In an interview on Yahoo News on Monday, Isikoff asked Flynn why he had attended an anniversary celebration for RT, the Putin propaganda machine, last year, sat next to the Russian autocrat at the celebratory dinner, and delivered a speech.

The purpose of the trip, Flynn said, was to try to persuade the Russians to get the Iranians to stop meddling in the Middle East. Isikoff quite reasonably asked whether he had received a fee, and if so, why he accepted the money. “I didn’t take any money from Russia,” Flynn said.

Isikoff asked, “Who paid you?” and Flynn testily snapped: “My speaker’s bureau. Ask them.”

It would seem absurd at any other convention, but in Cleveland the idea that there is some nefarious undertone to Trump’s obsession with Putin — is the Russian leader flattering Trump to somehow gain control over him? — somehow does not seem entirely crazy.

Trump loves conspiracies. He was one of the original “birthers” questioning Obama’s citizenship and religion and he likes to hint darkly that Obama is in league with terrorists. Those are among the things about Trump that terrify ordinary people, but the Cleveland meeting is no place for ordinary people.

Trump’s former adviser, Roger Stone, who described his recent book about the Clintons as “a horrifying true story of rape, intimidation, cover-up, drugs, greed and power,” is using the convention to promote himself. So is Alex Jones, who runs the right-wing conspiracy website infowars.com.

“The establishment, George Soros and others have done everything they can to try to shut down our free speech,” Jones shouted at a tiny rally on the Cleveland waterfront on Monday, where he seemed free to say whatever he wanted, and Soros was nowhere in sight.