Politics

The political class barely shrugged in August when Corey Lewandowski announced he was back at former President Donald Trump’s side. But when Trashelle Odom learned that Lewandowski had joined Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign as a senior adviser, it was a gut punch. That’s because a little over three years ago, in 2021, Odom, then the wife of a wealthy Republican donor, had reported Lewandowski to the police for allegedly assaulting and stalking her at a Las Vegas charity event. Later, she said his lawyers offered her payment to keep quiet. 

Lewandowski, who was Trump’s first campaign manager, was charged with misdemeanor battery and reached an agreement with prosecutors to dismiss the charges in exchange for community service, a $1,000 fine, enrollment in an impulse control class and an apology in court to Odom for “any discomfort he may have caused her.” Lewandowski was ousted from Trump’s orbit, where he’d been running a super PAC supporting the former president. A Trump spokesman vowed at the time that Lewandowski “would no longer be associated with Trump world.”  

In response to a request for comment, lawyers for Lewandowski, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, stated, “Lewandowski was not charged with assault or stalking in Clark County, Nevada. In fact, the case against Mr. Lewandowski was dismissed.”

Odom said his dismissal put her on a path to healing. She divorced, moved to another state, left the world of politics and started a small business while raising her young children.  

So when a friend called her last month to tell her Lewandowski was back in the Trump fold, she told CBS News she was stunned.  

“I just broke down,” she said in her first television interview since Lewandowski’s return. “I was very, very upset.” Odom said she wanted others to hear her story. “He has his power back,” she said. 

Lewandowski’s aggressive style and penchant for personal peccadilloes made for a turbulent tenure in Trump’s orbit. But Trump has stayed loyal to Lewandowksi, bringing him back into his inner circle after he was fired twice, once by the campaign and once by the super PAC Make America Great Again Action. 

The longtime political strategist, who once served as a New Hampshire state trooper, rose to prominence for his role in catapulting Trump — a longshot candidate — all the way to the White House. Since the 2016 election, he’s been described as a kind of comfort pillow for Trump. He is someone who encourages the former president’s more extreme instincts, even when other aides are looking to rein him in. 

“Let Trump be Trump” is Lewandowski’s mantra — and the name of a book he co-wrote in 2017 with Dave Bossie, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager.   

“I just like him,” Trump recently told New York magazine. “Corey’s a character.” Lewandowski faced scrutiny for his treatment of women almost from the start. During the 2016 campaign, CCTV footage showed him grabbing a journalist’s arm following a press conference. Images from the video showed she had bruises on her arm. Lewandowski was charged with simple battery, but prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges. 

Lewandowski’s lawyers said in response to the allegation that the matter “was concluded long ago with Florida authorities electing not to pursue charges after completing their investigation.”

In 2017, a woman told police that Lewandowski slapped her behind during a holiday party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. She objected, according to the police report, but Lewandowski ignored her disapproval and did it again.  

“It was completely demeaning and shocking,” she told Politico, but in the end, she declined to press charges.  

Odom said she’d hoped to never have to publicly revisit the memories. But after learning that Lewandowski had returned to Trump’s side, she told CBS News she felt compelled to come forward and tell her story. She said she wanted to “give a voice” to women who may have had similar experiences but can’t speak up. 

“I want them to feel safe, and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said. 

She described what happened to her that evening as terrifying and at times during the interview fought back tears. Lewandowski, Odom said, made her feel uncomfortable from the moment she sat down next to him.  

“He was targeting just me. His eyes were just on me,” she said.  He quickly turned the conversation to his workout routines and bragged about his sexual prowess. “He said that I should go work out with him in his bedroom …and he was saying how large his privates were and saying how long he lasts in bed because of how much he works out.”

Soon, according to Odom, Lewandwowski began touching her.  “He was … putting his hands, like on my lap,” and he attempted to “just caress my leg and like going up my side and like, trying to touch my butt.” She said when she left the dinner, Lewandowski followed her through the hotel.  

“I felt like I was his prey,” she said. “He was very persistent, aggressive.” At one point, she said Lewandowski threw his drink at her. When she confronted him about it, “he started laughing,” Odom recalled.  

Odom, now 35, was exposed to the political world through her now ex-husband, John Odom, a Boise, Idaho, construction executive who gave generously to Trump’s reelection effort. But she said she doesn’t want her story to be caught up in the political maelstrom. 

“I don’t want it to be about Trump. I don’t want it to be about politics,” she said.

And yet, she is speaking out just a month before the presidential election, at a time when Trump is facing a historic gender gap with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. According to CBS News’ most recent polling, Harris leads Trump among women, 55% to 44%. Well aware of the deficit, Trump has been courting women voters. He recently took to social media to make the case that women would be far better off if he were to win the presidency, rather than Harris.  

“I will protect women at a level never seen before,” he boasted on Truth Social. “They will finally be healthy, hopeful, safe, and secure.” 

But Trump, of course, has his own baggage when it comes to the treatment of women. Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by no fewer than 20 women over the years, allegations that he has denied. And last year he was held liable for sexual abuse in a civil case brought by magazine journalist E. Jean Carroll (Trump is appealing the verdict). 

Meanwhile, evidence has emerged that the Trump campaign has paid money to women to bury their accusations. A July filing in a gender discrimination case against the 2016 Trump campaign included text messages from former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis alleging that the campaign settled multiple sexual harassment cases. For her part, Odom revealed in her CBS News interview that Lewandowski’s lawyers had offered her more than $30,000 to keep the episode confidential. She rejected the offer. 

A few days after Odom accused Lewandowski of sexually harassing her, she got a call from Trump, who himself has been found guilty in a “hush money” case. 

During their conversation, Trump alleged that Lewandowski had been drunk. Odom said she appreciated the call. Donald Trump Jr. called, as well, expressing his regret over what had happened to her.  

“He was very kind and said things to make me feel like Corey would not be there anymore,” Odom said.

The Trump campaign has not responded to a request for comment.

Since Lewandowki has been back, he’s been given a public-facing role, defending Trump and driving the campaign’s message in multiple TV interviews. He has not been asked about Odom’s accusation. Odom, for her part, never wanted to go on television to talk about what happened to her that night in Las Vegas, but she said she felt she had no choice. She believes Lewandowski has not changed. 

“If I can give just a little bit to one person, me speaking up is worth it,” she said through tears.

Iran’s supreme leader on Friday praised the country’s recent missile strike on Israel and said it was ready to do it again if necessary, state TV reported.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in his first appearance as leader at Friday prayers in about five years, called the missile strike a “shining” job by Iran’s armed forces.

On Tuesday, Iran launched at least 180 missiles at Israel, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its allies that threaten to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide conflict. Israel said it intercepted many of the missiles, and officials in Washington said U.S. destroyers assisted in Israel’s defense.

Iran said most of its missiles hit their targets. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Khamenei, 85, said in a 40-minute speech to thousands of people at the Mosalla mosque, the main prayer site in Tehran, that the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel nearly a year ago on Oct. 7, 2023, was a legitimate action by the Palestinian people.

3:05
Israel weighing response to Iran’s missile barrage

He said Tuesday’s missile barrage was based on international law, the country’s law and Islamic beliefs.

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He urged nations from “Afghanistan to Yemen and from Iran to Gaza and Yemen” to be ready to take action against the enemy, and praised those who had died doing so.

“Our resisting people in Lebanon and Palestine, you brave fighters, you loyal and patient people, these martyrdoms and the blood that was shed shouldn’t shake your determination but make you more persistent,” he said.

Khamenei gave half of the speech in Arabic as he addressed his comments to Arab nations.

His last appearance at Friday prayers was after the death of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in 2020 in a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad.

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Trudeau on Iran missile attack: ‘We must do everything we can to avoid wider war’

A ceremony commemorating the death of Lebanese Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was held before Khamenei’s speech. Most high-ranking Iranian officials, including President Masoud Pezeshkian and top Revolutionary Guard generals, attended the ceremony.

Iran is Hezbollah’s main backer and has sent weapons and billions of dollars to the group.

Also on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, where he was expected to discuss ongoing fighting between Israel and Hezbollah with Lebanese officials.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Iran sent a shipment of aid to Lebanon, including 10 tons of food and medicine.

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Former President Barack Obama will soon begin campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris. He is set to embark on a blitz across the battleground states, with several events in the last month before Election Day. 

The former president will kick off his campaign efforts next Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Pittsburgh area. It’s unclear if Harris will appear with him. 

Obama has been a staunch supporter of Harris since she joined the top of the Democratic ticket, officially endorsing her just days after President Biden exited the race. Obama vowed to do anything he could to help Harris defeat former President Donald Trump. 

“Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems, she’ll be focused on yours,” Obama said in an address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. “A president, she won’t just cater to her own supporters and punish those who refuse to kiss the ring or bend the knee. She’ll work on behalf of every American. That’s who Kamala is.”

Harris and Obama have yet to appear together this cycle, and while it is not yet known if they will before Election Day, their relationship stems back to when the former president was seeking a Senate seat in Illinois. Harris also campaigned for Obama during his 2008 presidential run.

Obama’s first campaign event will take place in one of the most contested battleground states. In 2020, President Biden won the Keystone state by less than 81,000 votes, flipping a state that Trump won in 2020. 

Harris herself has visited Pennsylvania more than 13 times in 2024, and seven times since launching her presidential bid. Surrogates like her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, have also campaigned in Pennsylvania. 

The latest CBS News polling shows the presidential race remains a tight contest, with Harris up four points nationally over Trump, 52% to 48% among likely voters, and with a slight edge of 51% to 49% in the battleground states. 

Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney hit the campaign trail with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday in Ripon, Wisconsin, part of a coordinated effort by the Harris campaign to deploy her Republican allies to key battleground states in the final month of the presidential campaign.

“I tell you, I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris,” Cheney told the crowd.

Cheney said in September that both she and her father, Republican former Vice President Dick Cheney, would be voting for Harris over their party’s nominee, former President Donald Trump.

Cheney is a long-time critic of Trump’s, and she was one of just 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. She later served as vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the deadly attack.

“At the very heart of our survival as a republic is the peaceful transition of power,” Cheney said Thursday, adding that the president has an obligation to guarantee this. “Every president in our history has fulfilled that duty, every president until Donald Trump.”

The joint Harris-Cheney event took place only a day after a federal judge in Washington D.C. unsealed a 165-page filing from Special Counsel Jack Smith, detailing evidence against Trump in his criminal election interference case.

After six years in office including two years as chair of the House Republican Conference, Cheney lost her Wyoming GOP primary race in 2022 to Trump-backed Rep. Harriet Hageman. In her primary concession speech, Cheney attributed her loss directly to her opposition to Trump.

Thursday’s venue was carefully chosen: Ripon, Wisconsin is known as the birthplace of the Republican Party because a one-room schoolhouse there was the site of at least two meetings that helped form the Republican Party in 1854. Today, the schoolhouse is a National Historic Landmark.

Harris also addressed the significance of the town in her remarks, and promised to be “a president for all Americans,” in a direct appeal to Republican voters.

“Liz Cheney stands in the finest tradition of [the Republican party’s] leaders,” said Harris. “And if people across Wisconsin and our nation are willing to do what Liz is doing, to stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals … then together, I know we can chart a new way forward, not as members of any one party, but as Americans.”

Flanked by campaign signs that said “Country over Party,” Harris spoke about the importance of a peaceful transfer of power in a democratic republic.

“If you share that view, no matter your political party, there is a place for you with us in this campaign,” she said.

The Harris campaign has been looking for ways to take advantage of opposition to Trump within the Republican party.

In August, the campaign launched “Republicans for Harris.” Since then, a small but growing number of prominent Republicans have come out in support of Harris’ presidential campaign, including former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson and the Cheneys.

Ahead of Harris’ visit, a group of over 20 former and current Wisconsin Republican leaders launched the Wisconsin Republicans for Harris-Walz campaign platform, and endorsed Harris for president in an open letter.

“We have plenty of policy disagreements with Vice President Harris. But what we do agree upon is more important,” the group wrote. “We agree that we cannot afford another four years of the broken promises, election denialism, and chaos of Donald Trump’s leadership.”

The group said it would host Republican voter outreach events with a focus on areas of Wisconsin where former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley won considerable support in her GOP presidential primary campaign against Trump.

Although the former president won Wisconsin’s Electoral College votes in his upset victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, four years later, Democratic President Joe Biden flipped the Badger State back to blue.

Recent polls show Harris and Trump essentially tied, or within the margin of error, in the presidential race nationally. Yet most polls show Harris with a small, but consistent, lead over Trump in Wisconsin.

Thursday night’s campaign event was Harris’ fifth visit to Wisconsin, and her first visit to the town of Ripon since she launched her presidential campaign in July.

The government has been unable to put any of its own business before the House of Commons for a full week, and the Conservatives on Thursday said that’s the result of Liberal “corruption.”

Conservative House leader Andrew Scheer said the governing party would rather see the House bogged down in debate than produce documents related to misspent government dollars in a program his party has dubbed the “green slush fund.”

House Speaker Greg Fergus ruled last Thursday that the government “clearly did not fully comply” with an order from the House to provide documents related to a now-defunct foundation responsible for doling out hundreds of millions of federal dollars for green technology projects.

The House has been seized with a debate on the issue ever since and Scheer said it will stay that way until the government agrees to hand over the documents to police.

“They’re willing to have Parliament ground to a halt rather than hand over this information to the RCMP for a potential criminal investigation,” Scheer said in an interview Thursday.

The RCMP told MPs this summer they likely would not be able to use the documents as part of an investigation, but Scheer said they should have access to all the information before they decide.

3:09
Liberals, Conservatives trade allegations of corruption: ‘Lining her own pockets’

The Liberals claimed that ordering the production of documents to be handed over to the RCMP blurs the lines between Parliament and the judiciary, and blame Conservatives for the dysfunction in the House.

Liberal House leader Karina Gould called the request for the documents an abuse of Parliament’s power that tramples on the Charter rights of Canadians.

“Let’s be very clear, this is the Conservatives trying to muck up Parliament,” Gould said Thursday.

“Conservative members of Parliament are here for their own political, personal objectives and they don’t care what they do to Canadians in the meantime, and that is something that should be extremely alarming to all of us.”

Scheer said the Charter exists “to protect the people from the government. It is not there to protect the government from accountability by the people.”

A similar dispute over government documents played out when the Conservatives were on the governing side of the aisle during a minority government dispute more than a decade ago.

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In 2009, the House ordered the government to disclose unredacted documents related to Canada’s role in the torture of Afghan detainees.

A few weeks after opposition parties passed a motion demanding the documents be produced, then-prime minister Stephen Harper prorogued Parliament for several months, preventing the House committee from pursuing the issue.

1:15
Liberals say they’ll co-operate with ArriveCan investigation as Conservatives probe for answers

In this case, the Liberal government abolished Sustainable Development Technology Canada after the auditor general released a scathing report about the organization’s management last spring.

Of the projects she looked at, one in every six that received funding were ineligible. The auditor’s report also found 90 cases where conflict-of-interest polices were violated.

A month later, the ethics commissioner concluded that the former chair of the foundation failed to recuse herself from decisions that benefited organizations to which she had ties.

The House has been in a state of almost constant turmoil since the MPs returned to Ottawa in mid-September.

The Conservatives have made two attempts to topple the minority government with non-confidence motions. Though both attempts failed to win the support of other opposition parties, the Conservatives promise there will be more such votes to come.

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet decried a “lack of respect for democracy” in the chamber during an unrelated press conference on Thursday in Chicoutimi, Que.

Blanchet claimed Bloc MPs are among the few in Parliament asking thoughtful questions instead of “spouting slogans and banging on the desk,” like other parties in the House.

“They are proud to have repeated the same thing that they’ve repeated 60 times in the last 60 days,” he said in French.

“Refusing to answer questions, when there are real ones, is no more respectful of voters.”

1:40
Bloc Québécois push for pension payment increase

Among the few votes that have gone ahead this week was a Bloc Québécois motion to push the government to support its pension bill for seniors under the age of 75, a change that would cost more than $3 billion a year.

Though the Conservatives have criticized what they call politically motivated inflationary spending, they threw their support behind the bill.

Scheer did not respond to a question about why the party supported the motion.

The Conservative critic for seniors, Anna Roberts, said in a statement that the government’s inflationary spending has “increased the cost of groceries and gas and put added strain on Canadian families and seniors on fixed incomes.”

The Conservatives have also asked Canada’s lobbying commissioner to investigate whether it violates ethics rules for the prime minister to make Mark Carney a Liberal adviser.

The Liberals announced at their recent caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C., that Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor, had been appointed chair of a task force on economic growth.

They said Carney will help shape the party’s policies for the next election, and will report to Justin Trudeau and the Liberal platform committee.

2:33
Conservatives say Freeland being ‘shoved aside’ by Liberals for Mark Carney

Tory ethics critic Michael Barrett said in a letter to the commissioner that Carney is not registered to lobby federally, but his corporate positions put him in several potential conflicts of interest.

“How could any ministerial staff member, member of Parliament or cabinet minister not feel a sense of obligation to Mr. Carney because of his close affiliation with the prime minister and minister of finance?” Barrett asked in his letter Thursday.

Carney is also the chair of Brookfield Asset Management, which is in talks with the government to launch a $50-billion investment fund with support from Ottawa and Canadian pensions.

When asked about Carney’s potential conflict of interest in the House, Health Minister Mark Holland accused the Conservatives of trying to “smear” a Canadian who is renowned around the world.

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