ADVERTISEMENT

Manafort, Tapper Spar Harshly About Media, Attacks on Gold Star Parent

August 14, 2016

Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and CNN's Jake Tapper took multiple digs at each other during an interview concerning Donald Trump, media coverage, and New York campaign co-chair Carl Paladino on Sunday.

"Your New York co-chair is attacking a gold star family," Tapper said. "You might want to look into that."

The first section of the interview was riddled with shots at the media.

Tapper showed a clip of a man who attended a rally, Darrell Vickers, and was sitting behind Trump when he made his Second Amendment comment about stopping Clinton, which set off a political firestorm.

Tapper asked Manafort if Trump should listen to voters who say that he should be more careful with his words.

Manafort said that the real issue here was the way the media covered the comments. He preceded to list other things that happened this week that the media could have covered, but chose to talk about this comment instead.

Tapper hit back.

"Ok, first of all, just as a factual matter, on Monday, my show, covered Mr. Trump's speech," he said. "OK? We did. we covered Mr. Trump's speech—and we did cover the Hillary Clinton emails. So these things, just because you say them, they're not true. I mean, we have been covering the substance—"

Manafort said that they covered the messages that Trump has been giving for one day, "and you covered this aside about the Second Amendment for three days. I mean, come on! There's not a comparison here."

"And Mr. Trump bears no responsibility for his campaign being off-message?" Tapper asked. "He is not—his comments about the Second Amendment had nothing to do with why we weren't covering the economic message?"

Then, the conversation moved on to if Trump would release his taxes since Hillary Clinton released hers on Friday.

"You could put the issue to rest right now if you release Mr. Trump's 2008 returns," he said. "That's a year no longer under audit according to Mr. Trump's lawyers."

"He's under audit," Manafort said. "When that's completed, he'll release the returns."

Tapper finally asked Manafort about Carl Paladino, who has recently come under fire for saying that Khizr Khan does not deserve the title of being a Gold Star parent.

BuzzFeed reported the following about Paladino:

"We’ve got an un-indicted felon as his opponent and you’re talking about Khan, about him making a remark about this man," Paladino, a former New York gubernatorial candidate, told interviewer Connell McShane on Imus in the Morning. "All right, I don’t care if he’s a Gold Star parent. He certainly doesn’t deserve that title, OK, if he’s as anti-American as he’s illustrated in his speeches and in his discussion. I mean, if he’s a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or supporting, you know, the ISIS-type of attitude against America, there’s no reason for Donald Trump to have to honor this man."

"Do you feel you're dishonoring the military by continuing to have Carl Paladino still serve in the campaign?" Tapper asked.

Manafort responded by talking about his disgust for the Pulse nightclub shooter's father, Seddique Mateen, not only supporting Hillary Clinton, but attending her rally.

"You didn't address the question at all, but that's all the time we have," Tapper said.

Manafort quickly responded, saying that Trump did empathize for the loss that the Khan family has gone through.

"Your New York co-chair is attacking a Gold Star family," Tapper said. "You might want to look into that."