Despite the White House’s feeble attempts to distance President Trump from his former campaign chair, and employee of one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies in Russia, here are four times Trump touted Manafort and the work he was doing for the Trump campaign.
1. Trump: “So anyway, so I want to thank my entire group. Then we beefed it up because we’re really now in the final stretch — three-and-a-half months. And Paul Manafort has done an amazing job. He’s here someplace. Where’s Paul? Paul Manafort — oh, good. You made it. Paul Manafort has done a fantastic job. And all of Paul’s people Paul brought on the staff. And we really do. We have a great staff of talented people, a great staff.” [Donald Trump, Press Conference, Cleveland, OH, 7/22/16]
2. Trump: “Manafort who’s by the way is a respected man a respected man and I think he represented the Ukraine or something and everyone knew that…. And he said he had nothing to do with Russia and he said that very forcefully….” [Donald Trump, Press Conference, Washington, DC, 2/16/17]
3. Trump: “..I brought in Paul Manafort who is a total professional. Won lots of races.” [“Fox and Friends, Fox News, 4/19/16]
4. Trump: “I brought Paul in because a very smart friend of mine who loves him said he’s fantastic… he said this guy is fantastic… And he has done a really good job.” [“Morning Joe,” MSNBC, 4/27/16]
Published: Mar 22, 2017