Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort Resigns
On to the third campaign manager in as many months
Wednesday, news that Breitbart Chair Steve Bannon would be running the Trump show (officially) broke the internet. Not twenty-four hours ago, the Trump campaign refused to answer questions about the campaign’s staffing shakeup. This morning, Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort resigned.
From Politico:
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign. 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. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success,” Trump said in a statement.
…
Trump’s camp framed the moves as an expansion rather than a shakeup, but they were widely seen as a demotion for Manafort, who has come under fire for his ties to pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians and oligarchs.
In a statement Wednesday, Manafort hailed the additions as “respected professionals” who “will undoubtedly help take the campaign to new levels of success.”
Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski resigned in June. Kellyanne Conway, Republican pollster is Trump’s third campaign manager, while Breitbart’s Steve Bannon will function as the campaign’s chief executive.
Wednesday, the Associated Press reported Manafort’s alleged ties to foreign, pro-Russian, lobbying dollars:
Donald Trump’s campaign chairman helped a pro-Russian governing party in Ukraine secretly route at least $2.2 million in payments to two prominent Washington lobbying firms in 2012, and did so in a way that effectively obscured the foreign political party’s efforts to influence U.S. policy.
The revelation, provided to The Associated Press by people directly knowledgeable about the effort, comes at a time when Trump has faced criticism for his friendly overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin. It also casts new light on the business practices of campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
Under federal law, U.S. lobbyists must declare publicly if they represent foreign leaders or their political parties and provide detailed reports about their actions to the Justice Department. A violation is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
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Comments
If only we had voted for Ted Cruz to take on Hillary, we wouldn’t be in such a dire cluster.
Yeah but Goldman Sachs, globalist, national enquirer infidelity story, lyin Ted, filibuster obamacare, shut down the government blah blah…….
/sarc off- I love how yesterday the Trump surrogates were going on TV saying it wasn’t a campaign shake-up, then this happens.
I know he’s a mastermind and I just can’t fathom his brilliance, but the constant spin and dishonesty of Trump’s campaign reminds me a whole lot of the current administration.
Wait there was some more sarcasm in there, I forgot the tag that time.
Oh well.
By the way I accidentally down voted your post.
Yah IF ONLY Jeb! wasn’t a total putz, Jeb! would be running an “honorable” campaign before losing to Hillary and making the RINO wing of the socialist party very happy. How about a few more “if only”? Here is the situation. IF ONLY there are TWO candidates for the presidency, WHICH ONE ARE YOU GOING TO VOTE FOR?
Silly .22caltex, Jeb! never stood a chance. If you don’t know that, well…
The biggest criticism of Ted Cruz that I’ve heard (beyond putting his “feelz bad” above the good of the party and the nation) is that he only sticks to friendly news outlets. He never goes into the belly of the beast at CNN, MSNBC, etc., because his style of messaging doesn’t work outside of friendly audiences.
Here’s an example:
https://youtu.be/EkCifM0kDd0
Cruz gets crushed on camera by a dudebro.
Cruz has the same national favorability ratings as Trump, couldn’t beat Trump, and can’t communicate outside of friendly media. So I don’t see how you can make a plausible argument that Cruz would be doing better based on anything other than wishful thinking.
The argument is that Cruz would be running an effective, classy and stable campaign, much like how he handled the buffoon yelling nonsense in his face in your video.
A Cruz general campaign would be the antithesis to the steaming pile of dung that is Trump’s.
And by not stepping in every pile of crap the media throws at him, or going off script and sticking his crap covered foot in his mouth like the Donald, the focus could be more on how bad the dems and Hillary are. Not this infighting in his own campaign and party.
If and if your grandmother had wheels, she’d be a wagon.
Love him as we do, Cruz couldn’t pull it off. Trump did.
Now that’s he’s blown off that GOPe hack Manafort, look for some action.
Just one small problem Trump got 13 million votes and Cruz did not! Cruz tried and lost just like the other 16.
Trump Cruz
13,300,472 7,637,262
TRUMP 2016
also Rick Gates has left.
Good riddance. Gates is as big a hack and a liability as Manafort.
Lay down with rino dogs, you wake up with rino fleas.
Trump should have never picked this stale, GOPe statute.
Remember, Reagan also ditched his stale, GOPe statue of a campaign manager, John Sears, replacing him with Bill Casey in 1980.
Now the race is going to get interesting – if Hillary Clinton doesn’t keel over first.
Clinton will keel over right after they find the email where she founds ISIS.
A moving target is harder to hit. I think this bodes well for Trump’s success in this phase of the election.
Leslie is the intelligent one.
Manafort’s role has played out. Time to move into the next phase.
Regardless of what you think of Trump, he really has to run a more disciplined campaign if he wants to beat Clinton. He gave a very solid speech in Wisconsin. The next day he announced his campaign staff shake-up which they denied was a campaign staff shake-up. Naturally the campaign staff shake-up dominated the news.
Then he gives another solid speech in North Carolina. Not learning a thing from Wisconsin he next day the campaign announces Manafort resigned. Today the vast majority of the press coverage of the Trump campaign is, guess what? Naturally it is covering the Manafort resignation. For a couple of reasons. Trump should never have denied the fact that the changes he was making to his campaign staff was a shake-up. The Manafort resignation confirms that Trump was actually shaking up his campaign staff, and his and his spox characterization of it as simply “beefing up” the staff was simply not true. Whether you like to hear it or not Trump does not score well on the question of truthfulness and this won’t help. Second, Manafort already has the whiff of scandal about him r.e. his ties to Russia and the Ukraine, and Eric Trump has confirmed to the press that his father did not want that “distraction” to affect his campaign. So instead of covering the speech, the press is covering Manafort’s financial ties to the Ukraine’s former pro-Russia president. Specifically possible illegal off-the-books payoffs and possible illegal lobbying on behalf of Ukraine as he did not register as a lobbyist of a foreign power.
Like it or not, that is legitimate news.
The press I’ve read is only covering the speech to shed crocodile tears that this shake-up and Manafort’s shady ties to the Ukraine and Russia is UNFORTUNATELY overshadowing a good speech. That part is media bias; they could walk and chew gum at the same time if they wanted, but they’ll use any excuse not to do so. Trump played right into that bias given the timing. Had he made these personnel changes before giving these speeches at least he wouldn’t have given the media that excuse. Many of the news outlets would have still focused on those issues. But it wouldn’t have been two own-goals in a row on the part of the Trump campaign.
He is going to have to learn not to do this if he wants to beat Clinton.
I meant to add that Eric Trump’s comments to the press essentially confirm that Manafort’s dealings in the Ukraine and Russia are a real problem. He said that the campaign didn’t want to be “distracted” as Manafort deals with whatever he’s going to have to deal with. Which gives the press the green light to go balls to the wall in terms of press coverage. Believe it or not Donald Trump’s statement was much more disciplined than his son’s. He shouldn’t have mentioned the issue. I said Manafort’s actions were possibly illegal but it’s not at all clear that they in fact were. At this point they all should have just left it alone.
It’s interesting that I can praise Donald Trump’s speeches and even Trump’s statement about Manafort’s resignation and still get thumb’s down for pointing out obvious missteps the Trump campaign made in timing announcements about campaign reorganization. And how the MSM has taken advantage of those missteps. Facts, not opinion. But facts aren’t popular with the Trumptards.
Trumpism is clearly a cult. The Trumptards can brook no criticism of their perfect god. Any suggestion Trump isn’t perfect is heresy, and the heretic must be burned at the stake.
If Trump loses to Hillary Clinton look no further than Donald Trump and your own mirror to pin the blame. 99% of the people you brand as #NeverTrump have said exactly what Trump needed to do to get their vote. Learn what the effin’ nuclear triad is. It’s one thing to not know early in the campaign. It’s another to demonstrate months later you still haven’t bothered to learn. Speaking of learning, act like you know what you claim on your campaign website are your various plans, written by proxies clearly, actually are your plans. Speak like you know what’s in the theoretical plans you’ve posted on your campaign site. Give speeches like the ones he just gave in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Do it for six months.
OK, it’s too late to meet the six month criteria. But if he can do it for the next three a lot of the so-called #NeverTrump crowd will come around.
But you have to worry about the independents. Trump can’t win without them. I expect another thumbs down for sneaking in that bit of reality into the bizarro Trumptard alternate universe. And independents think Trump and his Trumptard cultists are insane. Trump, and you, scare them into Hillary’s arms. But you’ll never take responsibility for the fact your demand for perfect, blind loyalty is a liability because cults never take such responsibility. If they did they wouldn’t be cults.
I always thought these sorts of personality cults were the exclusive province of the left. You know, North Korea and Soviet Russia and Cuba and Venezuela and the Democratic party. You Trumptards have proven me wrong.
“Trumpism is clearly a cult”
And what do you call #neverTrump?
A “cult” if ever there were.
You’re crying over, at this moment, two, I repeat, two total thumbs down on two different comments.
Dear idiot Trumptard, what part of “win over” don’t you understand?
As in:
“99% of the people you brand as #NeverTrump have said exactly what Trump needed to do to get their vote. Learn what the effin’ nuclear triad is. It’s one thing to not know early in the campaign. It’s another to demonstrate months later you still haven’t bothered to learn. Speaking of learning, act like you know what you claim on your campaign website are your various plans, written by proxies clearly, actually are your plans. Speak like you know what’s in the theoretical plans you’ve posted on your campaign site. Give speeches like the ones he just gave in Wisconsin and North Carolina. Do it for six months.”
This is too effin’ much to ask?
Also, I’m not “crying” over anything. I said it was interesting.
Your histrionic over-reaction is exactly what I was talking about when I said if Trump loses, look into a mirror before pointing the finger at anyone else. You are not a normal person. You drive people away. And there’s nothing wrong with the people who want to be as far away from you as possible. The problem is you.
P.S. May I suggest that now would be a perfect time for an unhinged screed about how if you’re not totes in the tank for Trump YOU WANT TO ELECT HILLARY CLINTON!!!
That sort of NORK personality-cult “charm offensive” is exactly what will put Trump over the top with independents. Not.
Perhaps you should try baseball bats and tire irons to “persuade” them, you silver-tongued devil you.
Oh, wait, you already have broken out the arsenal of bats and tire irons. Which is why independents have run screaming into the arms of the Clinton campaign.
Perhaps if you double down and unleash the pit bulls…
yep, you’re crying.
I don’t care who you fools vote for. You show your petty childish nature with every post.
And you nevrtrumpers are a cult, nothing more.