Did anybody else see Trump's Wizard of Oz moment during yesterday's press briefing?

President Trump delivered a brief message via video at today’s White House press briefing https://t.co/dzGWaKTM44 https://t.co/Hid4R7dDnW

— CNN (@CNN) January 4, 2018

Seriously, WTF was that?

Notice how Sarah Hucakabee Sanders keeps looking at the screen as if she cannot believe this is happening.  Her facial expressions are gold.

And why does the camera angle keep changing?

Clearly Trump did not want to take any questions from reporters while also attempting to demonstrate that he was not in hiding due to Michael Wolff's book.

But all he really did here was to reinforce the contention made by Steve Bannon in the book that he "has lost it."

(H/T to Raw Story.)

According to White House spokesperson Trump had no reaction to his former campaign director's indictment "because it does not have anything to do with us." Say what?

Reporter: How did President Trump react to indictments and guilty plea?

Sanders: “Without a lot of reaction” https://t.co/i0KJKcBVgK

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 30, 2017

Huckabee Sanders spent almost her entire time at the podium claiming that they barely knew Paul Manafort, and that this George Papadopoulos was just some volunteer that nobody in the campaign ever even bothered to talked to.

And this is despite the fact that Trump introduced Papadapolous early in the campaign as "energy and foreign policy expert," which certainly does not sound like a freaking volunteer licking envelopes in the back room somewhere. And Manafort was his campaign manager and the guy that a lot of people credited with turning the campaign around.

.@newtgingrich: "Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this [Trump] campaign to where it is right now."

— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) August 20, 2016

See?

However Huckabee's main reason for taking the podium today was crystal clear from the beginning.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders checking her notes at today's Press Briefing: pic.twitter.com/xclrI30WWF

— Nick Jack Pappas (@Pappiness) October 30, 2017

Several times Huckabee Sanders made the case that the REAL evidence of collusion was between the Clinton campaign and the Russians, and that all of this is all just smoke and mirrors.

Which of course is the same meme that her boss was pushing this morning as well.

Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017

....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017

By the way that does not exactly sound as if Trump had the no reaction that Huckabee described in her lies to the White House press corps.

The facts are that the Trump White House is fully engaged in damage control right now, and that it is all about deflection, distraction, and denial.