Paul Manafort, the national chairman for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign, resigned Friday morning.
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“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”, Trump said in a statement. John McCain’s five-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam last summer – “I like people that weren’t captured”, he said – Trump declined.
While Manafort retains his title, Trump allies made clear Bannon will be overseeing the campaign staff and operations.
The CEO is Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of the hugely influential and ferociously anti-Clinton conservative website Breitbart News, and the new manager is leading Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway.
Manafort’s resignation came amid revelations this week over his ties to Ukraine politicians and pro-Kremlin businessmen, with ledger reports surfacing over work he performed for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and other officials supportive of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Manafort took over control of the Trump campaign after the firing of then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski two months ago.
Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway filled the campaign manager position left vacant since Trump fired his former campaign chief nearly two months ago.
This is about as much as you could possibly spin Trump’s circumstances-he has nearly no room to grow because voters have already formed strong opinions of him and his candidacy.
The recent shake-up and cryptic message doubles down on a recent story in The New York Times that pointed out how Republicans were privately planning a back-up plan in-case Trump chose to back-down and leave the race.
The current CNN battleground map gives Hillary Clinton 273 electoral votes from states that are either solidly or leaning in her direction compared to 191 electoral votes for Donald Trump in states that are solidly or leaning in his direction.
“They’re there because I think typical politicians like Hillary Clinton erect campaigns, but Donald Trump has built a movement, and people feel included in that movement”.
Could this bring about a new Donald Trump?
According to Republicans close to Trump, the campaign shake-up is aimed more at allowing him to fully embrace the aggressive style that helped him with the primary rather than taking a more restrained, traditional approach. “The answer is everything from a man who questions the citizenship of the first African American President, courts white supremacists, and has been sued for housing discrimination against communities of color”, Marshall said.
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“If I had to do it again, I wouldn’t have sent it”, Trump said.
