RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said Trump is “on a great pathway to recalibrating the campaign” after falling behind in the polls to Democrat Hillary Clinton. Manafort has now “resigned”, but Trump’s own praise of Putin and his invitation to Russian hackers to conduct espionage against the US remain.
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Campaigns never, ever like to admit they are making a change as a result of problems within their operation.
Trump said in a statement he had accepted Manafort’s resignation, but did not offer an explanation for the departure. He became campaign chairman in May, shunting aside campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was sacked a month later.
CNN stated in its report, “The departure also comes as Manafort is defending himself from investigations into his extensive lobbying history overseas, particularly in the Ukraine, where he represented pro-Russian interests”.
NABU late Thursday published 22 entries on payments earmarked for Manafort for work conducted either on behalf of the president or his party. Trump hired him in March to help the campaign compete with the well-oiled political machine of Sen.
The Clinton campaign looked to use Manafort’s resignation to tie Trump and Vladimir Putin together. But the USA media has paid little attention to this connection, instead using the issue exclusively to pummel the Trump campaign chairman.
Less than five months after taking the job as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort has formally resigned.
While the claims of shady dealings in Ukraine provided a pretext for removing Manafort, there is little doubt that he was on his way out anyway.
Just a few days ago, Manafort saw his official role in the campaign diminished after Trump shook up his staff. He won a power struggle with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who left the campaign in June. He has concentrated on immigration, trade deals and law and order. Bannon invited Nigel Farage, leader of the far-right anti-immigrant United Kingdom Independence Party, for a visit to Washington where he introduced him to prominent Republicans.
Now, DesJarlais said, Trump’s campaign is entering a phase where the focus should be on raising money, advertising, and Clinton.
This was inevitable after Trump went full white nationalist with the hiring of Breitbart honcho Stephen Bannon.
He said: “They don’t want to make any comment about the issue and that’s not only because they are afraid of unveiling some black financial scheme, but it’s also about some concerns regarding the political relationship between the USA, Ukraine and their own party”.
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Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow and research coordinator at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said Trump still had some time to turn around his campaign, noting the news came as many Americans were enjoying summer vacations.
