The Republican Party is the “Trump party” now, according to Donald Trump’s campaign chairman.
“This is the Trump party now,” Paul Manafort said on CBS Wednesday morning. “He’s the nominee of the party. Republicans have said we trust you to lead us this fall because we think you’re the strongest candidate and you have the best vision.”
Manafort also praised a controversial speech given Monday night by Trump’s wife, Melania, which contained some phrases very similar to a 2008 speech given by Michelle Obama. He said Melania spoke “from her heart.”
“That was a very personal speech,” he said. “For anybody to pretend that was a fake speech didn’t see the speech.”
But Manafort also didn’t explicitly deny that Melania was guilty of plagiarism, saying only that “we fact check speeches all the time and there’s a process.”
“And frankly, we have found in our focus groups afterwards, including yesterday, that the American people are focusing on what she did on the stage, rather than what’s being said in political chatrooms,” he added.
Eric Trump, one of Donald Trump’s sons, is scheduled to deliver an address Wednesday night to the Republican Party convention in Cleveland. Manafort said the speech would be “powerful” and would give insight into Trump as a father.
“We believe that through the words and eyes of his children, the American people can get a sense of the kind of values that Donald Trump has as a man that you don’t see out on the campaign trail in the midst of a primary fight,” he said.
