'The FBI is certainly suspect': Trump campaign chair questions FBI crime statistics because of Hillary Clinton email investigation
(CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Donald Trump's campaign manager, Paul Manafort.Screenshot via CNN)
Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's campaign manager, suggested that he is not confident in the FBI during a Thursday interview on CNN.
Manafort was speaking with news anchor Jake Tapper about Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
The address, which leaned heavily on Trump's self-described "law and order" platform, cited statistics on the current state of crime in America.
Trump's speech noted that "decades of progress made in bringing down crime are now being reversed" by what he describes as the Obama administration's "rollback of criminal enforcement."
Tapper argued that Trump's suggestion did not seem accurate: "The Republicans make the argument that somehow it's more dangerous today when the facts don't back that up."
Manafort replied, "People don't feel safe in their neighborhoods, I'm not sure what statistics you're talking about," to which Tapper quickly interjected, "FBI statistics."
"The FBI is certainly suspect these days after what they just did with Hillary Clinton," Manafort said.
Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was cleared by the FBI earlier this month in an investigation over her use of government emails while she was secretary of state. Some Republicans have decried the FBI's decision.
It came after a separate controversy over an impromptu meeting ;that Attorney General Loretta Lynch had with former President Bill Clinton — days before the FBI announced that it would not recommend criminal charges against Mrs. Clinton.
The US Justice Department closed the case days later.
Watch the exchange below:
Trump campaign manager asked about crime statistics: "The FBI is certainly suspect" https://t.co/KjpeNheq0X https://t.co/nY3LmvtJo8
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 22, 2016
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