President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, defended the candidate’s remarks on Friday, when he said the former reality TV star was not homophobic and that he did not discriminate against gay and lesbian people.
“He never said he was homophobic, he never said, ‘I hate gays and I hate lesbians,'” Lewandowski told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
“I’m not saying he was not a bigot, I’m just saying that I don’t believe he was.”
Lewandowski said Trump is a good man and that “his views are not anti-gay, he’s not anti-” the words he used to describe gays and lesbian.
Trump’s camp has previously said the president does not hate gay people.
Trump, who is gay, has previously used the term “gay” and “lesbian” to describe himself and his supporters, including a time when he called gay people “degenerates.”
In a tweet on April 28, Trump said he is a “tremendous supporter” of gay rights and that people like him who do not want to be called gay are “ignorant.”
The tweet was later deleted.
Trump has since apologized for the comment, saying it was a “mistake” and that his views are “not anti-LGBT.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that,” Lewandowski explained.
“When he was a candidate he was against gay rights, he was anti-choice, he supported marriage equality and he was very, very clear in his views that he doesn’t hate gay or lesbian people, that he is not homophobic.
He’s never said ‘I want to kill gays and kill lesbians,’ he never, never has.” “
His views are that he loves people of all sexualities.
He’s never said ‘I want to kill gays and kill lesbians,’ he never, never has.”
Trump’s presidential campaign released a statement Friday night, saying the president did not hate gays or lesbians.
“The comments that were made by the President in the past were simply not his,” the campaign said in a statement.
“In the past he has stated that he supports gay rights for all Americans, he supports marriage equality, he has spoken out against bullying and he supports our country’s LGBTQ community.
The President is not anti gay or anti-lgbt.
The views of the President have never been more clear and unequivocal than today.”
In the interview with Hannity, Lewandowski also defended the Trump campaign’s strategy of building a massive social media presence in the aftermath of the 2016 presidential election.
“There’s no doubt that social media was a key part of the campaign,” Lewillard said.
“You have to build a network and build a social media following that’s massive and that’s really important.”
Lewillard added that the Trump team also hired former Google executive John Mueller, who left Google last year, to help build the campaign’s social media.
“If you look at the Google strategy, we didn’t do a lot of social media, we did a lot,” Lewiad told Hannity.
Hannity also asked Lewandowski if the campaign has found the political equivalent of a “super PAC” that can raise unlimited money from wealthy conservatives, which would be a political development.
“It’s a very, really big question,” Lewandowksi said.