And Breitbart’s supposed to be a conservative news organization and it turns out they had been on board with the Trump campaign all along.
Advertisement
Wednesday’s campaign appointments amounted to a demotion for Paul Manafort, who was brought on as campaign manager in June to bring a more professional touch to Trump’s campaign but has struggled to get the businessman to rein in his freewheeling ways.
Weary Republican leaders are accepting Donald Trump’s latest staff shake-up, hopeful that a new leadership team can reverse the NY businessman’s struggles even as some worry it’s too little too late. The selection of Bannon suggested that Trump is aiming not so much to tone down his aggressive style but to be more disciplined in emphasizing themes that resonate strongly with the voters he is trying to court, such as his stances on immigration and criticism of Clinton. Shapiro left Breitbart earlier this year over disagreement about how the outlet addressed an incident with one of its former reporters, Michelle Fields, who was grabbed and pulled by Trump’s ex-campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, at an event. A campaign release highlighted that Bloomberg Politics has called Bannon the “most unsafe political operative in America”. “I think people that really want to vote, they’re gonna just get up and vote for Trump”.
The head of Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau said this week that more than US$12 million was earmarked for payment to Mr Manafort from 2007 to 2012, although it was not clear if he received the money. Party loyalists have grown increasingly frustrated with Trump’s inability to stay focused on Democrat Hillary Clinton amid a series of self-created distractions.
Conway downplayed the notion of internal dissent at campaign headquarters at Trump Tower, telling The Associated Press the staffing changes are “an expansion at a critical time in the homestretch”. She also worked for vice presidential nominee Mike Pence in his earlier races. Trump might lose spectacularly, and take the party down with him. Kellyanne Conway was also recruited to the team to become the new manager. She has appeared as a guest on “Good Morning America” to discuss poll numbers and the state of the 2016 presidential race.
Conway, 49, has been a staple as a conservative commentator on television this campaign season, first supporting Texas Sen.
“I am committed to doing whatever it takes to win this election, and ultimately become President”, Trump said in his statement.
Trump’s people rejected this notion in the statement: “These announcements come at a time of significant growth for Mr Trump’s campaign, with the first major TV ad buy of the general election slated to start later this week and with additional top-flight operatives joining the movement on a near-daily basis”, the campaign commented.
“I want to win”, Mr Trump told The Wall Street Journal after disclosing the staff changes. Manafort denied any impropriety on Monday.
She added: “There is no new Donald Trump, this is it”. Florida prosecutors later dropped the charge. Former Breitbart staffer Ben Shapiro called him a “vindictive, nasty figure” who “will attempt to ruin anyone who impedes his unending ambition”.
Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, said the website has figured out how to push political story angles that animate “an audience of a particular orientation”, in this case an angry subset of Republicans that predates the tea party movement and now overlaps with Trump’s base.
Mr Trump has been sharply criticised for adopting conciliatory policies toward the Kremlin and embracing a friendly approach to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Women can’t stand him.
Advertisement
“For Steve and I, we also recognize that we are different when we say we have different styles, but we have one vision”, Conway told reporters.
