The defense to counter the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates as offered by the White House is, per Trump’s tweet,
“Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren’t Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????”
The man who wants super vetting for refugees seems to be less than strict to vet people to whom he gives jobs.
In August Trump proclaimed,
“I’m going to surround myself only with the best and most serious people. We want top of the line professionals.”
In April he had told Fox and Friends,
“I brought in Paul Manafort, who’s a total professional, won tremendous numbers of races.
When things were getting hot for Manafort and he resigned, Trump had these words for him,
“This morning Paul Manafort offered, and I accepted, his resignation from the campaign. I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success.”
Then the indictments came out, and it would seem that he had not necessarily surrounded himself with the best.