President Donald Trump is trying to distance himself from former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, calling him a “liar” and “low level volunteer” after news broke that he had secretly pleaded guilty and struck a cooperation agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller.
“The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manafort lawyer said, there was ‘no collusion’ and events mentioned took place long before he…….came to the campaign. Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!” Trump tweeted Tuesday.
The Fake News is working overtime. As Paul Manaforts lawyer said, there was “no collusion” and events mentioned took place long before he…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 31, 2017
….came to the campaign. Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar. Check the DEMS!
Another former Trump campaign adviser also pushed the narrative that Papadopoulos was nothing more than a “coffee boy.”
“I mean, you might have called him a foreign policy analyst,” Michael Caputo told CNN’s “New Day.”
“But in fact, you know, if he was going to wear a wire, all we’d know now is whether he prefers a caramel macchiato over a regular American coffee in conversations with his barista,” he said.
Thirty-year-old Papadopoulos joined Trump’s campaign as a volunteer foreign policy adviser after working for Ben Carson’s presidential campaign. He remained with the Trump camp for 11 months, CNN reported.
During an interview with The Washington Post’s editorial board last year, Trump named Papadopoulos as a member of his foreign policy team and called him an “excellent guy.”
An Instagram post from Trump’s account pictures Papadopoulos sitting at the table during what is described as a national security meeting.
But White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders backed Trump up Tuesday, saying the meeting “was the only interaction they ever had.”
“He was somebody who played a minimal role, if one at all,” Sanders added of Papadopoulos.
Trump tried to deflect attention away from the guilty plea and two indictments from people associated with his campaign, insisting the “biggest news” on Monday was the resignation of Tony Podesta from his lobbying firm.
Podesta, whose brother John ran Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign last year, is a major Democratic donor. Podesta and the Podesta Group, which received payments from Manafort, are targeted in Mueller’s investigation, NBC reported.
“The biggest story yesterday, the one that has the Dems in a dither, is Podesta running from his firm. What he know about Crooked Dems is….,” Trump tweeted.
