“He expressed regret. Trump, reading from prepared remarks Thursday night, acknowledged that he sometimes says “the wrong thing” in an astonishing act of contrition that signaled Trump’s willingness to break from his characteristic brashness and bare-knuckles style that carried him to victory in the Republican primaries, but risks dooming him in the general election”.
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Manafort was hired in March to help Trump’s campaign prepare for the Republican convention.
Karlyn Bowman, a senior fellow and research coordinator at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, said Trump still had some time to turn around his campaign, noting the news came as many Americans were enjoying summer vacations.
Trump confirmed Manafort’s resignation, issuing a statement that read, in part: “This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”.
Recent weeks have shown that to be the case: Manafort has been dogged by investigative reports detailing alleged questionable activities for the former pro-Russian government of Ukraine.
None of the firms, nor Manafort or Gates, disclosed their work to the Justice Department counterespionage division responsible for tracking lobbying by foreign governments. The billionaire called Manafort “a true professional”.
Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said unflattering headlines about Manafort were taking a toll. “I’m here to tell you that together we will and we can elect a Republican president in 2016”.
In spite of Mr Manafort’s efforts to impose discipline on the Republican nominee, Mr Trump continued to do badly in the polls and reportedly bristled at efforts to bring him under control.
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. Campaign sources said that Trump had been unhappy with Manafort for a variety of reasons.
The Clinton camp dismissed it as “teleprompter regret”.
Trump’s visit to southern Louisiana put pressure on Clinton.
In a clear swipe at her rival, Clinton added: “The relief effort can’t afford any distractions. The very best way this team can help is to make sure Louisianans have the resources they need”.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, Friday, Trump’s motorcade drove through hard-hit communities, where ripped up carpet and flooring, furniture and the entire contents of homes were piled on the curb. Manafort had said on several occasions he didn’t plan to be paid for his work for Trump. People who were still mucking out their homes, in some instances, came out to wave at the motorcade with gloved hands dirty from their house-gutting work. “You know, Paul was fantastic”. Senator Claire McCaskill did as much when she commented that Trump and Putin are the founders of ISIS, a response to Trump’s comment of the same calibre about president Obama.
Foley said Manafort is likely to keep a good relationship with Trump and return to the business of “making money” as a political consultant.
His campaign announced on Wednesday a personnel reshuffling that saw conservative news outlet Breitbart chairman Stephen Bannon made campaign CEO and pollster Kellyanne Conway assume the campaign manager spot.
While it remains too early to tell, the first moves under the new regime have largely shown an investment in conventional campaigning.
“Well, look it’s obviously a hard thing for anybody when they change jobs and have a position that they’ve been so invested in for a long time and really put their heart and soul into something, to not be part of it, particularly when you’re this close”, Lewandowski told CNN’s Kate Bolduan on “At This Hour”.
Although the suburb just outside Lansing is overwhelmingly white, Trump made an appeal to black voters. He urged them to abandon Democrats, who he said only take advantage of African-American voters. But this is not the end of the story.
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On Twitter, the Clinton campaign responded, “This is so ignorant it’s staggering”.
