Rachel Maddow Slams Trump Hiring Manafort to Run his 2016 Campaign: He Specialized In ‘Installing Compromised Corrupt Russian Puppets’
MSNBC’s top-rated host, Rachel Maddow, reminded her viewers on Friday night about Paul Manafort’s long history of overseas dealings – including in Ukraine on behalf of pro-Putin oligarchs.
Maddow began the long segment with a tour of one of Viktor Medvedchuk’s homes, which has recently been seized by Ukraine. Medvedchuk is a pro-Russian Ukrainian oligarch who is currently under arrest for treason in Ukraine and has had his vast assets seized.
Maddow uses Ukrainian police footage to offer viewers a tour through Medvedchuk’s opulent home, which included a fake train station, with a luxurious train car parked in it. She gleefully noted that the bathroom included gold plated accessories, an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s love of gold toilets.
The anchor went on to explain that Medvedchuk is well connected in the U.S. and has a history of ties to Paul Manafort – who served briefly as Trump’s 2016 campaign manager.
“Paul Manafort for years had been working overseas getting paid by Putin connected corrupt oligarchs to install Putin connected corrupt politicians in positions of power in the nation of Ukraine,” said Maddow, noting that Trump and Manafort had no prior relationship.
“That book I wrote called Blowout is about how Putin weaponized oil and gas and corruption to try and keep Ukraine and other neighboring countries weak and dependent on Russia and under Putin’s thumb,” Maddow continued.
“When Donald Trump inexplicably hired Manafort to run his campaign in 2016 that was what Paul Manafort specialized in, weakening other countries by installing compromised corrupt Russian puppets who would do Putin’s bidding in the political leadership of other countries,” she added.
“That’s what he was doing for a living. And then Trump hired him. Weird, why would we want that in America, what a weird skillset to bring to an American campaign,” she jested.
Maddow went on to explain that Manafort’s main client in Ukraine was Viktor Yanukovych, the former pro-Putin president who was overthrown by a popular uprising and fled to Moscow.
Manfort retroactively registered as a foreign agent after his short stint as Trump’s campaign manager. In 2018 Manafort was found guilty on multiple counts of bank and tax fraud and in a separate trial plead guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the United States and witness tampering. Trump pardoned Manafort in 2020.
The anchor then went on to show some of Yanukovych’s palatial homes in Ukraine that became a symbol of his greed and corruption after he was removed from office – also complete with gold-plated bathrooms.
Maddow went on to link Manafort back to Medvedchuk:
He was also one of Paul Manafort’s guys in Ukraine. Medvedchuk is one of the richest men in Ukraine he’s linked, obviously, to the Russian government he’s always worked for Putin’s interest in Ukraine. He is part of the whole operation that Manafort ran to install Putin puppets in the position of power in Ukraine, Putin is godfather to one of Medvedchuk’s daughter.
It was there for unsettling when we learned that he’d been one of the Trump campaign’s contacts in 2016 when Russia was intervening in our election to help get Trump into the White House.
Watch the full clip above via MSNBC
