Donald Trump’s campaign turnaround plan on Friday featured the unorthodox candidate acting much like a conventional politician struggling to revive a presidential bid on the ropes. “It’s really incredible, so I’m just here to help”.
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In a previous shake-up, Manafort, who first joined the team in March, took over the running of the campaign from Corey Lewandowski, who was sacked as campaign manager in June. The candidate said in a statement: “This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign”.
Trump, who has never held elected office, did not refer to his staffing changes, but in an interview earlier on Friday his son Eric Trump said unflattering headlines about Manafort had taken a toll. “I think my father didn’t want to be, you know, distracted by, you know, whatever things that, you know, Paul was dealing with”, he told Fox News, while also praising Manafort’s work for the campaign.
“I think Donald Trump ought to really investigate this and where his chief adviser, what his association with the Russians are”, Rep. Adam Kinzinger of IL told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this week.
The resignation of the seasoned Republican strategist Paul Manafort – under fire for his pro-Kremlin ties and role in a Ukrainian corruption scandal – represents the Republican nominee’s latest effort to get back on track after weeks of crisis.
Bannon is close to Nigel Farage, the former head of the right-wing UK Independence Party, who offered “massive thanks” to Breitbart News for supporting the party’s successful campaign on behalf of Britain’s departure from the European Union.
Then the Federal Bureau of Investigation delivered to Capitol Hill a load of “classified and other sensitive” materials, including Clinton’s “truthful” deposition about her email practices which Republicans claim expose her lies to the Congress and the public.
Trump also was not pleased with ongoing revelations about Manafort’s past lobbying for the formerly pro-Russian government in Ukraine, said a source familiar with the situation.
Trump’s visit to southern Louisiana put pressure on Clinton.
Earlier this week, he tapped Stephen Bannon, a combative conservative media executive, as his new campaign chief.
She added that the White House announced Friday that President Barack Obama was visiting flood-ravaged Louisiana on Tuesday exclusively because Trump and vice presidential candidate Mike Pence toured Baton Rouge earlier in the day. That decision by Trump seemed to be an embrace of Manafort’s strategy. At a Baptist church later, a woman screamed “We knew you would be here for us!” as he and Pence sat down with volunteers.
Trump made his first ad buy a few days ago, for almost $5 million in commercials to air across Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and North Carolina.
Later Friday, Trump fired up a rally in Dimondale, Michigan but for the fourth time this week spoke with the aid of the telepromoters he used to revile. He delivered the remarks to an overwhelmingly white audience.
Manafort, a longtime Washington fixture, was originally brought on in the spring to save Trump from a defeat at the Republican convention should Trump have failed to win enough delegates to clinch a first-ballot nomination. “You can get rid of Manafort, but that doesn’t end the odd bromance Trump has with Putin”.
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Most polls show Trump trailing Clinton significantly among black voters. “To those I say the following: what do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump?” For instance, two days after becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Mr. Trump tweeted a photo of himself eating a taco salad with the caption, “I love Hispanics!” At a rally on Thursday night in North Carolina, he read from a prepared text and expressed regret for past words which “may have caused personal pain”.
