Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned after two new advisers joined the Republican’s inner circle in leadership roles earlier in the week. Manafort’s departure is the last piece of unfinished business from the revamp of the Trump campaign team, announced on Wednesday.
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“Paul Manafort’s resignation is a clear admission that the disturbing connections between Donald Trump’s team and pro-Kremlin elements in Russian Federation and Ukraine are untenable”, Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement. Son-in-law Jared Kushner was reportedly wary of Manafort’s foreign connections.
Manafort previously consulted for Yanukovych’s pro-Russian ruling party helping them to win several elections, although the exact nature and renumeration of the services he provided remains shrouded in mystery.
Trump also made a last-minute scheduling change, scrapping a planned event in NY in order to travel with his running mate Mike Pence to tour the flood damage in Louisiana on Friday morning.
But the NY businessman, who has never held elected office, has also been embroiled in a series of controversies in recent weeks and has lagged Clinton in opinion polls.
Friday was also the first day that Trump released ads for the general election, up until now relying only on free media coverage.
Clinton continues to poll strong among women, with 49 percent saying they were supporting the former Secretary of State’s bid for the White House. Among alternative-party candidates, Johnson came in third with 7 percent and about 2 percent supported Stein.
Manafort had been promoted to Trump campaign manager in June in a shake-up that sidelined the previous head of the campaign, Corey Lewandowski.
“This morning, Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”, Mr Trump said in a statement, thanking him for “his great work” and proclaiming him a “true professional”. You know, he helped us get through the primary process.
“I will not rest until children of every color in this country are fully included in the American Dream”, Trump said, urging African-American voters to give him a chance.
Leshchenko said: “Systematically, for many years, he has been receiving corrupt, black money from (Viktor Yanukovych’s) Party of Regions”. Manafort denies receiving those payments.
The complaint detailed how Former Defense Department inspector general Joseph Schmitz made comments like, “ovens were too small to kill six million Jews”, and boasted about expelling Jewish employees from their positions within his departments, the McClatchy News Servicereported Thursday.
“The early signs are that, you know, Donald Trump 3.0 is going to work a lot better than it has in the past”, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele said on MSNBC television. Russian officials have rejected that accusation.
“You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn’t end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin”, campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement. The GOP is likely to lose four to six Senate seats, said Cook analyst Jennifer Duffy. “And the Ukrainian stuff was becoming a real distraction”. “And believe it or not, I regret it”, he said, drawing laughs and applause from the crowd. Both had grown uncomfortable with Manafort, the person said.
“I think Donald Trump ought to really investigate this and where his chief adviser, what his association with the Russians are”, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of IL told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this week.
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The final stretch of the protracted campaign traditionally starts after Labor Day, which falls on September 5 this year.
