If you ever wondered why people hired Paul Manafort in the first place, now you know — he’s a terrific liar, much more convincing than Donald Trump. He proved it by whacking the Orange Bambino at the precise moment Trump thought Manafort was in his pocket, and that his deal with Mueller wouldn’t include cooperation in the Russia probe. Everyone thought he was playing for a pardon. As Josh Marshall testifies, it demonstrates Manafort’s talent for misinformation that so many people fell for it.
Another indicator of Manafort’s talents: One of his cutouts got a meeting with Obama and Biden to lobby for his clients in Ukraine.
Even before Friday’s revelations, polling showed rising approval of Mueller and his investigation. At long last even Trump’s base is beginning to erode, though it probably has more to do with his “dumb Southerner” comments about Jeff Sessions than Russia.
With primary season complete, several trends have emerged, and most of them are highly promising for Democrats. But they also showed the party’s establishment remained in the driver’s seat. (Fun factoid: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s victory over progressive challenger Cynthia Nixon in New York on Thursday occurred eight years to the day after Christine O’Donnell won her GOP Senate primary over Mike Castle.)