piece falsely stating that I said something else that I didn’t say. So, I stand on that. I stand on the New York Times quote.

LEWANDOWSKI: So, you didn’t say, “This bandage was a prop, a spectacle from a candidate who’s obsessed with spectacles.”

MELBER: Uh, Mr. Lewandowski, I did not say that. That is a false quote.

LEWANDOWSKI: I have it right here.

MELBER: What you have is a false quote.

LEWANDOWSKI: You absolutely said it.

MELBER: What you have is a false quote. And if – I’m putting you on notice – if you continue to repeat falsely that I said that, you will be potentially in a defamation situation because I didn’t say that. But I understand that you’re working off the internet, which has a lot of false information.

LEWANDOWSKI: Well, this is what it said. Right here.

MELBER: I wish you luck with that. And Corey Lewandowski, we gave you time.

[CROSSTALK]

MELBER: Thank you for joining me. Cory Lewandowski, Trump 2024. And we will be right back.

Watch above via MSNBC.