And with Trump’s numbers dropping as controversy surrounding Manafort’s 2012 lobbying on behalf of a pro-Russia political party continues to grow, it’s evident that the campaign needs to make some major changes to regain momentum.
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Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City who has become a close Trump adviser, has also urged the candidate to dig in and prepare to fight harder, and in a more focused way, in what has quickly become one of the nastiest presidential campaigns in modern United States history.
Glenn Beck spent most of today’s radio show calling upon Republicans to abandon Donald Trump in the wake of the announcement that the GOP presidential nominee has hired Breitbart’s Steve Bannon to serve as the campaign’s CEO.
Over the past several weeks, Mook said Mrs. Clinton has received growing support from Republicans who can not bring themselves to vote for him, in part because he employs a man like Paul Manafort, who has come under intense scrutiny of late over payments he’s received from Kremlin-backed groups in the Ukraine.
Regardless, most analysts believe that these changes will not accomplish anything if Trump does not fix his rhetoric away from flamboyancy and attacking Hillary Clinton. Roger Stone, the longtime conservative political consultant and Trump friend, also did campaign work in the 1980s for former Atlantic County Executive Dick Squires, former state Sen.
Trump’s outreach to black voters came after he said earlier Tuesday that he would reject bigotry “in all forms” if elected president.
“The more competitive you can make the presidential race, the more it’s going to help down-ballot races”, said Ian Prior, spokesman for outside groups linked to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, which have already spent almost $30 million on Senate races with another $40 million reserved for the fall.
“They’ve really been the mouthpiece of the Trump campaign in a way that Fox News was the mouthpiece of previous Republican campaigns”, Fairleigh Dickenson political science professor Dan Cassino said.
Conway and Bannon may prove to be opposing forces in Trump’s campaign.
“There was a need to do something new and think what he’s doing somewhat new and I think it’s a strategy that may pay dividends”, Caldwell said.
“He’s always pushing things that are disruptive to the Republican Party”, another senior Republican said of Bannon.
“It will be kind of hard to just try and not say anything”, he said of Republican candidates. “If you start pivoting, you’re not being honest with people”.
Clinton, campaigning Wednesday in Cleveland, said voters should not be fooled by any Trump efforts to revamp his candidacy.
Trump decided on the changes this weekend after speaking with campaign donors at a fundraiser in The Hamptons, including Rebekah Mercer, a high-profile GOP donor with longstanding ties to Conway, who shared her concerns with Trump about the direction of the campaign, a source told CNN. She also worked for vice presidential nominee Mike Pence in his earlier races. Job One for Conway will be to halt the slide among Republican women. Both of the new hires will outrank Manafort. Manafort denied any impropriety on Monday. Breitbart has also actively promoted false conspiracy theories about Clinton, some that have then made their way into Trump’s remarks.
What is their relationship with Trump? Trump attempted to put those fears to rest on Wednesday. This afternoon, he received his first classified intelligence briefing.
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The briefing, of the kind given to US presidential nominees from major parties, was to take place in a secure conference room at the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in downtown Manhattan.
