Either way, Manafort’s resignation comes just two days after the Associated Press reported that the Republican lobbyist “helped a pro-Russian governing party in Ukraine secretly route at least $2.2 million in payments to two prominent Washington lobbying firms in 2012, and did so in a way that effectively obscured the foreign political party’s efforts to influence USA policy”.
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Earlier this week, Trump brought in a new campaign chief executive and campaign manager after a disastrous stretch in which the bombastic real estate mogul fell behind Hillary Clinton in both national and battleground state preference polls.
People with direct knowledge of Gates’ work told the AP that, during the period when Gates and Manafort were consultants to Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, Gates was also helping steer the advocacy work done by a pro-Yanukovych nonprofit that hired a pair of Washington lobbying firms. Trump praised Manafort’s work on the campaign and called him a “true professional”.
He successfully led the campaign in the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, where Trump was formally nominated as the partys presidential nominee. It is hard to begrudge the press for indulging in some fatuous reflection on this remarkable tone shift from a candidate who has repeatedly told interviewers he has no regrets about anything.
Even before the Ukraine allegations, Manafort appeared to be losing influence with Trump.
Paul Manafort, adviser to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign, checks the teleprompters before Trump’s speech at the Mayflower Hotel April 27. At a Baptist church later, a woman screamed “We knew you would be here for us!” as he and Pence sat down with volunteers. Trump had planned to retain Manafort as campaign chairman, but the veteran consultant left instead. “TOO MANY COOKS’ John Feehery, a Republican strategist, said it would have been unsustainable for Manafort to stay on after Wednesday’s hires”. He was elevated in late June after the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, with whom Manafort clashed over the unconventional candidate’s strategy and message.
Meanwhile, Clinton’s campaign manager insisted Manafort’s resignation reinforced team Trump’s ties to Russian Federation.
By hiring Bannon and promoting pollster Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager, while Manafort retains his campaign chairman title, Trump may be formalizing the negative tack the Clinton team has been anticipating.
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It’s unclear which of his inflammatory statements Trump was referring to, but he said he particularly regretted statements that “may have caused personal pain”. “He expressed regret. Trump, reading from prepared remarks Thursday night, acknowledged that he sometimes says “the wrong thing” in an astonishing act of contrition that signaled Trump’s willingness to break from his characteristic brashness and bare-knuckles style that carried him to victory in the Republican primaries, but risks dooming him in the general election”. But he also explained his rejection of tradition. ‘In this journey, I will never lie to you. I have worked in business, creating jobs and rebuilding neighborhoods my entire adult life. The spots, though, seem created to rally the Republican base rather than make overtures to other constituencies, as they focus on immigration and refugee policy. (Same goes for his surprise trip to Baton Rouge today to see the Louisiana flooding firsthand.) You wouldn’t expect a “regret” speech to be backed by Steve Bannon, who famously likes to brawl with his enemies and whose website’s motto might as well be “Apologize for WHAT?”. It concludes with Trump giving a thumbs up, wearing his trademark red “Make America Great Again” cap. The GOP nominee heads to Michigan Friday evening for a rally, and to Virginia on Saturday.
