The Hillary Clinton campaign on Friday brushed off the resignation of a top strategist to Donald Trump, contending that the move would not extinguish the “bromance” the billionaire allegedly has with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump praised Manafort’s work on the campaign and called him a “true professional”.
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Earlier this week, Trump brought in a new campaign chief executive and campaign manager following a disastrous stretch in which the New Yorker committed a series of errors and fell behind Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in both national and battleground state preference polls.
The head of Ukraine’s newly formed National Anti-Corruption Bureau, Artem Sytnyk, said that more than $12 million was earmarked for payment to Manafort from 2007 to 2012, although it was not clear if he received the money.
Contrary to the requirements of the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act, the AP said, they never disclosed their work on behalf of the Ukrainian government, even though Gates, then working for Manafort’s consulting firm, personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms in the matter.
“Though words can not express the sadness that one feels at times like this, I hope everyone in Louisiana knows that our country is praying with them and standing with them to help them in these hard hours”, he said.
In his remarks, Trump struck a new, inclusive tone and tried to appeal directly to non-white voters, who have so far resisted his candidacy.
The longtime Republican operative was considered a guiding hand in steering Mr Trump toward a more conventional campaign as opposed to the anti-establishment brand of politics that made his primary campaign successful. According to the poll, Clinton has the support of 41%, while Trump has 37%.
Donald Trump confirmed the resignation of Paul Manafort in a statement.
Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort has resigned.
A Ukrainian politician called for a graft probe to be launched against Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign chairman over almost $US13 million ($17 million) worth of payments intended for him from the party of Mr Yanukovych. “He took extra time yesterday going over that speech with a pen so that was a decision he made”.
Lewandowski said Friday the most recent personnel moves show Trump is serious about winning the presidency and will do anything he can to get the campaign back on track. “I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain”. He later refused to apologise or express regret.
The pro-Clinton organization American Bridge cited news reports that Manafort will continue to be an ally of Trump’s, and added that “the Trump campaign will have plenty of Russian Federation ties without him – starting with the Putin-admiring, NATO-hating candidate himself”.
Manafort’s departure followed a string of revelations about his work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.
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.
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Trump’s son Eric said Friday that while Manafort had been instrumental in steering the campaign through the GOP convention, the former chairman’s business past had begun to detract from his father’s messages.
