We would say its been a strange and bizarre day in the history of this president ial campaign. Yet in many ways, it just feels like yet another day on this campaign trail, when it involves donald trump. He just spent the better part of the last 30 minutes defending his Campaign Manager, who was, technically, arrested today, on one charge of simple battery. Relating to a confrontation with a reporter on the campaign trail. Hes heading now to a rally trump is. Hes heading now a rally in janesville, hometown of paul ryan. Well take you live to trumps rally when it begins. Trumps Campaign Manager, Cory Lewandowski, turned himself into police in jupiter, florida, today after being charged with that one count of simple battery. Its a misdemeanor, against former breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Youre looking at new video of the incident that police obtained from trumps security team. Something trump, im sorry, kept saying that he provided this video. Police say the video parallels what fields told them about the confirmation. She says lewandowski yanked her arm as she attempted to ask trump a question during a Campaign Event in jupiter, florida, earlier this month. She showed police bruising on her arm after she tweeted this image following the incident. After calling fields delusional, and insisting there was no video of the incident, Trumps Campaign now says they are confident lewandowski will be exonerated. Lewandows lewandowskis Attorney Says he is absolutely innocent of this charge. Trump took to twitter this afternoon, with an attack on the accuser, questioning her motives and suggesting that shes lying. Then he tweeted a about the incident in question, saying, why is she allowed to grab me and shout questions . Can i press charges . Then moments ago, you heard trump defending his Campaign Manager. Trump spoke to reporters when he landed in janesville and took quite a few questions. It lasted about 30 minutes. Lets look at some highlights. Those tapes to me are very conclusive. A lot of people are looking and saying, how can anybody be charged. She was actually if you look at her, shes grabbing at me and hes acting as an intermediary and trying to stop her from doing that. The News Conference was over, it was done and finished and she was running up and grabbing and asking questions and i dont think she should be doing that. And i told him, you should never settle this case. You should go all the way. I think they really hurt a very good person. And i know it would be very eased for me to disregard people, i stay with people. Thats why i stay with this country and stay with a lot of people that are treated unfairly. And thats one of the reasons im the frontrunner by a lot. If you look at that tape, he was very, very seriously maligned. And i think its very unfair. Now, as you might expect, the campaign trail lit up with reaction over this. This all, of course, before trump, himself, reacted. Ted cruz spoke to reporters today while campaigning in milwaukee and heres what he said of the arrest. Its a very sad development. And this is the consequence of the cultural of the Trump Campaign. The abusive culture. When you have a campaign that is built on personal insults, on attacks, and now physical violence, that has no place in a political campaign, and it has no place in our democracy. And i think it is a really unfortunate development, but i do think it helps clarify for the voters, what the Trump Campaign is all about. John kasich addressed the news, as well. He did so after holding a town hall in waukesha. My understanding is that the report is that he grabbed somebody, and thats frankly, totally and completely inappropriate. It could have been one of my daughters, for that matter. Look, i think ive said what i have to say, which is, if it was me, if i was in this circumstance, i would take i would take some sort of action. Either suspension or firing. Folks, youve got to ask yourself, how long can this continue to go on . Look at what trumps two rivals have done when they staffers landed in hot water . Kasichs campaign fired a staffer earlier this month when they learned he was arrested and charged with simple assault for domestic violence. And today, kasichs chief strategist tweeted that, quote, campaigns reflect the values of the candidates. I know ours does. If this bully worked for john kasich, he would have been fired long ago. Ted cruz fired his aide, rick tyler, after he retweeted a misleading report about something marco rubio said. Now, trump risks having a Campaign Manager that has zero credibility with the press corps. And no matter what trump says, he does need that press corps. That said, he is showing loyalty to lewandowski in a way that im sure there are other former fired Campaign Managers that are out there that wished they worked for candidated that loyal. All of this is playing out against a volatile backdrop at trump rallies in general, and perhaps tonight. This is wisconsin, after all. They know how to protest here. Six antitrump protesters were arrested last night while staging a sitin demonstration at tonights venue. And local police say they have reserved, quote, all levels of force to maintain safety. Theyre predicting just as many protesters to show up tonight as trump supporters. Something we havent seen since chicago when trump ended up canceling one of his rallies due to security concerns. By the way, what happens in trump goes to madison . Well leave that aside. Ill be curious to see if he ends up in madison some time before the primary. But lets not forget. Were in the midst of a president ial contest here, folks. Were one week away from the wic primary. The badger state is trying to take on a role that is similar, frankly, to New Hampshire. Sort of a halftime version of it. Its less about delegate math than it is about momentum. Someone or something has to prove that they have the power to slow trump, or the power to slow clinton. Our new nbc News Survey Monkey weekly tracking poll of the republican race shows trump hitting a new high. A 48 support. Thats a big deal. If he can get that over 50, you know what that means. Trump keeps climbing. Up three points since last week. Lets check in with katy tur, shes in the trenches of the Trump Campaign. She joins me now from janesville, wisconsin, where trump is about to take the stage. And its interesting, katy, that he chose to do the onplane presser before the event. That tells you, he wants the event to be all stump speech. Hes not going to talk about this incident at the event, is that what we are here to assume . Reporter yeah, exactly. And notice, he did the all the presser on his campaign plane, when the majority of his normal campaign corps of reporters are here at this janesville rally. So the majority of people who were asking questions, were not people who have been there with him, as a number of these events have occurred or been there, certainly, when that Michelle Fields incident occurred. I would note this. A couple things to note. Number one, the campaign initially came out and said that this never happened. That Michelle Fields never touched Cory Lewandowski. Then they said there was no video to support it. That if it did happen, there would have been video to support it. Now they are saying that it is Michelle Fields who was the agr aggre aggressor and trump is trying to say that she is the one who was going after him. And that is why Cory Lewandowski did what he did. Thats a real change over the course of time from the Trump Campaign itself. This was also not donald trump walking down the street. This was not a donald Trump Campaign rally. This was donald trump in his own estate, in the jupiter golf estate, having a press conference with reporters, who each one were vetted by the campaign and allowed into this press conference. Each one had gone through secret service. Everybody else in that room was a donald trump supporter. So the idea that he may have felt like he was under threat is certainly interesting, especially when you consider that the people in those in that room were people that cover the donald Trump Campaign excuse me, campaign. As for the katy . Go ahead. Something else jumped out at me during his presser, he said, i stick by people, but thats actually not the case. Theres actually quite a few people he has fired in during, when a piece of controversy has flared up. Roger stone and sam nunnberg. And sam nunnberg endorsing ted cruz just this week. He does stand by people who, though, he feels benefits him and have been loyal to him. The core of people around donald trump today are a core of people that have been around donald trump for quite some teime. Im talking about those outside of the campaign. When it comes to Cory Lewandowski, he has been by his side for a well over a year and a half now, or a year and a few months, from before he announced his candidacy. And initially cory was regarded at a lightweight operative who didnt really know what he was doing. He was going to be leading this nochance campaign. Joke campaign. Now he is on the verge of clinching the republican nomination, potentially, and Cory Lewandowski is being credited, at least to some degree, with that success, because he did one thing that most people would not have done. He allowed donald trump to be donald trump. So donald trump has been extraordinarily loyal to Cory Lewandowski this entire time. Hes only grown more loyal to him as hes continued winning. We saw him on stage with donald trump, in maralago a few weeks ago, after this controversy unfolded, after charges were pressed, after the police started looking into this incident. And Cory Lewandowski stood by donald trump, and he said, good job, cory. That right there was an indication that donald trump was not going to part ways with him. It should not come as a surprise that today even after these charges have been filed, hes not parting ways with him, again. Instead, blaming me ining miche fields. Katy tur, in the trenches of the Trump Campaign, thanks very much. And one other point on cory is that not a lot of people were lining up to take this job, and cory was willing to do it under the terms that trump wanted, as you were saying, katy. Thanks very much. Im joined now by our chief legal correspondent, ari melber. And ari, why did Jupiter PoliceDepartment File a onecount misdemeanor charge . Well, i think they filed it, because Michelle Fields came in on march 11th, and wanted to make this, basically, this complaint that was her reaction to what she felt was a completely unwarranted spearing of her, and a denial by the Trump Campaign. And by march 12th, they obtained this video weve all been seeing today from Trump National hotel and got the overhead view that they thought was a clearer view and moved forward with what they have. A probable cause affidavit, alleging there was this physical contact. You and katy just now were having such an important conversation, chuck, because youre talking about what a candidate, donald trump, is saying politically about his employees actions on the campaign, and donald trump has every right, of course, to strike back and cast this however he wants. I could tell you, legally, donald trump is not Cory Lewandowskis lawyer and hes not doing his legal team any favors. The explain. Well, the Standard Defense to a misdemeanor battery is not, oh, this young woman was a physical threat to me. Indeed, misdemeanor battery is not necessarily intent to harm. That is to say, when you think of a battery, where youre trying to punch someone or knock them out. It could be called unwanted touching. Youve got a real tension here i think well see over the coming day where Donald Trumps political interests, chuck, may diverge sharply from his employee, Cory Lewandowskis legal interests. His lawyers will want to say, hey, maybe we want to work this out. Maybe we want to strike a deal. I want to say, its a misdemeanor. This isnt going to go to trial, is it . Well, what youre going to have on legal order, youll have a may hearing, a probable cause hearing, several steps whereby this could not go to trial. But again, the reason a lot of times these things get worked out is because the victim comes forward, talks to the prosecution and the defendant, and you might say, you know, this was unwanted touching, this was not a serious thing, can we work it out with an apology or an anger Management Course were past that point. Were past that point because donald trump is talking the way he is. Cory lewandowski was going to do an interview on Primetime Television and then canceled it. There is going to be further tension here between what is good legally for the Campaign Manager and what his boss wants to do politically. It made no sense legally for him to do an interview tonight. That was no doubt thats the lawyers going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Thats an insane thing to do. Ari melber, thanks very much. Let me quickly now check in with kerry sanders. Hes been in jupiter, florida, where all of this was happening. Kerry, you cover the state of florida all the time. The Jupiter Police department knew the minute they went through with this, that this was going to become a circus. Reporter exactly. And thats probably why we dont see anybody out here speaking for the Jupiter Police department. Look, heres sort of how it all went down. They had Michelle Fields, who made her complaint, and they had ben terrace, the Washington Post reporter, who seemed to corroborate what she had to say. But it was really this video here, the video that ari pointed out, came from Donald Trumps estate to begin with. And if you look at this video, it was that that pushed it over the edge. So the Police Department has to look at that and say, okay, do we see something thats going on here that could warrant a charge, an arrest . Its important to note, the defense Attorney Says there was no arrest, but here is the actual paperwork and according to the Police Department, if you look right up there at the top, you can see, it says, arrest, notice to appear, and the Police Department spokesman sent me a note saying mr. Lewandowski was issued a notice to appear in court. This is an arrest. He was not placed in handcuffs. Now, as you take a look at sort of the timetable here. We have the alleged incident, which was on march 8th. The police are contacted on the 11th. On the 12th, they get this video and then we have the arrest. So really the next steps will be up to, as aris pointed out, the state attorney. Does the state attorney take this to the next level when there is a first appearance on may 4th . Well see how it all goes from there. It would be hard to believe that this will continue to go through the court system, but you know what, a lot of this campaign has been hard to believe. Kerry, thanks very much. Let me check back in with janesville right now. Police are preparing for a sizable crowd of antitrump protesters tonight. Tony dokoupil has been covering that angle, talking with protesters. He joins us now, wisconsin, of course, ground zero for the protest movement of politics back in 2010. So a lot of folks, i would imagine, are well organized out there. What are you seeing, tony . Reporter thats right, chuck. Wisconsin is a state that knows how to protest. Im in the center of those protests right now. The antitrump contingent is moving in a circle around the main road leading up to the holiday inn conference site where donald trump is about to take the stage. Were seeing something unusual here, something we have not seen since chicago, where the number people inside, about 1,000 people, mirrors the number of people outside, about 1,000 people. Now, these are not all opponents of donald trump. What makes it a dangerous situation, you have trump protesters walking directly in front of people who could not get in, who are trump supporters. So theres an exchange there thats troubling. These pictures, these scenes are not very helpful for donald trump, because they underscore a lack of civility. And while wisconsin knows ho uh to protest, wisconsin voters also tell protesters they like civility, they like decorum. This is paul ryans hometown. So when you layer on top of scenes like this the Cory Lewandowski news and the arrest for simple battery, well, that can give some gom voters who are already predisposed not to like donald trump, that could give them significant pause. We caught up with two of those voters earlier today and take a listen to what they had to say. He should be arrested. He should not have put his hands on anybody. You know, like you said, he could use his voice. Theres too much domestic violence, men, you know, abusing women. And it should not habe condoned. Its not even just about women. He seems to get away with saying terrible things, negative things about people that anyone else would probably get in big troub