Tom Barrack, a close friend and business associate of Donald Trump, said Monday the Republican presidential nominee should not continue to comment on the latest scandal surrounding former New York Congressman Anthony Weiner.
“Personally, I don’t (believe he should talk about it),” the private equity real estate investor told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “Erin Burnett OutFront.” “Because I think it detracts from the substance … I don’t personally agree with that.”
Weiner, who was at one point considered a rising star in the Democratic Party until a sexting scandal ruined his climb, has had another sexting exchange revealed. A Trump supporter told the New York Post that the two of them exchanged racy photos over the course of about a year. On Monday, Weiner’s wife Huma Abedin, one of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, announced she is separating from him.
Trump weighed in on the scandal earlier Monday, saying about Weiner on the Dori Monson radio show: “I understood that he had difficulties … I don’t know if these people get cured. It doesn’t seem like it.”
He also issued a statement: “Huma is making a very wise decision. I know Anthony Weiner well, and she will be far better off without him.”
Barrack also said Trump’s recent campaign staff overhaul — after he made Kellyanne Conway his campaign manager and hired Stephen Bannon has his CEO — was a reflection of an evolving campaign rather than a sign of trouble.
“The campaign has evolved and it’s a new playbook,” he said.
And Barrack also sought to mitigate questions over Trump’s immigration stance that have emerged of late, calling the Republican nominee “flexible” about his immigration stance because the issue is “complicated.”
“All these things are terribly complicated. I think the good thing of moving to further punctuate an idea is he’s flexible, he learns, he surrounds himself with very good people,” Barrack said. “Let’s not deceive, deporting 11 million people … is amazingly complicated.”
Trump is expected to speak about his immigration plan Wednesday, amid major questions over his stance, during a campaign stop in Arizona.