Against the backdrop of the insufferable, and ever apoplectic, DC political gamesmanship, President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump are enjoying a nice evening dinner tonight at Trump International Hotel in DC. A fitting, and contrasting optic considering current events.

NBC propagandist, Kelly O’Donnell, dons her ghillie suit and hides amid the hotel plants to capture the possible culinary scandal.

Meanwhile President Trump’s lawyer Ty Cobb tells the New York Times the MAGA president has no worries.

WASHINGTON – […] Ty Cobb told the New York Times Trump is confident neither Manafort nor Flynn has incriminating information about the president. “The president has no concerns in terms of any impact, as to what happens to them, on his campaign or on the White House,” Cobb said.

“[Trump] likes and respects Mr. Manafort and appreciates the work he did for him during the three months he was with the campaign. He likes General Flynn personally, but understands that they have their own path with the special counsel,” Cobb said. “I think he would be sad for them, as a friend and a former colleague, if the process results in punishment or indictments. But to the extent that that happens, that’s beyond his control.” (link) (Interview Audio Here)

Anyone who followed the spring and summer primary race leading up to the GOP convention will well remember the specific reason candidate Donald Trump hired Paul Manafort to control the assembly of delegate votes.

Paul Manafort was a ‘fixer’, a ‘heavy’; a well manicured and connected political boss who understood the various horse trading machinations within the dynamic of the delegate assembly and byzantine compliance process. Mr. Manafort did his job well, and everyone appreciated his Soprano-esque characteristics that seemed necessary for the smoke-filled rooms.

In hindsight we now know Mr. Manafort flowed through the network of the Podesta brothers, Russian oligarchs, and worked on behalf of the Podesta Group DC connections. Sketchy business means sketchy associates.

So it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise to consider that Pauli Knuckles might find himself on the opposite side Mueller’s lawful compliance equation.

As to General Mike Flynn, well, good people do stupid things. Taking the lobbying contract with the government of Turkey was stupid. Not disclosing it to the campaign was even more stupid… Not reporting the lobbying income correctly, buckets of stupid… but hey, that’s hindsight.

Again, in the system of DC compliance, just because everyone else does it doesn’t make a solid defense when the other side of politics starts looking for scalps and leverage.

“President Trump likes and respects Mr. Manafort and appreciates the work he did for him during the three months he was with the campaign. He likes General Flynn personally, but understands that they have their own path with the special counsel,” Cobb said. “I think he would be sad for them, as a friend and a former colleague, if the process results in punishment or indictments. But to the extent that that happens, that’s beyond his control.”

President Trump and the First Lady leaving the White House for dinner at the Trump International Hotel in DC tonight. pic.twitter.com/AdDhymuVr2 — TRUMP News 24/7 (@MichaelDelauzon) October 29, 2017