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MIAMI (CBSMiami/AP) -- Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump says a reporter behind his campaign manager's battery charges "shouldn't have been grabbing me."

Trump defended campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on Fox News Wednesday, a day after Florida police charged him following an incident earlier this month in which Lewandowski pulled the reporter, Michelle Fields, away from Trump as she tried to ask the billionaire a question.

Trump said Fields had a pen in her hand "and that could have been a knife."

The controversy drew condemnation from Trump's Republican and Democratic rivals alike as they campaigned in Wisconsin ahead of the state's April 5th primary.

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