Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump late Friday fired Roger Stone, his campaign manager, over concerns about Stone’s loyalty to the billionaire businessman’s run for Republican presidential nomination.
"Mr. Trump fired Roger Stone last night," a campaign spokesperson told Newsmax on Saturday. "We have a tremendously successful campaign, and Roger wanted to use the campaign for his own personal publicity.
"He has had a number of articles about him recently, and Mr. Trump wants to keep the focus of the campaign on how to 'Make America Great Again,' " the spokesperson said.
Though there were other mixed reports as to whether Stone was fired or quit the campaign, his departure was the first strong sign that Trump’s election effort was suffering setbacks Saturday from his comments Friday night in which he attacked one of the Fox debate moderators, Megyn Kelly.
Stone’s friends told Politico on background that the well-known Republican campaign adviser sent an email to Trump announcing his decision to leave his presidential campaign earlier in the day.
But an hour later, Trump told a Washington Post reporter he fired Stone. The news hit Twitter just after Stone told a Fox News TV show that he couldn’t appear Saturday because he no longer worked for the campaign, these friends told Politico.
Stone's team
shared a copy of the email to Politico that he sent Trump in which he expressed gratitude concerning their longtime relationship.
“I was proud to have played a role in the launch of your presidential campaign. Your message of ‘Make America Great Again’ harkened back to the Reagan era. Restoring national pride and bringing jobs back to America - your initial and still underlying message - is a solid conservative message. In fact, it catapulted you instantly into a commanding lead in the race,” Stone’s email said, Politico reported.
“Unfortunately, the current controversies involving personalities and provocative media fights have reached such a high volume that it has distracted attention from your platform and overwhelmed your core message,” Stone wrote. “With this current direction of the candidacy, I no longer can remain involved in your campaign.”
The billionaire real estate mogul came under fire from his party after a particularly crude accusation that Kelly, one of the moderators at Thursday's Republican presidential debate, had singled him out with rough treatment.
Trump had already called out the station's moderators for asking "unfair" questions after Kelly brought up his use of derogatory language towards women in Twitter posts. Kelly asked him if this was befitting a man running to be the U.S. president.
But he turned up the tone Friday evening when he told CNN that Kelly "is just somebody I didn't have a lot of respect for."
"You can see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever," he continued.
By Saturday, Trump's invitation to a prominent grassroots Republican event in Atlanta — RedState Gathering — had been rescinded.
"As much as I do personally like Donald Trump, his comment about Megyn Kelly on CNN is a bridge too far for me," said conservative pundit Erick Erickson, editor of the conservative RedState blog and organizer of the event drawing conservative activists. Trump was to have spoken at it.
In America, states that generally vote Republican are commonly referred to as "red states."
"His comment was inappropriate. It is unfortunate to have to disinvite him," Erickson continued, adding that he would invite Kelly in Trump's place.
Material from Reuters and AFP were used in this story.
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