In a highly uncharacteristic move aimed at resetting his struggling campaign, Donald Trump has said for the first time that he regrets some of the caustic comments he’s made that may have caused people pain.
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“Sometimes in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing”, Trump told a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. But his speech in Charlotte, N.C., his third using a teleprompter this week, was praised by some of his critics as the best of his campaign.
“And believe it or not, I regret it”.
He added: “Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues”.
Manafort has spent months trying to ingratiate Trump to Republican lawmakers who have urged the billionaire businessman to dial back his fiery rhetoric and run a more traditional campaign.
Bannon is close to Nigel Farage, the former head of the right-wing UK Independence Party, who offered “massive thanks” to Breitbart News for supporting the party’s successful campaign on behalf of Britain’s departure from the European Union.
It is rare for presidential campaigns to undergo this level of tumult at this stage of the election. On Thursday, the AP reported that it had obtained emails revealing further details: Gates directed an unregistered influence campaign that included attempts to gain positive press coverage for Ukrainian officials, sway us legislators, gather political intelligence and undercut American public sympathy for the imprisoned rival of Ukraine’s then-president.
Conway, a longtime Republican strategist and pollster, joined Trump’s campaign earlier this year as a senior adviser and quickly earned Trump’s trust.
The speech came just hours before Trump’s campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, resigned his position, saying he doesn’t want to be a distraction to the candidate. Earlier Thursday, Trump moved to invest almost $5 million in battleground state advertising to address daunting challenges in the states that will make or break his White House ambitions.
It came in a week when Trump has already reshuffled top campaign leaders, effectively demoting Manafort, and has tried to be more disciplined and on message as he seeks to reset his campaign against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton for the November 8 election.
Election Day is 81 days away, with early voting in the first states set to begin in five weeks.
Conway told Fox News she was advising Trump to take “his case directly to the people”.
While it is unusual to make major organization changes this late in a campaign, Haynes said it is not too late for a race against a “flawed candidate” like Hillary Clinton when voters want change. “And voters know if you’re comfortable in your own skin”, she told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day” Thursday morning.
As a sign of confidence, Clinton’s campaign recently paused advertising in Virginia and Colorado, while Priorities stopped ads in Virginia and plans to pause them in Colorado and Pennsylvania at the beginning of September. “But that apology tonight is simply a well-written phrase until he tells us which of his many offensive, bullying and divisive comments he regrets – and changes his tune altogether”. She came to this rally and was seen handing out flowers and conversing with Trump supporters.
The current RealClearPolitics average of national opinion polls puts Clinton six percentage points ahead of Trump, at 47.2% to his 41.2%.
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Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau said it can not prove Manafort actually received the money. Trump has largely resisted those pleas and the latest staff changes appear to be a rejection of Manafort’s attempt to tame Trump. In his speech announcing his run previous year, he said that immigrants coming to the US illegally from Mexico were bringing drugs and were rapists, and some, he assumed, “were good people”.
