“Despite the latest staff shake-up, Trump’s campaign still maintains strong ties to Russian Federation and pro-Kremlin elements”.
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Roger Stone, a former top advisor to Trump and ally of Manafort, vigorously defended Manafort in an interview shortly after news of his resignation broke.
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”, the Republican presidential nominee said in a statement.
“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.
The Republican presidential nominee has brought in conservative media executive Stephen Bannon to be chief executive of his campaign.
“My father didn’t want to be, you know, distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with”, Eric Trump told Fox News, talking up what Bannon and Conway were bringing to the campaign and the new refocus of the campaign. His cratering poll results have caused Republicans to increasingly worry that the election is already out of reach.
Life for Manafort also got complicated following a New York Times article over the weekend claimed handwritten ledgers show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Manafort from ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s pro-Russian party between 2007 and 2012.
Weary Republican leaders are accepting Donald Trump’s latest staff shake-up, hopeful that a new leadership team can reverse the NY businessman’s struggles even as some worry it’s too little too late.
Manafort, a veteran political operative, was seen as capable of professionalising Trump’s campaign after Lewandowski oversaw a hard-scrabble primary victory.
“We need to work together to bridge our divides, not stoke even more divisiveness”, Clinton said at New York’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Although Trump has repeatedly said he plans to lean on the party to pay for key operations such as voter door-knocking, it is increasingly clear that he will have the money to build on his own if he chooses to do so.
“Polls. I just told you, I answered your question”, says Keilar, who can’t believe she has to explain this.
Mr Bannon’s appointment suggested that Mr Trump is aiming not so much to tone down his aggressive style but to be more disciplined in emphasising themes that resonate strongly with the voters he is trying to court, such as his stances on illegal immigration and withering personal criticism of Mrs Clinton.
A day after presenting a new kinder, gentler side, Donald Trump followed up his softer words at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Thursday night with a compassionate visit to Louisiana to assess the damage caused by flooding.
“I’ve thought for a while that they’ve needed more smart, senior people and it looks like they just got them”, said Republican strategist Charlie Black.
Clinton’s campaign has spent more than $75 million on ads in the weeks since she effectively locked up the nomination in early June, according to Kantar Media.
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Gates will remain with Trump’s presidential campaign, taking over as the campaign’s liaison to the Republican National Committee.
