The Senator Mike Duffy affair continued to dog Conservative leader Stephen Harper today on the election trail as he sidestepped some more questions about the plan to pay Duffy's questioned expenses.At an announcement in Ottawa today Harper stuck to his line that he did not know that former Chief of Staff Nigel Wright paid Duffy's 90 thousand dollars himself. He would also not comment on an apparent original deal for the Conservative Party to pay about 30 thousand dollars for Duffy -- before it emerged that the tally actually reached 90 thousand. (Harper also deflected a question about how it was that his current chief of staff, Ray Novak failed to read an email about the repayment plan when he was working under Wright in the Prme Minister's office.)

Date: 2015-08-16
Placeline: OTTAWA.
Source: The Canadian Press
Length: 18 seconds

Transcript Prediction: << what I told mr. B was that I could not justify his expense claims those particular claims were talking about I could not justify them I believe he should pay them back I always believed he should pay them back I was told that he was paying the back and had to pay them back and that's why I took the action I did when I found out that was not the case >>

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