According to CNN, a Trump source says that Manafort told Trump that his own ties to Russian Federation were becoming a distraction from the campaign itself, and so he submitted his resignation. The ledger covered payments from 2007 to 2012, when Mr. Manafort worked for the party and its leader, Viktor F. Yanukovych, Ukraine’s former president who was deposed.
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Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski – whose June firing over accusations he assaulted a reporter paved the way for Manafort to take over – said he empathized with the newly resigned chairman, just before he blasted campaign leadership for a series of mistakes.
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”, Trump said in a statement. “I wish him the greatest success”, Trump said.
Manafort was said to have been championed by Trump’s daughter Ivanka, and Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner, in that campaign reboot, as he transitioned from the primaries to the general election.
Eric Trump did not say anything Friday that explicitly pointed to Manafort’s Ukranian dealings as being a factor in his resignation.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Stephen Bannon of Breitbart News is now serving as chief executive of the campaign and pollster Kellyanne Conway is campaign manager.
Manaford “has been a big proponent of the “pivot” – the effort to instill discipline into Trump’s rhetoric and encourage more outreach to skeptical Republicans”, as The Christian Science Monitor reported on Wednesday.
Others reported that Manafort left “on good terms” and that he wanted to give the new team space to carry out its new strategy. “And the Ukrainian stuff was becoming a real distraction”. He later refused to apologise or express regret.
The Trump campaign has a tumultuous relationship with Russian affairs.
In recent days, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had been searching for someone to join the campaign whom both he and Trump could agree was trustworthy, according to a person close to the campaign.
A person who answered a telephone number for Manafort said Manafort was not available for comment. On Monday, in response to an earlier media report that carried the allegations, he issued a statement in which he said he had “never received a single “off-the-books cash payment” as “reported” by the ‘The New York Times, ‘ nor have I ever done work for the governments of Ukraine or Russian Federation”.
The final stretch of the protracted campaign traditionally starts after Labor Day, which falls on September 5 this year.
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The Governor of Louisiana, Democrat John Bel Edwards, however, said that he preferred for the President not to come to the state just yet, so that local police and first responders didn’t have to be pulled off rescue missions to provide protection for the president.
