The co-ordinated timing of all this would have been positive for the Trump campaign had it not been for Friday morning’s announcement that Paul Manafort, his campaign chairman and chief strategist, was resigning.
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Had Manafort stayed with the campaign, his ethics and business dealings would become major campaign issues and make it harder for Trump and his team to focus on Clinton’s vulnerabilities concerning donations to the Clinton Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative and her use of private e-mail servers while Secretary of State.
Campaign chairman Paul Manafort resigned from Donald Trump’s team Friday, less than a week after the candidate reshuffled his staff and amid news reports about Manafort’s past political activity for pro-Russian elements in Ukraine.
Donald Trump’s campaign turnaround plan on Friday featured the unorthodox candidate acting much like a conventional politician struggling to revive a presidential bid on the ropes. Campaign spokesman Jason Miller announced on Twitter that Gates would take on a new role as liaison to the Republican National Committee, which has had a turbulent relationship with its nominee this year.
Trump, in a statement, praised Manafort’s work on the campaign and called him a “true professional”.
Gary Rose, head of the political science department at Sacred Heart University, said Manafort, hired by the Trump campaign in March to corral delegates during the GOP primaries and promoted to head the campaign in May, has been beset by several problems recently – besides reports of his ties to a Ukrainian strongman that may have resulted in possible violations of the law. Many blamed him for changes to the GOP platform at July’s national convention that watered down the party’s stance on aiding Ukraine against Russian incursion – a claim Manfort rebuked.
Trump, who has never held elected office, did not refer to his staffing changes, but in an interview earlier on Friday his son Eric Trump said unflattering headlines about Manafort had taken a toll. “His willingness to admit he has said things he shouldn’t have said and made mistakes is of far greater concern to voters than who runs a campaign”.
The good news is that Trump seems determined to fight through the campaign on his own terms. “I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today”. “To those I say the following: what do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?”
According to two people familiar with Trump’s decision, Trump was given on Thursday night a copy of an Associated Press story about how Manafort’s firm had not properly disclosed its foreign lobbying.
The Clinton campaign has pointed to Manafort’s Ukraine work to add to its criticism of favorable comments that Trump has made about Russian President Vladimir Putin and to sow doubts in voters’ minds about whether the Russian government has an unseen hand in the USA election. Some of that money was listed as paid to Manafort through two founding members of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine, a Brussels-based nonprofit whose lobbying efforts Manafort and Gates oversaw.
In the first ad the campaign released, Trump and Clinton are contrasted on immigration, border security, and Syrian refugees.
Donald Trump is on the clock. “There is a hall pass for the next 48 hours for all Republicans”, he said. But hopes of a “pivot” vanished as the summer wore on and Trump appeared intent on settling scores with critics and with former rivals within his party. “You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn’t end the odd bromance Trump has with (Vladimir Putin)”, he said. In addition to the ads, he’s responded with an overhaul of his campaign leadership and with a rare expression of “regret” for his harsh rhetoric at a campaign rally Thursday in North Carolina.
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Paul Manafort reportedly did a lot of work there that benefited American companies, such as Chevron and Exxon, and also American agriculture.
