5:50 p.m. ET, August 21, 2018

Trump says he feels very badly for Paul Manafort

Deplaning in West Virginia ahead of tonight's rally, President Trump praised his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort as a "good man" and attacked special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as "witch hunt" and a "disgrace."

"Paul Manafort is a good man. He was with Ronald Reagan. He was with a lot of different people over the years. I feel very sad about that. It doesn’t involve me but I still feel..." Trump said.

Trump noted that the charges Manafort was convicted of on Tuesday have "nothing to do with Russian collusion" and criticized the investigation for arriving at this point.

"It’s a witch hunt and it’s disgrace. But this has nothing to do with what they started out," Trump said. "It was not the original mission believe me. It was something very much different. It had nothing to do with Russian collusion."