Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagoevich joins Roger Stone on The Stone Zone to discuss his time in prison, and why he believes President Trump should be tried in the same way as former President Barack Obama did in his own impeachment trial. Blagojevich also discusses why the Obama administration should have charged him with a crime even though he was only guilty of practicing politics. He also talks about his experience in prison and how he was able to use the Bible as a tool to help him understand why he was targeted by the political prosecution of his political opponent, Donald Trump. Roger Stone is a New York Times bestselling author and a longtime friend and advisor to President Trump. Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents, is a best-selling author, and is an outspoken libertarian. As an outspoken conservative commentator, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts, spoken at countless venues, and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the Cambridge Union Society. Due to his four-plus decades in the political and cultural arena, Roger Stone has become a pop culture icon. And now, here s your host Roger Stone, and yes, you are back in the Stone Zone. with your host, Roger and your co-host Troy Smith from Slingshot News! to help me break this down and to interview our distinguished guest, former Governor Rod Blago in this special edition of The Stonezone. . Roger Stone joins us in the Zone with my cohost, Troy Smith on today s episode of The Show with my host, my co- host, (Roger , Troy Smith. , to discuss the latest in the Trump/Blagoevitch case, and his thoughts on the ongoing Trump/Trump/Trump trial, and what s going on in this week s political witch hunt, and how it s going to happen in the coming days, and much more! and why we should all pay our respects to the former governor s time in the White House and what we should be doing in the future. and how we should do our best to make sure we don t get caught up in the game in 2020. in the next episode of the Stone Zone of The StoneZ Zone with Roger Stone. Thank you for tuning in, and God bless you, God bless, God Bless You, Blessings, and Much Blessings.
00:00:01.000The Stone Zone, with legendary Republican strategist and political icon and pundit Roger Stone.
00:00:08.460Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents.
00:00:12.680He is a New York Times bestselling author and a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald Trump.
00:00:18.280As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts, spoken at countless venues,
00:00:23.920and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the Cambridge Union Society.
00:00:28.660Due to his four-plus decades in the political and cultural arena, Stone has become a pop culture icon.
00:00:34.660And now, here's your host, Roger Stone.
00:00:42.280Welcome, I'm Roger Stone, and yes, you are back in the Stone Zone.
00:00:48.120It has been a tumultuous week, as Donald J. Trump is the first former president of the United States ever to stand trial in a criminal trial in New York City,
00:01:04.280in what is, to many of us, an obviously politically motivated witch hunt.
00:01:10.740Here to help me break this down and to interview our distinguished guest, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich,
00:01:21.580is my co-host Troy Smith from Slingshot.News.
00:01:27.740Roger, it's an honor, and I love the red stripes and the hat combo looking really fresh today.
00:01:32.780Well, we had to do a radio this morning, so I'm running a little behind, but let's get right to it.
00:01:39.040We are honored today to have former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.
00:01:45.300He's also a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
00:01:49.600I understand why the Obama administration had to frame and jail him, even though he was only guilty of practicing politics,
00:02:02.560and that's because Rod Blagojevich is so talented as a political communicator and was such a great governor.
00:02:12.260Well, I think he would have been president, which is why they had to derail him.
00:02:16.640My friend, Governor Rod Blagojevich, joins us in the Stone Zone now.
00:02:23.460Thank you very much, Roger, for that nice introduction.
00:02:31.980Instead, I became inmate number 40892424.
00:02:35.800Would have been a lot better to be in the White House than the Big House.
00:02:38.780But I've learned a lot from that journey, and I do believe that there's a reason why things happen.
00:02:42.440And I had a chance through those eight years that I was in prison to get closer to my God by reading the Bible every day in ways I never did before.
00:03:03.820And the object of life, as Martin Luther King said, isn't so much to pursue happiness, but do God's will.
00:03:08.600And I do think that with all the things that have happened now, what they've done to me, what they're doing to President Trump,
00:03:13.140I think there's a reason why these things are happening.
00:03:16.780I think there's a reason why my life has intersected a little bit with President Trump's and with yours,
00:03:21.660you having been a victim of political persecution as well.
00:03:24.420And I think, God willing, the voters make the right choice and Trump becomes president.
00:03:28.360There's an opportunity for us to save our country and stop these weaponized prosecutors from destroying our democracy and stealing our freedoms.
00:04:47.760I always said I would do anything necessary to elect my candidate short of breaking the law.
00:04:55.100But what we're seeing today, the weaponization of our Justice Department today, I don't know about you, Governor, but this is unlike anything I have seen.
00:05:43.500And it wasn't this politics like it is today.
00:05:46.260There were elements of that back in the 90s because some of these guys were doing things to, you know, we had Bill Clinton with his issues, which were certainly wrong.
00:05:58.240That could have been the right thing to do for what he did.
00:05:59.720But they were impeaching him on things that weren't constitutional.
00:06:01.980But now the Democrats have taken this to a whole new level and to the point where now, you know, this has become the – it isn't so much a business where you do the politics so that you can govern and get things done for people.
00:06:15.700It becomes only politics all the time.
00:06:18.440And the politics is such where it's prosecution, persecution, and the politics of personal destruction.
00:06:24.520And I think – I truly believe that it started at a high level with a Democrat governor, me, which was done to me at the AAA level to a Democrat governor.
00:06:32.480And they're not – they've taken what they've learned from that, two trials.
00:06:35.660They couldn't convict me in the first trial under fake charges because there were no crimes.
00:06:41.200And I see the playbook that they used against me that they're doing to President Trump.
00:06:44.860And they've taken this now to the major league level against a Republican president and leading presidential candidate from the party that's not in power for non-crimes.
00:07:18.220And all I can say is, you know, to my fellow Democrats, you don't like the guy, vote against him.
00:07:23.260But nobody can be for this, what they're doing, which is so obvious.
00:07:27.060The irony is I think it's actually helping Trump politically.
00:07:29.320And I think he's going to get a lot more votes in the Democrat constituency groups than he otherwise would, because I think a lot of groups like black voters, for example, they understand what it's like when the criminal justice system unfairly comes down on them.
00:07:40.100And they see what's happening to Trump.
00:07:41.740And Trump is gaining, I think, real ground, especially among African-American men.
00:07:46.140I want to take a moment, Governor, to talk about your case, because, in essence, you were convicted of practicing politics.
00:07:58.760Illinois had a coming vacancy in the U.S. Senate.
00:08:03.380They claim that you somehow improperly sought to utilize that vacancy.
00:08:12.300Yet the tape recording in which they say these crimes were committed, they've never released that.
00:08:18.200No one's ever been allowed to hear it.
00:08:20.640Walk through for folks, because they're going to say, oh, it's the Roger Stone show with Rob Blagojevich.
00:09:10.900And the talk began by Obama, because on election night, he sent an emissary to me to say, hey, look, Barack Obama wants Valerie Jarrett to be the United States senator.
00:09:19.460He asked me to come and talk to you to see if you might be willing to do something about this, because I was the governor with the power to appoint the senator.
00:09:25.500And Barack wants to know what you want.
00:09:28.980So the very next morning, I'm on the phone talking to one of my top aides.
00:09:32.420I was on the phone talking to several of them, telling them what happened, and we need to discuss what we might ask for.
00:09:37.820That's when I made this infamous remark after I got done running eight miles.
00:09:40.820I'm laying on the floor stretching, sweating and stretching.
00:09:43.700And I said, you know, I got to tell you, this is effing gold, and I'm not giving it up for nothing, meaning it's going to be a political deal, not anything corrupt.
00:09:50.600But these corrupt prosecutors, what they did was they took snippets of those conversations, you know, the worst hits, put them out there at a big press conference and kept just using less than 1% of the conversations.
00:10:02.600And to this day, they blocked 98% of those tapes from being heard, and they got a court order, a gag on those tapes.
00:10:26.440But there was never anything like that.
00:10:27.580And by the way, Roger, eventually the appellate court, four and a half years into my prison sentence, reversed that charge because they could never uphold that standard because that would criminalize political deals and horse trading that happens every day and Congress and state legislatures and city councils all across the country.
00:10:43.960So I was there for a fake crime that was ultimately reversed.
00:10:47.100And then they held me there for three fundraising requests, but there never was a quid pro quo by using a jury instruction at a second trial because they didn't convict me the first time.
00:10:55.980They tried me a second time and moved the line and got convictions for things that were legal.
00:11:01.000And I'm still trying to get the truth out.
00:11:03.460You know, Winston Churchill said a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on.
00:11:09.060And I'm still trying to get my pants up above my knees.
00:11:12.920You're helping me make a little progress anyway.
00:11:16.140Folks, if you're just tuning in, we're here with former Democratic Governor Rob Blagojevich of Illinois.
00:11:23.640He has suffered under a weaponized and criminalized justice system directly.
00:11:30.880We're happy to have him here to tell folks the true story of what happened to him because, like me, he sees many parallels in what is happening to President Donald Trump and what happened to both of us.
00:11:43.120We'll be right back with more of Governor Rob Blagojevich after this commercial message.
00:11:49.620And when we return, my co-host, Troy Smith, will have the first question for the former governor.
00:14:48.720Also very excited about that book, Governor.
00:14:51.420When you finish that, I want to invite you to come back on and see if we can help people, help you sell it to people and help people understand much better what happened to you.
00:15:05.240Now, looking at the situation in New York, you wrote yesterday on your very, very lively X feed, X being formerly Twitter,
00:15:16.980that you don't believe the judge actually has the authority to require Donald Trump to sit through this criminal trial when he should be out campaigning.
00:15:31.680Yes. Yes. Now, look, I'm not claiming to be a constitutional law expert, but I do believe I know I'm right about this.
00:15:38.640There's no nothing in the Constitution that requires a defendant to sit at his trial.
00:15:44.160He has a constitutional right to be at his trial, but there's nothing that says he has to be there.
00:15:49.200He has, in fact, when you have a situation like President Trump has, where he's a leading presidential candidate, he has a First Amendment right to go out and campaign and make his case to the voters.
00:15:59.180And we have a constitutional right as voters to see him campaign and decide whether we're going to vote for him or against him or vote for the other guy or however the case may be.
00:16:07.780These are constitutional rights that are at play. There's a constitutional right, of course, that requires him to answer the charges.
00:16:16.400I mean, he has to be in court to make a case at some point in time, but he doesn't have to be there.
00:16:22.340Now, as a practical matter, he's right to be there, because what they'll do if he was not there, imagine the field that they would have, not just in the media, but more importantly, right now for his purposes, in front of the 12 men and women who are sitting on that jury.
00:16:35.720They'll basically be lied to by the judge and by the prosecutors, and they'll be prejudiced against Trump even further than they already are.
00:16:42.500And they clearly are, because those are Democrats who are sitting on that jury.
00:16:45.920Ninety-two percent of that jury pool are Democrats from New York City who don't like Trump.
00:16:49.800But he has to be there as a practical matter, because it'll just make his case even more difficult in what I already, frankly, fear is a regged trial that he's facing because of the dynamics and the people who are running the show there.
00:17:03.640But, no, he doesn't have to be there constitutionally.
00:17:06.320He can go out to campaign. He can go to his son's graduation.
00:17:09.940The problem is a practical matter, Roger, is that just imagine what those prosecutors and what the judge will do to the jury when Trump's not sitting there.
00:17:16.960And they'll basically say that he's showing disrespect to the 12 of them.
00:17:22.800But it's just another example of how they twist and misuse and abuse the justice system and the rules of the court not to do justice, but to do politics and to destroy somebody personally.
00:17:35.480Okay, Troy, do you have a question for our good friend, Governor Rod Blagojevich?
00:17:41.140Absolutely, Governor. I think your story is so important because you've seen what happens to somebody in the political world when they go against the grain and they're a Democrat.
00:17:51.060And I think the comparison that I like to make is that you're seeing what Trump's seeing, but from the perspective of a Democrat, and you've already seen it.
00:17:57.780It's why your perspective is so valuable on this.
00:18:00.240Can you talk about what happened to you politically when you went through and you were arrested because you saw the entire political world turn against you just as President Trump has seen, but just from a different perspective?
00:18:11.660I think that's valuable for the audience.
00:18:13.100You know, when they make accusations like they did against me and they do what they did in such a dramatic way where they actually arrest the sitting governor.
00:18:21.220And, you know, Roger's been through this himself.
00:18:23.100And I'm really sorry, Roger, they did that to you.
00:18:25.180I watched that happen to you when I was in prison.
00:18:27.560Frankly, it was the first time I knew who you were.
00:18:29.760And I fell in love with Roger Stone when I saw him there, defiant the way I was, except he had more style because he did the Nixon thing, you know.
00:18:43.780It was all a tactical move for public relations.
00:18:46.740Instead of simply doing their job, and that is bringing cases into the court and staying within the court, they destroy you publicly.
00:18:52.820And immediately what they do is they contaminate the jury pool and they prejudice people, the public, or eventually 12 of them will sit on the jury who will judge you.
00:19:01.380So they did that for a very strong reason.
00:19:05.020And they also did that, I believe, to create a political dynamic.
00:19:08.620I know they did this for a political dynamic where it would be impossible for me to survive and stay in office, to fight back with the position I had as governor where I would have a bully pulpit and can make a case that this was all, you know, a political hit job.
00:19:55.480And part of what I tried to do was to defend myself.
00:19:57.560But I think what the prosecutors expected was when they brought that shock and awe on me that I would just give in and that I would make a deal and that I would cut my losses, recognizing that, you know, they win 97 percent of their cases.
00:20:09.780I know why they do now, because the system's rigged.
00:20:13.440But at that time, I still had trust in the court system, which I learned the hard way was misplaced trust.
00:20:20.320But they did that because they wanted me to, I think they figured I wouldn't fight back and I would just surrender.
00:20:26.980And frankly, I was like a Donald Trump light.
00:20:30.420I fought back from the very beginning.
00:20:32.180And interestingly enough, he saw that.
00:20:34.340And then he invited me on Celebrity Apprentice, which I didn't know him.
00:20:36.880And the great irony, here's the hand of God, Troy.
00:20:40.320The great irony is that he and I, our lives would intersect in a small way.
00:20:44.560And he was really good to me on that show.
00:20:46.120And Roger can tell you about his personal kindness when he, you know, when you know him.
00:20:50.940But never in my wildest dreams do I think in October of 2009, when I'm doing Celebrity Apprentice, as a governor has been thrown out of office.
00:20:57.240And I've been described by the prosecutors and by the media as this guy that was trying to sell the demigod Obama Senate seat when the truth was Obama started the whole thing.
00:21:07.840Never in my wildest dreams did I think when Trump was about to fire me on that show correctly that he would one day free me all those years later, that he would become the president of the United States seven years later.
00:21:43.860And in spite of what happened to me, I love my country because I've lived the American dream considering where I came from and how I got to be the governor of the fifth largest state.
00:21:57.980And that's why when you have people who think outside the box and go outside the box to shake things up, if you don't play ball within the parameters of the game that they've established, the swamp in Washington, swamp in state governments, in state capitals,
00:22:15.560And, you know, some of the very same people who prosecuted me, Fitzgerald, are lined up with Comey and Mueller, the same people that were doing it to Trump.
00:22:23.800In fact, Fitzgerald and Comey have a personal relationship, but one of the two is the godfather to the other's child.
00:22:29.480So these people are all on the same team and they're interchangeable, really, and they're all allies.
00:22:53.340He went from being a leg man for Alderman Eddie Verdoliak all the way to being one of the most successful and effective governors in Illinois history.
00:23:03.840Governor Rod, what's happening in Chicago today?
00:23:09.540Chicago seems to be coming apart at the seams under the great Richard J. Daley Sr.
00:23:18.640Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world, one of the safest cities in the world.
00:23:24.640Chicago seems to me to be coming apart at the seams.
00:23:28.480Can you tell us what's the latest there in Chicago?
00:23:31.520I think the biggest problem with the governance in Chicago is that the leaders, this particular mayor and his predecessor, Cory Lighten, they forgot that the first duty of government is public safety.
00:23:44.720And the way you get public safety is you have the police.
00:23:48.340And the way you protect the public is that you support the police.
00:24:05.120But in my experience, having been a former prosecutor at the state level, working under the first mayor, Daley's son, Richard M. Daley, who was the Cook County State Street at the time.
00:24:13.800He was way up there and I was a traffic court.
00:24:15.440So I never knew him until I got into politics years later.
00:24:17.420But the police and the police are on the run in Chicago, as they are probably in a lot of other big cities.
00:24:27.320You know, Roger, I spent eight years in prison living with criminals.
00:24:29.820I lived with violent criminals for almost three years, murderers and violent criminals and gangbangers and those that I talked about a moment ago.
00:24:38.320And whether it's in the higher prison or at the other prison that they sent you, I got to go to because I was a model inmate, begged myself, you get to go to the camp.
00:24:48.640The rule of thumb was when the cats away, the mice play.
00:25:00.660And when the cops are not around, they come out of the woodwork to do their deeds that are on the wrong side of the law.
00:25:08.300And so the gangbangers in Chicago and they outnumber police 75 to one.
00:25:12.360They know what's going on with the police.
00:25:14.220And so they blatantly and brazenly go into stores and they just steal stuff and walk right out.
00:25:19.760Nobody stops them, nor do they feel like they're going to be held accountable.
00:25:23.380And then they go into court and the Democrats here, Pritzker, our governor, a billionaire with his own security detail that the state pays for.
00:25:30.260And if the state didn't pay for it, Pritzker, who used to work for me, wasn't the governor, he'd be able to afford his own security.
00:25:38.720And so the criminals know that, you know, they can get away with these things.
00:25:42.620And then they go to court when they're in those situations where they're arrested.
00:25:46.320And there's no bail laws now that take away from a judge the discretion to decide on a given case whether this particular person might be a risk or a threat to the community.
00:25:56.420And so they walk in knowing nothing's going to happen.
00:25:58.780They walk right out and commit more crimes.
00:26:00.660We've had murders take place in Chicago from some of these guys who were let out on these no bail laws.
00:26:24.600And, boy, has it changed when I returned home, not just my party, not just the city I live in and the city I was born and raised in, but our country and the values and the attitudes and the loss of common sense.
00:26:36.240So Chicago is a mess, largely because of crime.
00:26:40.540Chicago is a mess, largely because the criminals have no respect for the law to begin with and now have contempt for those who have to enforce the law and make the law accountable so that make people accountable to the law.
00:26:53.120And so they're running rampant, knowing that they can do so with impunity and law-abiding citizens are living in fear.
00:27:00.440And many are fleeing the city, a great city, a historic city, a beautiful city with mostly great people in it.
00:27:08.160But it's our political leaders that are failing.
00:27:10.160And these are Democrats who are playing, you know, the politics of listening to some of these crazy socialist left-wing groups that have now taken over the Democrat Party in Chicago.
00:27:19.700So when Governor Blagojevich and I were at Mar-a-Lago one night for dinner after the president had both given both of us executive clemency so that we could avoid prison and Rod's case to be released, the president late at night likes to spin the tunes.
00:27:42.380He has a laptop set up in front of him, he's hooked up to Spotify, he controls the public address system, he's got a lot of musical favorites, but he will often have folks who work for him come to the table and ask you if you have any special requests.
00:27:58.380So when he came to our table without a blink, it was Rod Blagojevich who asked for Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock.
00:28:08.520I thought it was an incredible, incredible moment.
00:28:14.620Let's talk about this general election.
00:28:18.260You know, a lot of our data, a lot of our information is anecdotal.
00:28:23.000I don't know why this is, but as I move around and see people in public, you know, the grocery store, the liquor store, the drug store, even at church, I find a lot of people who most definitely did not vote for Donald Trump in the last election.
00:28:43.280A, now telling me they intend to vote for him because just, quote unquote, things were better.
00:28:50.660But the people who seem friendly is the people who recognize me the most and want to talk for whatever reason.
00:29:16.260I think you're seeing traditional Democratic voter groups, African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, younger Americans, moving towards Donald Trump.
00:29:30.960Anecdotally, and in your experience, Rod Blagojevich, do you see that as well?
00:29:36.400Yeah, you see, Roger, you're such a great political thinker because of your life experience and your reliance on that, what you just said, that sort of anecdotal stuff that you feel on the street from real people, by interacting with real people as opposed to simply relying on what the pollsters tell you from faraway places like Washington or wherever they may be, or listening to these political consultants who just have you talk in soundbites but not really talk real truth to people.
00:30:05.140I mean, one thing I was good at in life was that and, you know, ran elections and they were all competitive and I was behind in every one of them when I started.
00:30:13.260I mean, I got this crazy last name that people aren't used to, you know, seeing and much less be able to say over a time they got used to saying it.
00:30:21.500But, you know, there were some disadvantages that I had starting out, but I was always active as a candidate out there among the people.
00:30:28.940And as I got in, you know, started at the local level and then got to, you know, state lawmaker and then Congress and ran big statewide, fifth largest state, you know, your campaigns, as you know, Roger, become more sophisticated.
00:30:39.000And you have to rely somewhat on polling and political consultants and all the rest.
00:30:44.220But what really gave me a sense of what the people were thinking was being out there and campaigning all over the state among real people and hearing them and feeling, getting a sense of what was on their mind.
00:30:55.260And what you just said about that anecdotal stuff last night at a restaurant with an African-American person, a black person, is very much the case that I experienced when I'm out in a bond.
00:31:04.880I was at a big event, the Italian-American Sports Hall of Fame boxing event last night, hundreds, you know, a couple of thousand people there.
00:31:12.300And the response was very positive for Trump.
00:31:16.700And people see me, they know that I have this, you know, small relationship with President Trump.
00:31:24.520And these are traditional constituents of the Democrat Party, Latino voters, working class Italian-American voters, working class white ethnic voters, and some African-American voters.
00:31:35.160And it isn't just last night, but like you say, out and about wherever you may be.
00:31:40.900So there is a real powerful, very real undercurrent out there among people who are disenchanted and disgruntled with how things are.
00:31:48.620They are concerned about the issues we just talked about, of course, crime.
00:31:51.580The migrant crisis is so preposterous.
00:31:55.040The idea, the lack of common sense that migrants are coming from foreign countries, breaking into our country illegally, and now they're being treated in cities like Chicago with tax dollars in ways that are taking money away from impoverished, low-income communities that are disproportionately Black and Latino.
00:32:12.920You know, the people in those neighborhoods see that they also then see what's being done to Trump, and they associate his hardships with some of theirs.
00:32:21.600And so what you're saying is absolutely right.
00:32:23.660And the polls are going to say certain things, but I assure you, Roger, like it was in 2016, those polls are going to be not close to being right.
00:32:33.180Even the polls that have Trump ahead won't get it right.
00:32:35.720He will do better than any poll is showing in all of those battleground states and in the other states that are not battleground states.
00:32:42.580There is a group of the silent majority of Americans, which you know all about, that Richard Nixon was a champion of, that are out there, and they're talking amongst themselves, and they know what they're seeing, and they're not stupid.
00:32:55.780And Bill Clinton used to say this, the people almost always get it right.
00:32:59.320That's my bad Bill Clinton impersonation.
00:33:01.400And the people get it right, because they see the baloney, they see the dishonesty, they see the lies that are coming from the people who have power, and they're not stupid, and they don't like it.
00:33:10.160And all of this, ironically, is helping Trump among constituency groups that otherwise would not vote for him.
00:33:18.160So I predict, Roger, not only winning in November, got to be vigilant about making sure that all the rules are followed in the election,
00:33:25.960but I think Trump's going to do way better in the election than the polls are going to indicate leading up to the election.
00:33:31.400Yeah, there's very definitely a phenomenon, particularly today, and particularly with a telephone or cell phone or online-operated poll,
00:33:41.780I think that there is a hesitation by some people to tell someone they don't know that they're voting for Donald Trump.
00:33:48.380They don't want to be harassed, they don't want to be targeted, and therefore they're going to keep their political opinions to themselves.
00:35:01.300People are more concerned about, well, the Cubs and the White Sox have been losing.
00:35:05.140But, you know, things like the NFL draft, those things.
00:35:10.240But they are watching what's happening to Trump.
00:35:12.240That's certainly something that's on the minds of people, of course.
00:35:15.080But the Democratic convention is far away.
00:35:16.960It's going to be in August here in Chicago.
00:35:19.900And I would urge all those delegates who are coming from other places to be very careful.
00:35:25.600And maybe they want to bring a security person with them to Chicago.
00:35:28.960I hate, I shouldn't laugh about it, but it's not exactly the safe place it once used to be.
00:35:32.900We've always had issues with crime, but we've never seen it like it is now.
00:35:36.760And I think that, you know, it'll be interesting to see how the Democrats who crown the city and Democrat Governor Pritzker, who was instrumental in getting Chicago as the place for the convention, you know, what they do to protect the people who are coming from other places.
00:35:49.780And they're going to have divided loyalties because they're going to have to try to protect the delegates.
00:35:54.500At the same time, they don't want to be too hard on the criminals lest they offend people and lose votes.
00:36:00.180And as cynical as that is, that is exactly how they think.
00:36:05.440That's the sort of thing that ought to make people get up and vote them out of office because there's responsibilities to keep us safe.
00:36:11.840So it'll be interesting to see what happens during the Democratic convention.
00:36:15.300Roger knows very well what happened in Chicago during another Democratic convention back in 1968,
00:36:20.220when we had riots with these anti-war protesters who disrupted the Democrat convention.
00:36:26.980And it was tremendously catastrophic for the Democrat candidate Humphrey at the time.
00:36:34.460And, Roger, you remember that Nixon came out of that.
00:36:37.160The Democrats met in Chicago, and Nixon was up like 25 points after that.
00:36:41.940And then he came to Chicago shortly thereafter to a hero of welcome because people in the city and in the northern part of Illinois came out in large numbers to back a candidate who was promising law and order.
00:36:55.360And so those dynamics are very much in play today.
00:36:59.360We'll see what happens at the Democrat convention this time around.
00:37:01.800But I do feel cautiously optimistic and, frankly, more than cautiously optimistic that Trump is on the right side of history and the American people are fed up with what they're seeing.
00:37:12.460And I think this is going to be an election where the choice is very simple.
00:37:15.920You want to keep what you got, where 70 percent of the American people think we're going in the wrong direction, or do you want to go back to how it used to be before COVID?
00:37:23.700And I think the contrast that Trump will be able to draw will be very stark.
00:37:28.020And I think, again, it's going to be, as I said earlier, a successful election for Trump in a way much more than what the polls are going to show.
00:37:36.740Yeah, I think there can be very little doubt that you're going to have the kind of pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago,
00:37:47.740very similar to the anti-Vietnam War demonstrations you had at the Chicago 1968 convention that Governor Blagojevich makes references to.
00:37:59.340You have deep divisions in the Democratic Party based on the fact that Joe Biden and his national security apparatus, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, are trying to have it both ways.
00:38:14.000We've given $126 billion, I think it is, in unfrozen assets to Iran.
00:38:20.680So we're financing the expedition of their nuclear weapons destruction program.
00:38:27.380We're financing terrorism in the case of Hamas and Hezbollah.
00:38:33.180At the same time, Joe Biden is telling our traditional ally, Israel, that they can't respond to these attacks from Iran.
00:38:43.220At the same time, the attacks from Iran, which got a lot of news, didn't kill anybody.
00:38:47.900Seems to have all been window dressing.
00:38:50.280The Iranians told the Turks to tell the Americans to tell the Israelis when this was coming so they could move, you know, strategic personnel out of harm's way.
00:39:03.900Same thing we saw in these raids in Syria, where raids by the United States, the folks there were pre-warned.
00:39:13.180This all appears to be kabuki theater for the benefit of the voters.
00:39:20.400Anyway, folks, we have to cut to a quick commercial break.
00:39:23.100And when we're back, more with our special guest, Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois.
00:39:29.280A lot of people are having great success with a weight management program with Bellatrip, but it's just a tool.
00:39:43.360In terms of ingredients, Chromex or chromium picolini improves the actions of insulin.
00:39:49.020So you have better glucose management.
00:39:51.380And in addition, it promotes fatty utilization.
00:39:54.020Fat utilization, or fat burning, is also a feature of metabolite, which are two botanicals that stimulate a switch called AMP kinase.
00:40:04.400And so you tend to burn fat, reduce belly fat or visceral fat.
00:41:05.180Because fiat is where we get into all the problems.
00:41:07.660When you have debt-based currency, you have debt-based problems.
00:41:11.080And the United States, unfortunately, since 2020, has not stopped spinning at pandemic levels.
00:41:16.140This is systemic, and it is unsustainable, and it is coming to an end, especially with the addition of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the BRICS nations.
00:41:24.460This is what controls our petrodollar.
00:41:26.300This is the threat immediately in 2024.
00:41:28.940For more information, walzerwealth.com.
00:41:50.560If you're just tuning in, I'm Roger Stone, and this is The Stone Zone.
00:41:55.500I'm here with my co-host, Troy Smith of Slingshot.News.
00:42:00.780If you're not subscribing to Slingshot.News, well, we highly recommend that to you.
00:42:06.940It is absolutely free, and you will get some of the best cutting-edge political analysis and reporting in the country,
00:42:15.200as well as covering a number of important and interesting cultural issues.
00:42:19.980We're also here with our very special guest.
00:42:23.180Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich served his country with distinction in the U.S. Congress before being elected as the boy wonder governor of Illinois.
00:42:37.340Rob, when I told my sister I was having you on the show today, she said,
00:43:00.960In other words, when we move to the big picture of this, it seems to me that those who have launched this tsunami of lawfare against Donald Trump,
00:43:19.840Because like Biden, whose campaign expenses in the special counsel inquiry are being paid for by the Democratic National Committee,
00:43:28.880Trump has to finance the millions of dollars it takes to pay for lawyers in multiple jurisdictions, Georgia, New York, Florida, and Washington, D.C.
00:43:41.360It seems to me that they just want a conviction for anything.
00:43:48.840I don't think they particularly care if there's a high probability that his conviction will later be overturned on appeal.
00:43:57.100This is all calibrated to be election and fear interference.
00:44:02.800In other words, drain his money, drain his time.
00:44:06.240So when he should be out campaigning in Georgia and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Michigan,
00:44:13.220instead he's stuck in a New York, at least at this point, a New York courtroom.
00:44:19.880But I also fear, in all honesty, that this crazed demand to convict him of something, anything, no matter how contrived,
00:44:31.920is so when he goes into the final days of the election, continuing to lead in the polls.
00:44:38.900And then he shockingly loses because irregularities and anomalies or voter fraud.
00:44:48.000They will then use that conviction or those convictions as their rationale as to why the election did not turn out the way people thought it would.
00:45:03.660No, it's frightening because it's very plausible what you described.
00:45:07.540And everything you said about the motivation behind these prosecutions,
00:45:11.940that it's really all about politics and being used, the justice system, amazing, in the court system,
00:45:20.020because they're not all criminal cases.
00:45:21.440The justice system, the court system are being used as political weapons to tie up a leading presidential candidate is reprehensible that it's happening,
00:45:31.520but it is happening, and that's the motivation.
00:45:34.520And the seeking out a conviction before the election to try to sway independent voters,
00:45:39.540but even more so what you just said, and that is to justify an outcome that would be really surprising to people
00:45:44.920and would be an outcome that a lot of people would, again, not trust and not have confidence in.
00:45:50.000So they have to be able to say something to why it all ended up the way you would indicate that it might,
00:45:56.120and I fear that it might, although I still have confidence that the support for Trump is going to be so strong that even this can be overcome.
00:46:02.840Having said that, yes, everything you just said there makes perfect sense to me.
00:46:09.280And another example, Roger, of how astute you are in knowing the political process
00:46:14.180and understanding the motivations of the different people that play in the game.
00:46:17.260But see, here's the real problem with what they're doing.
00:46:20.940It's just another indication how politics trumps everything with these people.
00:46:36.940And now we find ourselves in a place where if you can do this to a presidential candidate and a president of the United States, a former president,
00:46:44.960and do what you did to me, a governor, a sitting governor at the time, nobody in America is safe.
00:46:50.020Can you really think that you can do anything in this country?
00:46:52.620And if somebody has a desire to get you, they'll use the law and simply lie about what the law is and misuse the system just to destroy you and get you.
00:47:05.060And they can do it to everyday ordinary citizens.
00:47:07.920And they've been doing it to, frankly, the Black community for hundreds of years in America.
00:47:12.900Another reason why I think Trump's going to do a lot better among Black voters is because they understand that.
00:47:17.140You know, Roger, when I got in my troubles, the one place where I was able to get comfort for my family and I and my little girls at the time,
00:47:23.780when I was being condemned and vilified by everybody, you know, when the time they arrested me, Bernie Madoff was getting arrested.
00:47:31.960And the two of us were the two biggest losers, scumbags in the world, according to these people.
00:48:00.700You can't always believe law enforcement.
00:48:03.100You can't always believe the justice system.
00:48:04.740And they could see through the lies, like I think many are now seeing through the lies of Trump.
00:48:09.380So your scenario that you point out, I think, hits it on the head.
00:48:13.080I think it's almost like you read a memo from the Democratic National Committee on what they want the Democrats to do and what their game plan is to win this election.
00:48:20.140And the justification that they would have if, in fact, they do.
00:48:25.020But I still think that there's such a powerful sense in America among the silent majority that now includes the realignment of politics, where this new Republican Party that Trump is creating has a place for Black voters and Latino voters.
00:48:38.100No longer the party, the old country club, Republican corporate party of the Mitt Romneys and the Dick Cheney's and the Liz Cheney's and the Bushes.
00:48:46.020I think that there's such a powerful force out there that in spite of my fears and what you just described, if this is handled the right way, President Trump can continue to get the financial support from his devoted followers.
00:49:12.840Many thanks to our guest, former Illinois Governor Rob Lagojevich, a man who has who has not only survived but thrived after the egregious act of of corrupt prosecution for political purposes against him.
00:49:30.840And I thank you for your faith, for your courage and for joining us today on The Stone Zone.
00:49:48.200Troy, I'm going to have you stick with us right now.
00:49:51.140We're going to bring on Alex Stone, a special segment we call The Rolling Stones.
00:49:59.160In just a moment, he is going to join us.
00:50:02.300Folks, in the meantime, if you're interested in history or politics or even murder mysteries, let me recommend my book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy, The Case Against LBJ, to you.
00:50:18.300You can get that by going to StoneZone.com.
00:50:21.740You see the address right there in the corner.
00:50:38.380It almost immediately became a New York Times bestseller.
00:50:42.140The best place to get this book, the fastest way, at the best price, is to go to themanwhokilledkennedy.com, themanwhokilledkennedy.com.
00:50:55.720One more time, themanwhokilledkennedy.com.
00:51:00.620And that copy will be personally inscribed to you.
00:51:06.080By the way, I only sell the paperback version, has two extra chapters.
00:51:12.380But I make the case that Lyndon Baines Johnson was at the helm of a plot that included the CIA, a big Texas oil, organized crime, and the banking interests, as well as the others, including the Secret Service, and yes, the FBI, to murder President John.
00:52:35.300Because you went through so much political persecution a few years ago.
00:52:40.080What are some relations that you see in between now with President Trump and then just a few years ago with yourself?
00:52:47.960Well, I mean, Alex, to be honest with you, the stunning raid on my home and then the stunning raid on Mar-a-Lago just speaks volumes.
00:52:57.340I mean, look, even if they did decide to frame me for the fabricated charge of lying to Congress about Russian collusion that never actually took place, all they had to do was call my lawyer and say, we're going to be charging your client.
00:53:17.160And, of course, I would have been compelled and done so.
00:53:21.960My lawyers actually spoke to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office the day before my arrest.
00:53:28.300We handed over 30 pages of text messages from Mr. Randy Credico that proved that I was telling the truth when I said that he was the source of the narrow information that WikiLeaks and Julian Assange had documents that were deleterious.
00:53:47.160That were damaging to Hillary Clinton and that they would publish them in October and whatever they were, they would be devastating.
00:53:54.620Now, Assange had pretty much said the same thing himself in public, so it wasn't a big secret.
00:54:01.080But when I asked Mr. Credico how he knew this, he said in writing, I know a woman lawyer who works for Assange.
00:54:11.100Yet, that same woman lawyer testified in my trial saying that, no, she had never told Credico that.
00:54:20.440And Credico for weeks said he didn't know any woman lawyers who worked for Assange.
00:54:25.000So they both perjured themselves based on the evidence.
00:54:28.760But as I learned the hard way, and I think President Trump is now learning, the law, the facts, the Constitution, the evidence, the rules, none of these things matter when you have a deeply partisan and hateful judge and a completely partisan jury pool of people who are your political opponents.
00:54:53.060This idea of a juror, a prospective juror saying, I hate Donald Trump, I would never vote for him, but I'm certain that I could be objective on this jury is an absurdity.
00:55:04.860But my case is still sealed, so I can't speak about individual jurors.
00:55:11.100But in the larger case, I had no evangelical Christians on my jury.
00:55:16.100I had no military veterans on my jury.
00:55:26.100I did have people who worked in the Obama Justice Department on my jury.
00:55:30.720I did have people that had worked for the FBI on my jury.
00:55:35.980I had people, multiple people who had posted attacks on Donald Trump on social media on my jury.
00:55:44.300Yet when they're asked, well, despite your political views, can you give an objective, render an objective decision?
00:55:52.100In this case, they, of course, say yes to lie their way on to the jury.
00:55:57.660So very hard for me to see in New York how Donald Trump is going to get a fair trial.
00:56:06.380There are other parallels that I could go into.
00:56:10.920It's very intriguing that people are waking up to what is actually going on.
00:56:15.360ESPN's Stephen A. Smith ripped into Democrats' lawfare against President Trump.
00:56:20.160He says, primarily, I have voted Democrat throughout my entire life, but I'm utterly disgusted with what I'm seeing.
00:56:26.040They've clearly politicized this thing with Donald Trump because they can't come up with a strategy to offset the momentum he's clearly gained.
00:56:33.720Just a little bit ago before coming on, I was watching the Flynn movie that just released.
00:56:39.400And it's very interesting just seeing how they've used different pieces to try to get Donald Trump out of the way because they know that he's a threat to the system.
00:56:55.580They're trying to get rid of Donald Trump because they know that there is a person and a people that is standing in the gap and fighting for this country.
00:57:05.340And we need more of that every single day in this country or else we're going to lose it.
00:57:14.700General Flynn's movie is really compelling.
00:57:18.660You can go see it, by the way, at FlynnMovie.com, FlynnMovie.com.
00:57:24.100It's important not only because it tells you what happened to him, but more precisely, it tells you why it happened to him.
00:57:32.220The bottom line of this is pretty clear.
00:57:34.340When he was at the highest levels of our intelligence agencies, he refused to lie to Congress, along with all of the others, about the dangers of Islamic terrorism.
00:57:47.240And for that, he had to be destroyed because he would not say things that weren't true, but in line with all of the others.
00:58:06.420Well, you know, what General Flynn has been through is exactly what you've been through, Roger, and it's you refuse to lie for the benefit of the establishment against Donald Trump.
00:58:15.860And look, the establishment, I think, Alex, you put it great there, that they have put in roadblock after roadblock after roadblock, and they had plan A, B, C, D, E.
00:58:27.040They had multiple plans to try to stop President Trump because they know that anybody that goes outside of the traditional norms of politics, the Republican-Democrat handshake deal things, and tries to get something done for the people, it throws the entire game off.
00:58:41.000So, President Trump's mere existence threatens the establishment's political power, and it's exactly why Roger was persecuted, it's exactly why General Flynn was persecuted, and same with President Donald Trump.
00:58:51.480All right, I think we are out of time here.
00:58:56.660Alex Stone, tell people where and when they can see your great show.
00:59:03.420Roger, thank you so much for having me on.
00:59:05.280Guys, if you go to my X, go to Stone J. Alex, Stone J. Alex, you can also find me on Rumble at the Alex Stone Show.
00:59:13.320I've had to take a little bit of a step back away from my show recently due to just personal family issues, but I will be back soon.
00:59:21.460I'm not sure exactly when that will be, but I'll keep you updated, and I hope to be back soon for good.
00:59:31.220Let me thank my co-host, Troy Smith, with Slingshot.news, and also our guest today for the Rolling Stones segment, my adopted nephew, Alex Stone, who is sporting quite a good-looking lid there, my friend, a good-looking fedora.
00:59:49.440Many thanks for joining us today on the Stone Zone.
00:59:52.060Folks, until Monday, God bless you, and Godspeed.
00:59:56.460A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going, and he's smart, and he's strong, and people love him.
01:00:06.040Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.