Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort expressly denied his campaign had any role in changing the language of the Republican Party’s platform on Ukraine.
“It absolutely did not come from the Trump campaign,” Manafort told NBC’s “Meet the Press”.
Manafort, who has ties to ousted Ukrainian Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich, also denied having a personal role in altering the platform, saying “I had none. In fact, I didn’t even hear of it until after our convention was over.”
During the convention, the RNC eliminated specific calls to provide arms to Ukraine in its fight with Russia, “after Trump surrogates reportedly intervened,” according to the L.A. Times. The platform also weakened language criticizing Russia for intervening in Ukraine.
In an interview with ABC News, Trump claimed he was not personally involved in the platform change, saying “I was not involved in that. I’d like to – I’d have to take a look at it. But I was not involved in that.”
However, unlike what Manafort told NBC News, he did not completely rule out that his campaign or surrogates may have been involved.
Asked if he knew what changes were made, Trump replied, “They softened it, I heard. But I was not involved.”
Additionally, Trump made it clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “not going into Ukraine…you can mark it down.”
