Having rejected calls from his staff to research his own past numerous times, it appears frustration is growing with the Trump campaign as manager Kellyanne Conway exclaimed “I don’t know what’s out there… there’s no way for me to know what is and isn’t out there.”
The decision to block the campaign’s requests to do self-opposition research, as Bloomberg reports, contributed to his campaign being caught unprepared for the past week’s barrage of claims he mistreated women.
Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, requested that Trump submit himself to a forensic evaluation that is traditional for any public figure seeking office, according to people granted anonymity to speak freely about the campaign’s start-up days last year. Opposition research would allow Trump’s new political team to prepare for potential attacks on his candidacy.
Paul Manafort and his team made a similar request when they took over the reins after Lewandowski, who was ousted this June.
Trump declined, the people said, and the issue became a point of contention among his closest political advisers and some long-time employees at the Trump Organization. Trump spokespeople Jason Miller and Hope Hicks didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Roger Stone and Michael Cohen, two of Trump’s earliest advisers, also advocated for a forensic research effort to be conducted when Trump was considering running for governor, but Trump declined.
And now mutinous tones are beginning to appear…
Trump’s decision not to bless a full opposition research effort about himself was seen inside the campaign as one of the first in a series of unconventional decisions that Trump would make.
Indeed, while Trump’s inner circle has gone through various iterations, his political advisers still do not know the extent of the material his opponents may have prepared to mount against him.
“I don’t know what’s out there,” said Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, who took the job this August, on Fox News on Wednesday. “There’s no way for me to know what is and isn’t out there.”
via http://ift.tt/2ewOjRj Tyler Durden