"There's no way she can establish that she's the change. She is the establishment," Paul Manafort says. | AP Photo Trump camp: Clinton attacks because she has no message

Hours after watching Hillary Clinton hammer his boss over and over again in her speech to the Democratic National Convention, Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort said Clinton has little choice but to resort to attacks because “she has no message.”

In her 56-minute convention-closing speech in Philadelphia, Clinton slammed the Republican presidential nominee as having “taken the Republican Party a long way from morning in America to midnight in America.” The allusion to Ronald Reagan did not sit well with Manafort, who fought back against the notion that Clinton could deliver on a better future for the country.


“Well, because she has no message, she has to try and confuse by making these kinds of attacks. If it's midnight in America, it's because of the 7½ years of the Obama/Clinton administration,” Manafort told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on Friday morning. “Donald Trump says America is great, but the problem is that the American people don’t feel that their future is what they want it to be.”

After a fourth day of the Democratic convention filled with military, religious and law-enforcement speakers who otherwise might seem more at home at a GOP rally, Manafort sought to characterize Clinton as the “establishment candidate.” He said that, for all of her attacks against Trump and her lofty rhetoric, Clinton’s track record is still what will matter to voters.

“Well, we are the change. I mean, the problem that Clinton had last night is she can’t hide from 25 years. In fact, her message to the undecided voter was very confusing,” he said. “In one hand she was saying that there's a need for a third term, of an Obama third term. In the other hand, she was saying she’s going to make a change. You know, she can’t have it both ways. There’s no way she can establish that she’s the change. She is the establishment.”