Donald Trump remains in control of his campaign, chairman Paul Manafort said Wednesday, while refuting growing news reports that he's lost control of his candidate as controversy grows over the GOP nominee's arguments and statements, including not offering an endorsement for House Speaker Paul Ryan or Sen. John McCain.
"The candidate is in control of his campaign, that's number one, and I'm in control of doing the things he wants me to do in the campaign," Manafort told Fox News' "Happening Now" program just before noon. "The turmoil, this is another [Hillary] Clinton narrative that she put out there and that the media is picking up on."
Manafort also denied a bombshell dropped on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, when show host Joe Scarborough told Gen. Michael Hayden that there had been a meeting earlier this year in which Trump asked three times about why nuclear weapons could not be used, if the United States has them.
"It's absolutely not true, and in fact those security briefings haven't started yet," said Manafort. "They were simply referencing. The idea that he's looking at trying to understand where to use nuclear weapons just didn't happen. I was in the meeting, it didn't happen."
The campaign is in "very good shape," Manafort insisted.
"In the past week, we just announced our 50-state chairmen, we announced a record amount of money that we raised in July. Mr. Trump has appeared this week in front of crowds overflowing onto the streets, so the campaign is in very good shape we are organized, we are moving forward and the Clinton machine may not like it but we're prepared for the fight.
Manafort also denied reports that the campaign was planning to stage an intervention to get Trump back on track.
Earlier Wednesday, NBC News reported that key Republicans close to Trump, such as Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich hope to enlist the help of Trump's adult children to push him into rescuing his campaign.
Manafort, though, denied knowing anything about that meeting and said it would not be necessary. But, he said there may be a need for an intervention with "some media types who keep saying things that aren't true."
Trump plans on Wednesday to talk about reports that the Obama administration had paid the Iranian government $400 million at the same time four American prisoners were being released from custody in January, said Manafort.
As far as the payment, Manafort said the campaign does believe the Obama administration paid for the release of hostages, and that's "not a way to deal with terrorists."
Trump has said that making deals with Iran is "not a smart thing," said Manafort, and "he would not have done" the nuclear deal that was reached with Iran.
"He said that when he was president he's going to look at that contract that was signed and make sure the United States is not going to be put in a bad position," said Manafort.
The chairman also told Fox News that the campaign is moving past the back-and-forth arguments involving Trump and Gold Star parents Khizr and Ghazala Khan, whose son, Army Capt. Humayun Khan, died in a car bomb explosion in Iraq in 2004.
"He does sympathize with the family for the loss, but he was concerned more about what caused that loss which is the failed policies of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama that led to the rise of ISIS, led to the destabilizing of the situation there and cause the deaths of many other American families," said Khan. "The Khan situation was part of a bigger message and that's what I expect him to explain well."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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