Paul Manafort absolutely nails this interview with left-wing pearl clutcher Chuck Todd.

Transcript Via NBC News:


CHUCK TODD:
Let me start with Brexit. What I want to know is whether Donald Trump believes what happened in the U.K. is in the best interest of the United States. He said it was good for the U.K., and I understand that. But does he believe what happened is in the best interest to the United States?
PAUL MANAFORT:
Well, you have to understand what happened there. What happened with Brexit was people taking back control. I mean, they get the faceless bureaucrats in Brussels and Strasbourg who have ruled and told the Brits how to live and making promises for them that their lives would get better and talking about a future based on globalism versus family and individual and local community.
That’s what Brexit was all about. And the reality is, those are the same issues that cause the angst in America today. And this election, in 2016, where Donald Trump is the only change agent, is set up perfectly on those same themes, because Hillary Clinton is the epitome of the establishment. She’s been in power for 25 years.
And the issues, the promises that globalism is the solution, the promise that government’s going to make your life better if you just give up your freedoms, the promises that we know better than you on how to make your lives better, have been rejected. That’s what Donald Trump has identified, that’s what Brexit identified, and that’s what’s going to be the basis for the election in 2016.
CHUCK TODD:
I understand that. But you didn’t get at the core part of the question I asked. Does he believe that what happened with Brexit and what it could lead to, was in the best interest of the United States?
PAUL MANAFORT:
Obviously, people feeling that their government is responsive to them is in the best interest of the United States. It’s in the best interest of the U.K., it’s in the best interest of countries all over the world. And as far as the ability of the United States to work with the U.K., I was interested to hear Mr. Milliband, he’s part of the establishment.
He’s the Hillary Clinton of Britain. He was just rejected in the results of the Brexit vote. So for him to say with total arrogance that we know better, even though we lost, than the people of Britain, that’s exactly the arrogance that Donald Trump is talking about and that Hillary Clinton represents and is going to be the basis for the campaign this fall.
CHUCK TODD:
I want to get you to react, the Clinton campaign is out this morning with a Brexit-related TV ad that hits Mr. Trump. Here it is and I want to get you to react on the other side.
(BEGIN TAPE)
NARRATOR:
Every president is tested by world events. But Donald Trump thinks about how his golf resort can profit from them.
DONALD TRUMP:
When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry.
NARRATOR:
In a volatile world, the last thing we need is a volatile president.
(END TAPE)
CHUCK TODD:
It obviously picks up on what was a head-scratching event earlier this week, Mr. Manafort. Which is on the day of the biggest news event in the world, he is in the country at the heart of this and he’s promoting a golf course.
PAUL MANAFORT:
This is an example, again, of the tone-deafness of the Clinton campaign. First of all, when you look at what was happening in the Clinton campaign over the last month, they have spent $60 million against Donald Trump on ads like this, talking about things that are totally distracting–distractive and unconnected to what’s going on in the American political system.
The American people care about what is going to happen to their lives, about change. And the issues of Brexit, this kind of phony ad doesn’t address those things. And Hillary Clinton is ignoring the reality because she’s part of the establishment. She can’t get away from the fact that she is part of the problem that’s being rejected.
So when she tries to distract with commercials like this, she’s once again showing that she is absolutely afraid of the consequences of what Brexit represented and what the Trump phenomenon in the primaries represented, which is historic numbers of people voting for change against the establishment.
CHUCK TODD:
But why was it appropriate for Mr. Trump to be promoting a golf course on the day of what frankly could be the most impactful decision that a country has made that impacts, you know, the global community in a way that we are not fully comprehending yet, and he’s promoting a golf course in the middle of his campaign?
PAUL MANAFORT:
First of all, Mr. Trump is an international businessman. His success as an international businessman and a person who gets things done is one of the attractions of his candidacy, so that when he says he’s going to bring real change to the country, voters believe him. Unlike Mrs. Clinton, who has been saying that for 25 years and in those 25 years, the only changes that have happened have made people’s lives worse.
CHUCK TODD:
Donald Trump said something else yesterday during his tour of Scotland. He said that he hasn’t begun his campaign. Well, the Clinton campaign has begun. What is the status of your campaign? I say this, obviously Corey Lewandowski was fired earlier this week. I guess there’s more command and control for you. But explain, is this campaign started yet or not for the Trump campaign?
PAUL MANAFORT:
First of all, Corey Lewandowski was a part of an historic victory. And Donald Trump recognized that. But the campaign has now transitioned to a new phase. We’re now in the general election mode of the campaign. In that mode, last week Mr. Trump laid out in his speech that had prepared remarks, the stakes of the election, what he sees as what is at stake between Hillary Clinton and the establishment and his change agenda.
Our campaign frankly is getting organized. It’s all in words I guess, but we are fully now integrated with the Republican National Committee. This week we’ll be making some major announcements of people who are taking over in major positions in our national campaign as well as in our state campaigns.
We’re organized in all 16 states that we’re going to be targeting as battleground states. We’ll be making those announcements this week. The campaign is a process. And a lot of what we’ve been doing over the last several weeks has not been different in the public–
CHUCK TODD:
Do you acknowledge that you’re behind?
PAUL MANAFORT:
I’m sorry?
CHUCK TODD:
Do you acknowledge that you’re behind both organizationally and in the polls?
PAUL MANAFORT:
No, I think because what you’re trying to do is comparing an 800-person organization in Brooklyn of Mrs. Clinton’s with an integrated system of the R.N.C. and the Trump campaign, which doesn’t appear on an F.E.C. report. We have hundreds, we have actually thousands of people in the battleground states, political organizers who are now in place, we have state organizations that are in place, we have our campaign plans in place, we have our budgets in place.
And the good thing is, we have a candidate who doesn’t need to figure out what’s going on in order to say what he wants to do. So our campaign is organized. We’re ready, we’re going to have a good convention, and we’re confident that we are not behind the Clinton campaign. They’re muscle-bound. We’re not.
CHUCK TODD:
Very quickly, Dr. James Dobson, a long-time evangelical leader has said that very recently, Donald Trump accepted a relationship with Christ and that he is now a “baby Christian”, that within the last few weeks, he became a born-again Christian. What can you tell me about that? And is that a fair way to describe him? Is he now an evangelical Christian? Is that the way to describe Donald Trump’s faith?
PAUL MANAFORT:
I’m not going to speak to Donald Trump and his embrace of religion. You talk to him about that. I will say, however, that the evangelical leaders that have been a part of the Christian movement in the United States came together last week and showed overwhelming support for Mr. Trump. And frankly, in my 40 years in politics, I’ve never seen such a broad-based or base of support within that community for one candidate.
PAUL MANAFORT:
It’s never been this united.
CHUCK TODD:
Is Dr. James Dobson right or wrong? Is Donald Trump recently converted to born-again Christianity?
PAUL MANAFORT:
Again, you have to talk to Mr. Trump about his embrace in Christianity. That’s not for me to speak to.
CHUCK TODD:
All right.
PAUL MANAFORT:
What I can speak to is that Christians across this country and the leadership of the Christian movement and the evangelical movement are broadly united for Mr. Trump and his campaign.
CHUCK TODD:
All right. Paul Manafort, joining us this morning from Long Island. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.
PAUL MANAFORT:
Thank you, Chuck.