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.
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The visit comes amid an ongoing staff shakeup.
Donald Trump on Friday accepted the resignation of his campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, days after appointing a conservative media operative as chief executive of his troubled campaign and amid continued stories characterizing Manafort as someone with close ties to Russian Federation.
Republicans close to Mr Trump say the move will allow him to embrace the aggressive style that helped him win the party’s nomination.
Manafort leaves the campaign amid a rising number of news reports about his past work for pro-Russian political elements in Ukraine, including stories of millions in secret cash payments that Manafort has denied. None of the firms involved ever registered their work for as agents for a foreign government as required by law.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, residents emerged from their homes to wave at Trump’s motorcade, some with gloved hands dirty from their house-gutting work.
The Republican candidates met a group of volunteers who have been cooking meals for flood victims and helping the elderly gut their homes. As the crowd cheered, Trump pledged to “always tell you the truth”. “Voters know if you’re comfortable in your own skin”.
A torrent of about 2 feet of rain inundated the southern part of the state, devastating areas hit hard by Hurricane Katrina over a decade ago.
In contrast, “Donald Trump’s America is secure”, it says, the music upbeat and uplifting this time. “I have done that”, the GOP nominee, reading from prepared text, said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C.
The Republican White House nominee, who is tanking in swing states, hired a news executive from a virulently anti-Clinton website as his campaign chief executive and promoted a leading Republican strategist to campaign manager. Former Breitbart News chairman Stephen Bannon is assuming the position of “campaign CEO” and Kellyanne Conway will be the campaign manager, Trump announced Wednesday.
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”, Trump said.
Manafort was a controversial figure almost as soon as he came on board the Trump campaign in March.
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.
“He doesn’t look at things through a political lens”, like traditional politicians, she said of Trump, who has never held elected office. He has been trailing the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in almost every national poll for months. Trump will invest almost $5 million in battleground state advertising.
“I am committed to doing whatever it takes to win this election and ultimately become president”, the NY billionaire announced.
Trump had recruited Manafort, who formerly advised the pro-Kremlin former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, earlier this year to head off what was then a potentially contested Republican convention.
In an editorial published Wednesday, The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge called on Obama to visit “the most anguished state in the union”. Tony is the brother of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.
“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”, said Christina Reynolds, a Clinton campaign spokeswoman.
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“I will not rest until children of every color in this country are fully included in the American Dream”, he said.
