SOURCE:
New York TimesURL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/us/politics/john-kasich-rnc.html?_r=0by: Jonathan Martin
CLEVELAND — Donald J. Trump’s chief adviser used the first day of the Republican National Convention on Monday to excoriate Gov. John R. Kasich for not endorsing Mr. Trump, touching off a remarkably bitter exchange between the campaign of the presumptive Republican nominee and advisers to Ohio’s popular Republican governor.
Addressing reporters at a breakfast on Monday, Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s de facto campaign manager, accused Mr. Kasich of acting “petulant” for refusing to support Mr. Trump following the governor’s defeat in the Republicans’ presidential nominating process.
“He’s embarrassing his party in Ohio,” Mr. Manafort said of Mr. Kasich, calling the governor’s chief political strategist the culprit behind Mr. Kasich’s strategy of not endorsing Mr. Trump. “Negotiations broke down because John Weaver thinks that John Kasich will have a better chance to be president by not supporting Donald Trump.”
Such a calculation, Mr. Manafort said, is “a dumb, dumb, dumb thing.”
Asked about the criticism, Mr. Weaver escalated the dispute. He not only mocked Mr. Trump’s rambling and at-times awkward introduction of Mike Pence as his running mate on Saturday, but also pointedly brought up Mr. Manafort’s history of working with contentious foreign leaders.
“Manafort’s problem, after all those years on the lam with thugs and autocrats, is that he can’t recognize principle and integrity,” Mr. Weaver wrote in an email. “I do congratulate him though on a great pivot at the start of the convention after such a successful vice-presidential launch. He has brought great professionalism, direct from Kiev, to Trump world.”
The back-and-forth was the latest extraordinary turn in a campaign that has veered sharply away from political precedent. Mr. Manafort’s blistering attack was the latest reminder that, when it comes to their critics, Mr. Trump and his high command care little for political niceties — in this case the traditional imperative to unify the party as the convention gets underway.
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