Donald Trump doesn't quite tell Bill O'Reilly why he fired Corey Lewandowski

Bill O&#039;Reilly and Donald Trump discuss the firing of Corey Lewandowski — (Image credit: Fox News/YouTube)

Donald Trump was on Monday's O'Reilly Factor, and of course host Bill O'Reilly asked about campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was dismissed earlier that day. The speculation is that Trump's children wanted Lewandowski out. O'Reilly asked: "He's out — what happened?" Trump said some nice things about Lewandowski, then kind of answered the question:

I think it's time now for a different kind of a campaign. We ran a small, beautiful, well-unified campaign — it worked very well in the primaries. I think I'm going to do some of that — I want to keep it a little bit, very much in control. As an example, I have 73 people, Hillary Clinton has, like, almost 900 people, and we're in the same position. So, you know, there's something nice about that ... But with Corey, I'm really proud of him, he did a great job, but we're going to go a little bit of a different route. [Donald Trump on Fox News]

O'Reilly made a suggestion — "So it's a different style?" — and Trump agreed: "A little different style, yeah. A little different style." O'Reilly attempted to dig a little deeper. In every campaign, "there's power, you know, back-stabbing, and everybody's vying for your attention," he said. "Do you care about that — office politics? Do you care about any of that?" Trump said, "Yeah, I think it does happen here, too, it happens everywhere, and I'm pretty good at it." They talked about running mates, and O'Reilly suggested that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich "would probably be your best bet." Trump agreed that Gingrich would be good, then said it's "conceivable" he would announce cabinet picks other than vice president before the Republican National Convention. "Always instructive," O'Reilly said at the end of the interview. Watch below. Peter Weber

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.