“I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process”, Trump said of Manafort’s decision. “But that said, Trump has clearly been having significant problems in the polls and he needed to do something differently and perhaps this is the beginning of the attempt”. Mitt Romney, who has set himself up this year as a moral and political foil to Trump, might even recognize some of the catchphrases and tactics being floated in the past 48 hours. (Disclosure: I know and have worked with Conway in the past).
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Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort has resigned following the hiring of new leadership and reports last week questioning Manafort’s ties to Russian Federation. That’s true – and Conway certainly personifies Margaret Thatcher’s credo, “If you want something said, ask a man, if you want something done, ask a woman”.
But with the first debate general election debate with Clinton on the horizon, Trump’s last best chance to reshape the race before the current dynamic hardens is here – if it’s not already too late.
Emails between Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, also a top Trump adviser, and the lobbying firm Mercury LLC showed that Manafort’s firm, DMP International LLC, directly orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine’s then-ruling political party.
After spending almost a year bulldozing the Republican primary field, the party’s unlikely nominee has found the general election campaign a less hospitable ground. “I have done that”, Trump confessed.
Ina Kirsch, who runs the European nonprofit, has said the group’s work was independent and its goal was to bring Ukraine into the fold of Europe. In practice, that means attacking Hillary Clinton and attracting independents, women, millennials and minorities.
“It takes a lot of strength to say, ‘I’m sorry, ‘ to admit – not that he was wrong, but he wished he hadn’t done it”, said Cindy Ammons, 70, a Trump supporter from Spindale, North Carolina.
Campaign spokesman Jason Miller said Gates would remain part of the campaign with a new role as liaison to the Republican National Committee, which has had a turbulent relationship with its nominee this year. “I have done that”, the GOP nominee, reading from prepared text, said at a rally in Charlotte, N.C. Thursday night.
Clinton’s campaign has spent the summer flooding the airwaves with television ads, building out field operations in the states and attracting Republican support.
Judging by recent elections, he already had an uphill battle as the Republican candidate. In 2008, President Obama beat John McCain 56% to 43%.
Trump backer Stepanek said the speech should help him with women voters.
In another sign of a new direction in the campaign, Trump on Thursday made an unusual admission of regret for some of his past comments. Trump, meanwhile, has made little effort to reach out to new voters or capitalize on Clinton’s vulnerabilities, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation director’s criticism of her email practices. (Although he clearly likes being told to read off a teleprompter about as much as a kid likes to be told to eat beets at a pizza buffet).
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“All the people who have been saying, ‘Let’s get Trump to pivot, let’s get him to be more presidential.’ That is presidential”, she said. Cohen, keep your eye on the woman who will “speak softly and carry a big stick”. Pence praised Manafort’s work and downplayed the shakeup during an interview at the New Hampshire Union Leader late Thursday afternoon.
