Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence said Paul Manafort, who resigned as Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Friday, didn’t want to be a distraction.
“I think Paul didn’t want to be a distraction going forward,” Mr. Pence said in an interview that aired Monday on “Fox and Friends.”
“We’ve got a little more than 80 days left in this campaign. We saw a couple of great new additions,” the Indiana governor said.
Last Wednesday, the campaign announced it was bringing on Stephen K. Bannon to serve as the campaign’s CEO and announced adviser Kellyanne Conway was being promoted to campaign manager.
Two days later, Mr. Manafort resigned as chairman and chief strategist for the campaign, amid renewed scrutiny about some of his past work on behalf of Viktor F. Yanukovych, the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine.
Ms. Conway said Mr. Manafort had been asked to resign, but she described it as a “mutual decision.”
“He was asked, and he indeed [tendered] his resignation,” Ms. Conway told WABC’s Rita Cosby. “And Mr. Trump accepted his resignation and wished him well and thanked him for his service.”
Asked if Mr. Trump has been including him in some of the decisions, Mr. Pence said he and Mr. Trump talk every day — sometimes several times a day.
“I think the American people know the person that’s running Donald Trump’s campaign for president is Donald Trump,” he said.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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