10 things you need to know today: August 23, 2018

Fox News reports Trump said he would consider pardoning Manafort, Democrats call for halting Kavanaugh confirmation after Cohen plea, and more

President Trump in the East Room
(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

1. Fox News reports Trump is considering Manafort pardon

Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt told Sean Hannity on Wednesday that President Trump had told her in an interview earlier in the day that he was considering pardoning his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who was convicted Tuesday on eight of 18 counts of financial crimes. One White House official said that would be a PR "nightmare." "I think he feels badly for Paul Manafort," Earhardt said. Trump tweeted on Wednesday that he had sympathy for Manafort, whom he called a victim of a "witch hunt" by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russia's election meddling. One of the Manafort jurors, Paula Duncan, told Fox News that a lone juror had prevented Manafort from being convicted on all 18 counts. Duncan, who described herself as an avid Trump supporter, said she was not the lone holdout, but it was hard for her to find Manafort guilty. "I wanted him to be innocent, I really wanted him to be innocent, but he wasn't," she said.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.