On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” while commenting on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential pick of Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort declared the two of them together to be “ultimate of the establishment in the year of change.”
Partial transcript as follows:
WALLACE: Paul, their basic message, Trump doesn’t care about regular folks. All he cares about is Donald Trump.
PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: Well, that’s the pot calling the kettle black I guess you could say. I mean, look, the establishment is represented by Hillary Clinton, and she chose her perfect partner in Senator Kaine. Senator Kaine is the ultimate status quo. He’s never had a job in the private sector. He’s been mayor, governor, senator. He has no idea how to create jobs, nor does Hillary Clinton, and the two of them together are the ultimate of the establishment in the year of change. So, for them to say those things, of course. They don’t get it. Donald Trump does get it. He was nominated because he understands what’s going on in America, and doesn’t care what’s going on in Washington. He is committed to breaking that gridlock. During our convention, that message resonated. Even CNN’s polls, sorry, different networks, showed 75 percent who listened to his speech agreed with him and thought he would bring real change. That’s over 35 million people listening. So, we’re very comfortable that the campaign speaks exactly like we want. We’re the change candidate. Clinton and Kaine are the failed establishment candidate. Their record is what we’re fighting against. And for them to say they’re going bring change, when all the problems were created during the Obama administration, frankly, is ludicrous.
WALLACE: Now, in the strict political sense, Tim Kaine is a white man from a swing state. Doesn’t he cut into Trump’s advantages in some of those areas?
MANAFORT: Tim Kaine is a failed career politician, who has never had a job in the private sector, and never created jobs. His —
WALLACE: He failed, he has never lost an election, Paul.
MANAFORT: Compare his record to Governor Pence. During Kaine’s term in office, he tried to raise taxes $4 billion as governor. He came in saying he was going to change the transportation system in Virginia. He did change it. It got worst. He — unemployment went from 3 percent to 7.5 percent. And those are his highlights. I mean, Governor Pence cut taxes every one of the years he was governor, brought in new jobs, balanced the budget, has a $2 billion reserve fund. And as well as having improved the infrastructure, increase aid for health care and education. Those are records of accomplishment. So, Tim Kaine may be what he is, but as far as we’re concerned, he is the perfect candidate. Bernie Sanders who should be concerned because yes, Tim Kaine doesn’t represent the progressive agenda of Sanders, and once again, the progressives in the Democratic Party have been cheated by the establishment. But the WikiLeaks of the Democratic emails over the last week proved that was always the plan. I’m not surprised. We’ll see how they take it at their convention.
WALLACE: Are you egging on — your boss has been talking about a Philly fight. Are you egging on the Bernie Sanders supporters and delegates to cause a fuss here at the convention?
MANAFORT: We don’t have to egg them on. They have a lot to complain about. The e-mails have proven the system was rigged from the start. The only reason they’re not the nominee is because of the superdelegates who are the established elected officials in the Democratic Party. The fix was in from the beginning. But more importantly, as far as we’re concerned, the people who voted for Bernie Sanders, right now, you’ve got polls out showing less than 55 percent are going to support Hillary Clinton. And a number of them, you know, who are against the rigged system, can find support in what Donald Trump has been saying, as far as what he wants to do in breaking up the rigged political system, the rigged economy. If there’s anybody against Wall Street, it’s Donald Trump. Not Hillary Clinton, who basically lives off the funding from Wall Street.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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