Despite loud calls to fire campaign manager Corey Lewandowski after he was charged with misdemeanor battery, Donald Trump strongly defended him and voiced serious doubts about his accuser.  Aboard his private plane in Janesville, Wisconsin, Trump addressed allegations corroborated by police that Lewandowski yanked the arm of a female reporter at an event in Florida on March 8 as she tried to question the candidate. The front-runner said Lewandowski "was acting as an intermediary" and had been "trying to block" reporter Michelle Fields.  "If you look at her she's actually grabbing me," Trump told reporters. "She was running up and grabbing and asking questions and she wasn't supposed to be doing that."  Trump said that he believed Lewandowski was innocent and "should never settle this case." The billionaire added that he had no plans to fire Lewandowski, and questioned whether the bruises on Fields' arm had been a result of her altercation with Lewandowski.  "How do you know those bruises weren't there before?" Trump said. "I'm not a lawyer. She said she had a bruise on her arm. I mean, to me, if you're going to get squeezed, wouldn't you think that she would have yelled out a scream or something, if she has bruises on her arm?"  The charge against Lewandowski comes one week ahead of a key primary in Wisconsin. Trump, who was set to campaign there later Tuesday, has spent recent days feuding with Senator Ted Cruz over the treatment of their wives in the race, and Trump made comments Monday suggesting he is trying to address his vulnerability among women voters.  On Tuesday, Cruz blasted Trump's failure to dismiss Lewandowski.  "It is not complicated. Physically assaulting a reporter is a fireable offense. That ought to be the case in any campaign that is maintaining a standard of integrity," Cruz said at a campaign stop in Cedarburg, in reference to Lewandowski's assault charge.  The gender dynamic of the episode was not lost on Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who, while campaigning in Wisconsin, took time to address the latest turn in Trump's presidential bid.  "I think that every candidate has to be responsible for what happens in their campaign and, as I've said repeatedly, what Donald Trump has been doing these last months is inciting violent behavior and aggressive behavior that I think is very dangerous and has resulted in attacks on people at his events and this charge that was brought against his campaign manager," Clinton told reporters. "I'm not going to comment on a pending legal or criminal case but I think that ultimately the responsibility is Mr Trump's."  Fields said Lewandowski grabbed her on the arm and pulled her when she tried to question the candidate after an event at Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, on March 8, an account backed up by a Washington Post reporter who was present. Fields later resigned from her news outlet, citing a lack of support.  In the days after Fields first made the allegation, Lewandowski called her “totally delusional,” and Trump suggested Fields was lying.  “This was, in my opinion, made up,” Trump said on CNN at the time. “Everybody said nothing happened. Perhaps she made the story up. I think that's what happened.”  GIF from video courtesy Jupiter Police  Surveillance footage “parallels” Fields’ story, according to a report provided by a public-information officer with the Jupiter Police Department on Tuesday that said there was probable cause to charge Lewandowski, 42, with one count of simple battery for touching Fields against her will.  “Fields showed me her left forearm, which revealed bruising from what appeared to be several finger marks indicating a grabbing type injury,” investigating officer Marc Bujnowski said in the report.  On a day when few of Trump's supporters were rushing to his defense, Pennsylvania Congressman Tom Marino praised Fields as a "complete professional," but said he still backed Trump in the presidential race.  "I continue to support Donald Trump because he is the only candidate who has what it takes to secure our borders, protect our country from Islamic terrorists and regenerate our slumping economy after eight years of weak leadership from President Obama," Marino said in an e-mailed statement to Bloomberg Politics.  Lewandowski has garnered a reputation on the campaign trail for taking matters into his own hands. The campaign manager of perhaps the most unorthodox political campaign in recent history has personally assisted Trump’s security guards in breaking up protests and keeping reporters out of the candidate’s path. He appeared to grab a protester by the collar in a brief video of a March 19 Tucson rally.  He earned his stripes in politics as an organizer for the conservative Tea Party group Americans for Prosperity in New Hampshire, whose state Republican primary he helped Trump win in February.  Lewandowski turned himself in to authorities in Jupiter on Tuesday morning, according to the Palm Beach Post. He was ordered to appear in court in Palm Beach Gardens at 8:30 a.m. on May 4, according to a notice provided by the department.  “He was not arrested” and “is completely confident that he will be exonerated,” the campaign said in a statement. Lewandowski will “absolutely” stay with the campaign, spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said on CNN.  Trump suggested Tuesday that Fields had changed her story, tweeting: “Why aren't people looking at this reporters earliest statement as to what happened, that is before she found out the episode was on tape?” Fields, responding on the social network, told him, “Seriously, just stop lying.” A phone call and e-mail to her weren’t immediately answered.  Ted Cruz, John Kasich React to Lewandowski Battery Charge  Trump’s rivals on both sides of the aisle seized on the news.  “That has no place in a political campaign and no place in our democracy,” Cruz told reporters. “It helps clarify for the voters what the Trump campaign is all about.”  An aide to Ohio Governor John Kasich said Lewandowski would be fired if he worked for them.  “Campaigns though always reflect the values of the candidate. I know ours does,” Kasich chief strategist John Weaver said in an e-mail.  Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders declined to say whether Trump should fire Lewandowski.  "Well let's see what happens in the legal process. He has been charged, and we don't find people guilty until you go through a process," Sanders told CNN. "But my campaign manager does not assault female journalists, let me just say that."  —With assistance from Michael C. Bender, Sahil Kapur, Terrence Dopp, Chris Dolmetsch, and Kevin Cirilli.
The campaigns of Cruz and Kasich urged the Republican front-runner to fire Corey Lewandowski, and Hillary Clinton piled on as well.