Lewandowski will join us here in just one moment. He had been with trump since the very beginning and up until this morning trump remained loyal to his Campaign Manager. In march, lewandowski was arrested for an alleged altercation with a reporter. Trump stood by him then telling reporters i dont discard people. A few weeks later lewandowski was asked about reports of campaign dysfunction and he rejected them. Respectfully, this sounds less like a president ial campaign and more like game of thrones. You know what this is . This is media hype. The media wants to perpetuate this story that theres infighting moens the campaign. Were winning. This team is very cohesive, its small, lean, efficient and it will come at Hillary Clinton for this presidency come november. Things have gone downhill quickly since that time. Trump has been derided by Party Leaders for a string of incentive the and controversial remarks, everything from his reaction to the orlando massacre to racial attacks on a federal judge Whose Campaign operation has fallen well behind the financial juggernaut of his rival Hillary Clinton hes tumbling in the polls. Down seven in the newest Monmouth University polls and there has emerge add group of delegates intent on a convention coup. Lewandowski seemed to pin the blame on trumps top strategist telling the a. P. Paul manafort has been in operational control of the campaign since april 7. Thats a fact. Sources tell nbc news that manafort will become the Trump Campaign manager. Joining me now is former Trump Campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Corey, nice to see you. Appreciate your time on this day. The simple question out of the gates was why were you fired . Peter, lets look at the campaign and where we are and what weve overcome already. Donald trump entered this race a political novice, never having run for offers in any way, shape or form before, in 12 months he went from entering a race to becoming the republican nominee. During that process, he vanquished 17 opponents, run 37 states. All the more reason you should still be the Campaign Manager if youd had such a successful run. What was the reason you were given and who communicated the news to you that you had been fired . I dont want to get into the details but this election moving forward is a binary choice. Its a choice between Hillary Clinton and donald trump for the presidency of this country. We have a person who has a proven track record of creating jobs in the private sector and can bring that knowledge to the Public Sector and a person whos lived off of the government and has enriched their own lives out of their work from government service. Corey, understanding all those things, these are conversations we and you and other reporters have had before. None of that has changed in your opinion, so what did change today is you got fired. So in simple terms, did donald trump have the courtesy to tell you that you had been fired or did somebody else tell you that . I had a great conversation with mr. Trump and its been a privilege for me to serve the last 19 months on this campaign. I can tell you i have no regrets. Its been an honor. I respect mr. Trump. I respect him more so than any other person whos ever entered this race and i will do Everything Possible through me and my friends and family to ensure donald trump is the next president of the United States. There have been questions raised about your temperament through the course of this campaign. There was a new former advisor to the Campaign Michael caputo who just frankly minutes after it was announced today that you had been fired tweeted a photo of the wicked witch, her shoes, and it said dingdong the witch is dead. A reference do you, were told caputo has now resigned. The campaign confirming that. What does it say about your temperament that people within the campaign and a lot of them have reached out to us privately today thought that frankly you were the bad guy inside the headquarters. I dont know Michael Caputo and he was never paid by the campaign. Hes a volunteer and hes welcome to tweet everything he wants to. Wasnt his office on your floor, corey . No, it wasnt, as a matter of fact, he came in to volunteer then he went to cleveland to volunteer but youre telling me something for the first time that ive heard that hes no longer associated. What i do expect, peter, i expect every person who worked for the Trump Campaign works as hard as donald trump did. 17, 18 hour days on a regular basis. I never asked anybody to do anything donald trump wasnt willing to do himself. Hes the hardest working individual ive had the privilege of working for. Sometimes people want to go home early or do different things. I asked they do the same thing that their boss was doing. Hes put tens of millions of dollars into this campaign. Hes given up his life for the last year and a half to do something for the betterment of the country and weve asked and expected the same thing from our staff. Youve bragged throughout the course this this campaign about the loyalty donald trump had to you and everybody on his staff. Obviously that loyalty appears to have changed in the course of the last 10 hours. What happened to that . Trump said he doesnt discard members of his team. Its not a question of loyalty. Thats not the question. What it is a question of . Im loyal to him, the decision to build the campaign bigger and broader is a good decision because you want to take on the clinton juggernaut so. So getting rid of you is a good decision . I said my philosophy has been smaller and leaner and more efficient and ensuring our resources are spent as best as possible. There are people who think building a bigger Broader Campaign to compete with a full time staff of 732 paid people on the Clinton Campaign is the right direction and thats fine. Im confidentable with the campaign we have run. Look, retrospectively its been an amazing run. Its been an honor to be here and i would not change one thing. But moving forward you have to run a general Election Campaign and what we have seen that my philosophy has been very clear that lets look at the state by state basis and lets extend those blue states, make sure donald trump is playing, some people want to have a bigger campaign. Clearly they dont think your philosophy was working or youd still be there. Is there anything in particular youve been blamed for in the course of this campaign or are being blamed for right now that you think is unfair . As the Campaign Manager im willing and able to take all the criticism that comes with that position im willing to share in the successes and failures. Being the head of the organization, if there are failures of this campaign, they lie in my hand, thats what happens when youre a leader and there are consequences for failures whether youre the front desk person or the Campaign Manager. So you were the Campaign Manager. What were those failures . From your perspective, you have a better insight to the way this thing works than anybody, what were the failures to this point . Looking back and seeing we didnt achieve what we wanted to in iowa. We wanted to in iowa. We met our goals to the number of votes we want to get. And while we have been privileged to win the nomination request less money spent than anybody else and get more republicans in the history of the Republican Party and have won 37 states here. But losing iowa wasnt the problem. You stuck around for iowa. You guys won 14 million plus votes, you won 38 states, you got fired now after controversial comments in recent weeks that some viewed as racially tinged, racist comments, opponents said. So what in particular is the reason youre being fired . The loss in iowa cant be the reason why. Peter continue to get into the specifics. What i think is fair to say is that ive had the privilege of being part ofomething which is much bigger than any one individual and the opportunity to move this campaign forward is something thats important. We can not allow four more years of Hillary Clinton which is an extension of the Obama Administration so i will do everything i can to ensure donald trump is elected the next president of the United States whether inside or outside the campaign, talking to my friends and neighbors, calling associates, i will continue to chair the New Hampshire delegation to the Republican Convention next month. I want to make sure that donald trump is nominated as the next republican president of the United States. So youre all in no matter what happens Going Forward. Did you sign a nondisclosure agreement with the camp . Thats internal politics that nobody cares about. People care about transparency and donald trump said if he gets to the white house that people behind the scenes he would prefer sign nondisclosure agreements. A lot of americans have real frustration there is isnt transparency about the way washington works. Washington is fundamentally broken. You have a system where lobbyists give money to politicians in return for favors and weve seen donald trump has selffunded his campaign. Is. So be transparent. Did you sign a nondisclosure agreement . I can tell you my situation with mr. Trump is unique to my situation with mr. Trump and i cant tell you about what other people do but i can tell you this i will do everything i can to make sure donald trump is elected the next president of the United States because our country is in too much trouble if he isnt. We need to find jobs and renegotiate our trade deals and stop Illegal Immigrants from killing u. S. Citizens the. Only person will do that is donald trump. Word association quickly with members of the family. Ivanka trump. Fantastic member of the family. So vibrant. Such a great person and such a calming effect, calming experience for mr. Trump and someone hes proud to have around as often as possible. Theres some reporting her husband and you had had some run ins or that you had behind the scenes been pushing against him in some form. Is that true . Not at all. This campaign has been so small and tight knit that the more people involved the better. Jared has an expertise in some areas that have helped this campaign. And when you look at our Online Presence jared pushed that forward. Im thankful for jared. For the sake of transparency, history will remember what was a late departure from a Campaign Manager in a campaign. Did donald trump have the courtesy to communicate you had been fired. How did you find out that news today . I did have the chance to speak to mr. Trump. Our conversation is private but i can tell you i reassured him to make sure hes elected president and serve in any capacity. If he wants me to or i will be the best volunteer for i can be in my home state of New Hampshire. Corey lewandowski, we appreciate your time on what s be been a long day for you. Thanks so much and well be in touch along the way. Thank you. Im joined by nbcs katy tur in new york city and Hallie Jackson on capitol hill. I posed the question corey didnt answer in our conversation but youre speaking to folks behind the scenes so give us a better understanding, why was he fired today . He was fired today because he was not getting along with other staffers, blocking strategy, blocking new hires and he had a bad relationship and the rnc, multiple sources inside and outside the campaign and close to the candidate confirming that set of circumstances. The problem with Corey Lewandowski, they say, was that he did not have the experience. They dont believe he was malicious in his atemtss to undercut his colleagues but they believe he was trying to maintain control when he was losing it to Paul Manafort who is increasingly becoming in charge of strategy and in charge of messaging and in charge of the relationship between donald trump and the rnc. Sources say it all came to a head this morning when the children confronted their father and told them it was time to pivot towards the general election and put somebody in charge who had campaign experience, past president ial campaign experience. That person is Paul Manafort. So far, sources ive been speaking to say they hope this is going to be a positive change for the campaign. They hope manafort will be able to manage the messaging with donald trump in a way that Corey Lewandowski was not able to do. Katy, thanks so much. I want to get to Hallie Jackson. As we start this conversation here, whats interesting is Paul Manafort was supposed to be the guy in charge of washington outreach. So the question Corey Lewandowski has to be asking himself right now is well, if this was the guy in front of washington outreach and we were getting beat up by folks on washington most recently paul ryan request when he was speaking to the host of the show, chuck todd, is was the problem lewandowski or Paul Manafort . The question now is what operationally will be different Going Forward and does this calm skittish republicans in any way . I think youre saying it as the news trickles out and has come out on capitol hill. Republicans reacting or beginning to react to this. You mentioned comments from speaker ryan to chuck todd. That is reflected in a conversation i just had with senator john cornyn saying when it comes to, for example, the gun control debate happening here, people should vote their conscience and not be suede by whatever donald trump wants to do or for that matter other nominee or presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton. It goes back to the idea of where does the conversation go from hereby . Expect to see paul manna ford with lawmakers on capitol hill. He has been come for weekly meetings or at least calling in when lawmakers talk about how best to support trump. As for what happens operationally to get to your question im talking with sources and the sense is that the adults are in charge now. This is what im hearing from one Top Republican strategist who suggested its not as though well wake up tomorrow and see a different kind of donald trump but you will wake up tomorrow and start to see a different kind of campaign, professionalized campaign which may go a long way to try to assuage some of the concerns for people who are looking at struggles with battleground states and want to see something different. Not the first time we have heard just wait tomorrow youll see a newly professionalized campaign. Once again we wait with a new person at the helm behind the scenes in Trump Campaign headquarters. Hallie jackson, thanks so much. Batting cleanup on this chaotic inside and outside the Trump Campaign afternoon we have nbc political analyst republican deal maker and elections lawyer ben ginsberg. Ben, this is an extraordinary day. Weve been speaking to michael beschlo beschloss. He said this has happened before but rarely just shy of a general election. Give me your take of what you think was going on behind the scenes that led to the firing of Corey Lewandowski. Well, turmoil in june is never particularly good. Especially when its a month before the convention. So the public reporting has talked about two competing factions within the Trump Campaign without denials from the campaign. So lets step that as true. If there are warring factions within the campaign thats a problem you need to correct. The fact that there are not more people on the ground, that the fundraising has not yet hit stride are sources of worry combined with the fact that Hillary Clinton and her super pac are spending an awful lot of money in the next two weeks in eight battleground states to burn in, lets just concede, will be less than a positive notion about mr. Trump. He said corey said his situation with trump was unique when i asked him about a nondisclosure agreement or whether hes being compensated. Is that lawyerspeak for something . Well, look, i know from past campaigns that it is common practice to have nondisclosure agreements. You want the campaign to speak with one voice and you want that unified so nondisclosure agreements if there is one for corey and the Trump Campaign would not be unusual. Let me ask you broadly, though. Is the gop stuck with donald trump right now . Youve heard this talk about a potential convention rebellion to free the delegates campaign. One of the real problems is its hard to get rid of trump if theres nobody else youre putting up in his place. Is the Republican Party stuck as some describe it with donald trump right now . For donald trump to not be the nominee, it would require 2472 delegates who have never met together as a body to taken a unprecedented action within the first hour or two of the convention. That is difficult under any circumstances and you have to put the odds pretty low. The mechanical way you can do it under the rules, there are a number of different ways. Thats