Bannon is a former investment banker and the executive chairman of Breitbart News, a conservative news and opinion website that has a largely positive perspective on Trump. The concerns are compelling enough that dozens of anxious Republicans gathered signatures Thursday for a letter urging the GOP party chairman to stop helping Trump and focus on protecting vulnerable House and Senate candidates.
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“It’s an expansion at a busy time in the final stretch of the campaign”, she said, adding that Mr Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, would remain in their roles.
Trump’s campaign announced earlier that it would finally begin airing its first ads of the general election next week in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday morning, Trump told the Associated Press of Bannon and Conway, “I’ve known both of them for a long time. They are extremely capable, highly qualified people who love to win and know how to win”, Trump said in the statement.
Bannon will occupy “a new position created to bolster the business-like approach of Mr. Trump’s campaign”, the statement said, adding that his duties will include oversight of the campaign staff and operations.
“Mr. Bannon, once recognized by Bloomberg Politics as the ‘most unsafe political operative in America, ‘ will oversee the campaign staff and operations”, the campaign said in a press release.
Trump is running for his first elected office and trails his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by about 6 percentage points in a range of national polls.
The move comes just 83 days before voters head to the polls in Trump’s contest with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton – and less than two months after Trump ousted campaign manager Corey Lewandowski amid a similar period of campaign turbulence.
He came under fire for his prolonged feud with the Muslim family of a USA soldier who was killed in the line of duty in Iraq and his unfounded accusation that President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were co-founders of the Islamic State militant group.
In the Wisconsin outing Tuesday, Trump accused Clinton of “bigotry” and being “against the police”, claiming that she and other Democrats have “betrayed the African American community” and pandered for votes. Manafort is under investigation by Ukraine for alleged cash payments, a story spread by Lewandowski on Twitter.
Trump said his campaign chair, Paul Manafort, will maintain his current role. At the same time, Trump also is promoting Kellyanne Conway, a veteran GOP pollster and strategist, to become campaign manager. “It worked very well in the primaries”.
Manafort spoke of a pivot in tone and style in his early days on the campaign, but all along Trump has insisted there will be no change.
The Washington Post cited Trump campaign aides as saying Mr Trump respected Mr Manafort but felt “boxed in” by people “who barely knew him”. Trump has described them as “Big people”. The move came after a day in which Trump sent a Facebook message urging an end to bigotry and oppression.
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The Clinton campaign responded by accusing Trump of being the bigot instead. “Our country can not afford four more years of the failed Obama-Clinton policies which have endangered our financial and physical security”.
