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.
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“I have known Steve and Kellyanne both for many years”, said Trump in a statement. He has concentrated on immigration, trade deals and law and order.
A spokeswoman for Trump’s campaign declined to comment.
The Clinton campaign has pointed to Manafort’s work in Ukraine to add to its criticism of favorable comments that Trump has made about Russian President Vladimir Putin and to sow doubts in voters’ minds about whether the Russian government has an unseen hand in the USA election.
A Trump source said Manafort told Trump he was becoming a distraction and he wanted to end that. But Manafort’s role in the campaign had been significantly marginalized under the new leadership structure announced Wednesday.
This week, investigations revealed that Manafort’s name was on hand-written “black ledger” in Ukraine in which the ousted pro-Russian Yanukovych government of Ukraine had promised him many millions of dollars for his work with its campaign team.
The overhaul is Mr Trump’s second in less than two months.
Clinton leads Trump by 8 percentage points among likely voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Friday.
Conway contended that Trump’s remarks were directed at “anyone who feels offended by anything he said”, adding that it shows “some recognition and some forgiveness”.
Trump’s decision to tap Stephen Bannon, a combative conservative media executive, as his new campaign chief suggested to some that he might continue the divisive rhetoric that has angered minorities and alienated large swaths of the general election electorate. The campaign also said Gates will change roles, becoming Trump’s liaison to the Republican National Committee.
In June, Manafort replaced the fired Corey Lewandowski at the top of the Trump campaign hierarchy. At the same time, party leaders have conceded they may divert resources away from the presidential contest in favor of vulnerable Senate and House candidates if things don’t improve.
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.
A different outside security firm was hired to examine software the Trump and Clinton campaigns use to manage mailings, electronic outreach and other campaign efforts, another person who was briefed on the issue said.
Manafort has also come under increased scrutiny in recent days over alleged ties with pro-Russian political groups in Ukraine.
One recent report alleged that Manafort facilitated an illegal payment from a nonprofit to two lobbying firms “in a way that effectively obscured the foreign political party’s efforts to influence US policy”.
Earlier this week, JOL News reported that Trump appointed 2 people to senior level positions in his campaign. Russian officials have rejected that accusation.
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Also Friday, Trump started airing his first ads of the general election after moving a day earlier to invest almost $5 million in battleground state advertising. “She’s going to insult Donald Trump and we’ll talk directly to the voters”, Conway said. His propensity for drama would have been a lightning rod for news reporters in any era, let alone a time when news moves on the web at the speed of lightning – often prompted by the very verbal bolts Trump throws.
