In today’s White House press briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said this of Paul Manafort’s involvement in the Trump presidential campaign:
“Obviously, there’s been discussion of Paul Manafort, who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.”
It’s understandable that the White House would want to distance itself from someone who has reportedly been investigated by the FBI for ties to Russia. But this is a bit much.
Let me bring up this story that appeared in the Washington Examiner last June 20. The piece, headlined, “Trump adviser: Paul Manafort ‘totally in charge’ of campaign,” explains candidate Trump’s decision to ditch Corey Lewandowski as his campaign manager and put campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who had been with Trump’s campaign since late March, squarely in charge of everything. And it was Trump’s own decision, too.
Following the ouster of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, Barry Bennett, a senior adviser to Donald Trump, announced Monday that campaign chairman Paul Manafort is “totally in charge” of the operation …”Mr. Trump obviously made a decision this morning,” Bennett told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum. “I’ve not yet talked to him about it, or anyone at the campaign for that matter. But I think they wanted to go in a different direction, and it’s his campaign.”
To be sure, that doesn’t mean anything untoward happened with Russia. Manafort is a hired gun. But being completely in charge is not what most people would describe as a “limited role.”
