Trump called Manafort a true professional, but his resignation comes after the New York Times reported he worked for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, never disclosed their work as foreign agents as required under federal law. The bureau said, however, that it can not prove that Manafort actually received the money because other people including a prominent Party of the Regions deputy signed for him in those entries.
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Trump’s son Eric said in an interview to air on Fox News this weekend that his father wanted to avoid being “distracted by whatever things Paul was dealing with”. Yet his role grew to serve as Trump’s connection to the GOP establishment, telling Republican elders that their presidential nominee would run a traditional campaign that would not imperil down-ballot candidates.
Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook called Manafort’s resignation a “clear admission” of Manafort’s ties to Russian Federation.
Trump earlier today said in a statement that Manafort offered his resignation.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, says he won’t be involved in Trump’s visit, saying Thursday that Trump is welcome, “but not for a photo-op”.
Trump’s trip was a striking detour for a candidate who has largely stuck to boisterous rallies and phone-in interviews to appeal to voters.
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. Trump consoled residents even hugging two as several Louisianans noted they have felt left out of the national spotlight. 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.
When a woman thanked him for coming, rather than playing golf like the president has been doing during his New England vacation, Trump replied: “Somebody is, somebody is that shouldn’t be”.
Louisiana’s Democratic governor defended the administration’s response Thursday, saying he has spoken daily with the White House and would prefer Obama hold off on visiting because such stops pull local police and first responders into providing security. The party official, who spoke to ABC News on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said Manafort had acted as Yanukovych’s “personal trainer” in political campaigning and credited Manafort with Yanukovych’s winning Ukraine’s presidency in 2010. The decision suggested to some that Trump might ramp up the divisive rhetoric that has angered minorities and alienated large swaths of the electorate.
The emails obtained by AP were sent by Gates to Vin Weber, the head of Mercury’s Washington office, and to Michael McSherry, a Mercury lobbyist who Politico reported was tapped earlier this month for a senior position in Trump’s campaign. The campaign’s first television ads of the general election went up on Friday, about two months after Clinton began airing general-election ads. But it also keeps up his unfounded suggestions that a Clinton victory would be the result of an election system “rigged against Americans”. Although the suburb just outside Lansing is overwhelmingly white, Trump made an appeal to black voters.
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, told me Manafort leaving the Trump campaign on Friday was a “positive”.
Citing disproportionate levels of poverty, unemployment and failing schools, Trump claimed that “no group in America” has been more harmed than blacks by the former secretary of state’s policies.
“Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don’t choose the right words or you say the wrong thing”, Trump told backers in Charlotte, N.C.
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“And I do regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain”, he added. “I believe Mr. Manafort also needs to be under investigation at least in the United States as a guy who didn’t pay taxes”. AP material published by LongIsland.com, is done so with explicit permission. But his efforts to rein in some of Trump’s most controversial tendencies were seen as a failure.
