The StoneZONE with Roger Stone

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00:00:30.000 The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:00:38.080 Welcome back into the Stone Zone.

00:00:41.860 Well, I think it should be apparent to anyone who's watching that Illinois' billionaire governor, J.B. Pritzker, a rather rotund individual, sees himself as the 2028 Democrat candidate for president.

00:00:59.180 And evidently thinks he can get there essentially by thwarting the will of the American people in the last election and doing everything humanly possible to stop President Donald Trump and ICE agents from deporting dangerous illegal criminals from the windy city of Chicago.

00:01:20.560 He is aided in this endeavor by Mayor Brandon Johnson.

00:01:24.620 Last time I looked, his approval rating as mayor was at 6 percent, something I've never seen in American politics.

00:01:31.000 Clearly, Pritzker believes that kowtowing to the most radical left wing of the Democrat Party is the way to capture their hearts.

00:01:42.700 There is no better observer of J.B. Pritzker and his political antics, which endanger the public as well as federal agents, than Mark Vargas.

00:01:53.580 He is the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review, and he joins us now.

00:01:57.980 Mark, welcome to the Stone Zone.

00:02:00.040 Great to be with you, Roger.

00:02:02.440 So I'm going to take this in order.

00:02:06.060 Several weeks ago, you reported that Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson

00:02:12.180 had issued an order to the Chicago police specifically prohibiting them from protecting or defending ICE agents

00:02:26.240 who may have been in danger during the performance of their duties to arrest in preparation for deportation dangerous illegals in Chicago.

00:02:39.680 And you further made the point, after consulting with a number of legal experts,

00:02:43.740 that they could both personally face legal liability over this policy.

00:02:50.940 So tell us what's going on.

00:02:52.860 Yeah, Roger.

00:02:53.800 Since 2022, Chicago has welcomed over 52,000 illegal aliens under Joe Biden's open border policy.

00:03:02.540 And over $2.5 billion have been spent taxpayer money to make sure that these illegal aliens have free health care.

00:03:12.120 But what Pritzker and Johnson have been doing, the executive orders that they've signed that put federal ICE agents,

00:03:19.340 their lives in grave danger, this stand-down order where local police, local law enforcement cannot participate and assist federal ICE agents.

00:03:30.260 But I've spoken to numerous legal experts and attorneys on both sides of the aisle,

00:03:36.160 and they all agree that there is a strong case for Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson's actions

00:03:41.320 that could land them up to 20 years in federal prison.

00:03:45.880 Let me just highlight just very briefly a few of these.

00:03:48.340 Eight U.S. Code 1324, it's a felony to conceal, harbor, or shield illegal aliens from detection.

00:03:54.860 Eight U.S. Code 1373 prohibits local governments from restricting communication

00:04:00.660 between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities.

00:04:04.020 And finally, 18 U.S. Code 111 makes it a crime to forcibly assault, resist, impede, or intimidate,

00:04:11.180 or interfere with federal officers engaged in their duties.

00:04:14.940 And we're seeing that happen in real time.

00:04:17.480 It's why there's over 1,000 percent increase in assaults on federal ICE agents.

00:04:23.240 It's because it's a combination of both Pritzker and Johnson's dangerous and vile rhetoric aimed at federal ICE agents.

00:04:30.840 And it's also because these executive orders that they've signed that prohibit local law enforcement

00:04:34.360 from providing any assistance should they be in trouble.

00:04:38.660 This is really quite extraordinary.

00:04:40.900 President Trump himself has said that based on their illegal orders, Pritzker and Brandon Johnson should be in jail.

00:04:48.480 The president's comments came after reports that Chicago police officers had actually been ordered to stand down

00:04:55.060 as ICE agents faced a hostile crowd in the Brighton Park area of Chicago.

00:05:01.620 According to CWB Chicago, one ICE agent urgently radioed for backup,

00:05:08.300 warning that he was being surrounded.

00:05:09.720 Instead of authorizing assistance, the Chicago Police Department leadership allegedly ordered city officers

00:05:15.100 to retreat from the area entirely, leaving federal agents to fend for themselves.

00:05:22.340 This is truly disgraceful.

00:05:26.320 I don't understand the politics of this.

00:05:29.760 In other words, who do Pritzker and Johnson think they are appealing to?

00:05:34.000 We saw that when the president moved the National Guard into Washington, D.C.,

00:05:38.280 when the crime rates just got untenable, when the city was just incredibly dangerous for its residents,

00:05:46.340 as well as anyone who was visiting or working there,

00:05:49.560 that the local residents, regardless of whether they were African-American, Hispanic,

00:05:54.840 or whether they were Caucasians, overwhelmingly approved the president's move

00:06:01.520 to bring safety and security to their neighborhoods and communities.

00:06:05.800 So who do Pritzker and Johnson think they're appealing to here?

00:06:10.760 Well, Pritzker doesn't have a constituency.

00:06:13.480 It's important for your listeners to know that he's spent nearly $400 million of his own money.

00:06:19.360 He's a billionaire of his own money to be elected governor twice.

00:06:22.960 So he doesn't have a constituency.

00:06:25.020 He's literally bought the governor's seat.

00:06:28.260 But he's playing to the far-left, progressive, George Soros types of the Democratic Party, the AOCs,

00:06:35.020 the progressive liberals that hate America, that prioritize lawbreakers over law-abiding citizens.

00:06:43.140 And he's losing support across the city of Chicago.

00:06:46.500 We're seeing evidence of that.

00:06:47.760 The streets are a war zone.

00:06:49.080 Yet Pritzker likes to get up early in the morning and take video of a park at 6 o'clock in the morning,

00:06:55.980 talking about how peaceful it is.

00:06:58.000 Well, Pritzker, all the violent criminals are asleep because they've created chaos between the hours of 1 and 3.30 a.m.

00:07:05.380 And he's also not telling you that he's surrounded by about a dozen heavily armed bodyguards and a bulletproof SUV.

00:07:12.420 But the residents know in Chicago that the city is a war zone.

00:07:17.340 The streets are dangerous.

00:07:18.840 There's 150,000 gang members and only 11,000 police officers.

00:07:24.560 They're far outnumbered.

00:07:26.640 But yet Pritzker likes to think that it's okay to prioritize illegals over law-abiding citizens.

00:07:32.400 And what the sad part is is that critical programs, maternal health programs, hospitals in the south and west sides of Chicago,

00:07:40.780 in predominantly black neighborhoods, they're shutting down because of little or no funding.

00:07:46.920 We have Chicago has some of the highest infant mortality rates in the country.

00:07:50.980 And instead of allocating money to save the lives of little black babies,

00:07:55.020 Pritzker and Johnson instead want to put $2.5 billion to make sure that illegal aliens, lawbreakers, have free health care.

00:08:02.440 It's an unpopular perspective.

00:08:04.520 Nationally, Americans are against this.

00:08:06.760 They support the president and his actions going into these democratic cities.

00:08:10.180 And Pritzker and Johnson are on the wrong side of the law on this issue.

00:08:13.580 And lastly, they're on the wrong side of history on this issue.

00:08:17.000 Doing away with a cash bail has proved to be an enormous mistake in the city of New York.

00:08:23.040 The city of New York's crime statistics are heavily doctored.

00:08:26.700 So they really, the crime statistics that the New York City Police Department, the once great New York City Police Department,

00:08:33.000 which is now a woke agency, reports to the FBI are heavily, heavily manipulated.

00:08:39.640 Cash bail has not worked out for New York State at all.

00:08:42.100 Yet Illinois Democrats and J.B.

00:08:43.900 Pritzker have done away with cash bail, which I think adds to the problem in the city of Chicago.

00:08:52.880 As I recall, Pritzker is fabulously wealthy.

00:08:56.160 Pritzkers are, of course, the famous Hyatt Hotel family.

00:08:58.900 He spent his own personal money to buy the governorship twice.

00:09:04.380 Mark, you told me recently that he basically funds the entire Democrat Party as well as the Democrat ticket in a state that has unfortunately become redder and redder.

00:09:16.960 Do you believe that it is still possible?

00:09:20.600 Pardon me, bluer and bluer.

00:09:21.620 I misspoke.

00:09:22.500 Do you believe it is possible that Illinois could yet elect a Republican governor?

00:09:26.800 Absolutely.

00:09:28.860 And what my favorite part of this, Roger, is, yes, he is an heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune and he's worth almost $4 billion.

00:09:35.540 But he hates paying property taxes.

00:09:37.900 And in fact, when he was running for governor, it was revealed that he bought a mansion next to his in the Gold Coast neighborhood of downtown Chicago.

00:09:46.780 And he had instructed the plumbers to rip out all the toilets in the mansion so that it could legally be uninhabitable.

00:09:53.860 Why?

00:09:54.140 Because he didn't want to pay over $300,000 in property taxes.

00:09:59.200 This is the same guy who bought the governor's seat by spending nearly $4 million of his own money.

00:10:06.140 But what Pritzker and Johnson have done has destroyed our city.

00:10:10.400 You talk about no cash bail, 67,000.

00:10:12.840 Here's a specific number for you.

00:10:13.840 67,000 criminals are free and out on the streets today because of no cash bail.

00:10:20.740 And how do we know that?

00:10:21.560 Because they've all missed their court hearings.

00:10:23.420 67,000 criminals missed their court hearings.

00:10:25.920 What did Chicago do?

00:10:26.800 They sent them a postcard in the mail and said, sorry, we missed you at your hearing.

00:10:30.420 Hopefully you come back next time.

00:10:31.860 And so we're seeing this 90 percent of violent and dangerous criminals are out on the streets along with the 67,000.

00:10:38.740 Why?

00:10:38.940 Because they've never been identified or charged.

00:10:41.340 If you want to create a violent crime, if you want to create murder or be involved and participate in mass shootings, you've got to do it in the city of Chicago.

00:10:50.340 Because the justice system is not for the victim.

00:10:54.260 The justice system is for the criminal.

00:10:56.540 And it is so backwards.

00:10:58.260 But, you know, Governor Pritzker has presidential aspirations.

00:11:02.280 A local national poll had him polling at just 2 percent.

00:11:06.420 He's wildly unpopular.

00:11:08.140 But it is possible that Chicago can turn red because of what's happening, the money being reallocated to illegal aliens.

00:11:15.280 While they want to raise taxes in order to make up for the difference,

00:11:18.740 the black community is outraged that they're burying black babies because of high mortality rates because there's no funding.

00:11:26.380 We are going to see I think we're seeing a realignment of politics in America.

00:11:29.880 And it's going to start in the city of Chicago.

00:11:31.860 And mark my words, I believe we will under President Trump's leadership and his strong to fund crime policies.

00:11:37.660 We will flip Chicago red.

00:11:39.420 I would love I would love to see that.

00:11:41.900 I would truly love to see that.

00:11:44.120 You're right about looking at the early polling.

00:11:46.520 I mean, assuming a field that could include California Governor Gavin Newsom, just this past week, former Vice President Kamala Harris told us that she's not finished.

00:11:59.660 And she would, for the Democrat nomination, be extraordinarily formidable, having just spent $400 million between her campaign and PAC money to be a candidate for president.

00:12:10.380 But Bernie Sanders, I don't know if he's going to try yet again.

00:12:14.560 He skimmed so much money in media placement fees for he and his wife, which is not illegal.

00:12:21.200 But without disclosing that to your donors, I'm not sure he's ethically skimmed millions from his two presidential campaigns.

00:12:28.500 So he may be in for yet another grift.

00:12:32.220 But it seems to me that their bench is very, very thin.

00:12:36.040 I would think that Newsom and Kamala Harris, both having a base out of California, that is initially problematic, probably for both of them, but more so for Newsom, who is trying to reinvent himself yet again.

00:12:51.180 All these candidates, however, seem to think that by grabbing the most left, most crazed, progressive agenda of the Democrat Party is the way to get nominated.

00:13:05.320 A Bill Clinton, if he existed today within the confines of the Democrat Party, a moderate Democrat governor, Bill Clinton actually wanted to balance the federal budget.

00:13:16.760 No Democrat says that today.

00:13:18.760 Could not get nominated in their party.

00:13:20.520 I think their party has been taken over by a radical Marxist clique.

00:13:25.860 And that clique is led by AOC, by Jasmine Crockett, by that pompous old socialist windbag, Bernie Sanders, and Democrats like Brandon Johnson.

00:13:37.900 Brandon Johnson, the mayor of Chicago, who has a 150-person security squad protecting him, according to what I read last week.

00:13:46.340 He says there is no danger.

00:13:48.100 He keeps calling, I think he keeps calling for insurrection against the government.

00:13:52.520 I think he has stepped over the line in his public comments when the president seeks to fulfill his constitutional authority to detain, arrest, and deport violent, illegal criminals.

00:14:10.240 So, the Democrats have no candidate.

00:14:14.520 The Republican Party has, obviously, a strong candidate in J.D. Vance, the sitting vice president, who's demonstrating the energy.

00:14:22.120 I thought his speech at Turning Point USA yesterday was really exceptional.

00:14:26.540 We also have a strong bench for our ticket.

00:14:30.420 Marco Rubio is turning out to be a standout as Secretary of State.

00:14:34.040 Tulsi Gabbard, of course, who exposed the entire Russian collusion hoax.

00:14:39.160 They have no bench.

00:14:40.680 The Republican Party has a substantial bench.

00:14:42.700 Donald Trump is compiling a strong record to run on, both in the economy and also in the area of foreign policy, where he has rightfully won the title of peacemaker.

00:14:56.300 Nobody could have ever predicted his diplomatic prowess, but pulling together all of these peace deals, which I have argued right here in the Stone Zone should entitle him to the Nobel Peace Prize, America is indeed headed for a golden age.

00:15:13.600 I'm Roger Stone.

00:15:14.480 We're talking to Mark Vargas, the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review.

00:15:18.780 Whatever you do, we'll be back with more politics, so please don't touch that dial.

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00:15:42.920 The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.

00:15:51.200 Welcome back.

00:15:52.220 Mark, I appreciate those warm words from Vice President J.D. Vance.

00:15:55.860 We're talking to Mark Vargas, the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review.

00:16:00.200 Mark, in the early mornings on this past Friday, Illinois lawmakers quietly passed one of the most dangerous and unconstitutional measures in the state's history, according to a piece that you have up today on the Illinois Review.

00:16:12.560 Cloaked in compassionate language about safe zones, this bill is nothing more than a political stunt, you say, that undermines the rule of law and puts federal law enforcement officers directly in the crosshairs.

00:16:24.000 HB 1312 designates so-called safe zones around schools, hospitals, and courthouses, and it gives private citizens the power to sue federal immigration officers for alleged violations of constitutional rights, including claims of false imprisonment or unlawful detention.

00:16:39.760 I think they would actually have that anyway, but let's be clear what this really means.

00:16:43.600 If a federal immigration and customs enforcement agent, you write, makes a lawful arrest that an activist later disagrees with, that agent could be sued in state court simply for doing his or her job.

00:16:54.480 Tell us about what's going on here.

00:16:55.800 Isn't it just remarkable that you've got the Illinois Democrats who have a supermajority control in Springfield, their grip on power is so strong that they don't even need any input from a single Republican in either the House or Senate chambers.

00:17:09.840 And around 2 o'clock this morning, actually, is when they passed this bill, they'd like to talk about that this is protecting civil rights, when in fact, Roger, it's actually weaponizing state law to intimidate federal officers.

00:17:23.560 But more than that, I believe in talking with other legal experts and attorneys that this is completely unacceptable and unconstitutional.

00:17:30.980 Why? Because of the supremacy clause of the United States Constitution, which makes federal law the supreme law of the land and that states like Illinois cannot pass laws that obstruct, penalize or interfere with federal operations.

00:17:46.760 And I want to make a particular point here. Think about you or I or any other citizen, law abiding citizen, Roger, citizens that listen to your show.

00:17:55.940 Imagine if we put together legislation or we put together policies or signed executive orders as private citizens that endangered the lives of federal officers, particularly federalized agents.

00:18:06.740 Where would we be? We would be locked up. We would be arrested and locked up in point zero zero three seconds.

00:18:12.020 Yet the Illinois Democrats led by Pritzker and Johnson have created laws, have created executive orders that put federal agents lives in grave danger.

00:18:21.280 And now now they want to arrest them. The Pritzker has created just last week.

00:18:27.940 If you remember, Roger, he's created a new commission to document the names of all the federalized agents so that when a at some point when a Democrat is elected president, United States, that they can prosecute every single one of them.

00:18:42.380 But the United States Supreme Court has been clear. There are multiple cases going back to the early 1800s and as recently as 2012 that reaffirmed the same principle.

00:18:55.260 States may not obstruct federal authority.

00:18:58.660 Yeah, we've seen the same thing in New York where New York Attorney General Letitia James has set up a portal so that people can report the identities of ICE agents.

00:19:07.620 My fear, of course, is that she's going to dox those agents and put their lives and the lives of their families in danger.

00:19:14.840 Again, I think that these activities are legal under federal law, but it's the same playbook.

00:19:21.700 They weaponize the criminal justice system against Republicans and they attempt to rig the system against ICE agents who are simply trying to keep their job.

00:19:32.320 All right, we have to wrap it up there. Mark, tell people where folks can follow the Illinois Review.

00:19:37.620 Follow us at IllinoisReview.com on our website, Illinois Review on X, and they can follow me at X at Mark A. Vargas.

00:19:45.960 There you have it. Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone.

00:19:49.580 Remember, a man is not finished when he is defeated. He only is finished when he quits.

00:19:56.000 And in the fight for liberty and freedom, I will never quit.

00:20:00.040 That's why we're here five days a week talking about news, history, politics, style, occasionally talk about food.

00:20:08.540 So join us in the Stone Zone for more of our incisive political analysis, things I've learned in my 50 years in the corroded rectum of the two-party system.

00:20:18.300 Thanks for joining us. Until the next time, God bless you and Godspeed.

00:20:48.300 See you next time for a new episode so you never have to wonder.

00:20:55.560 What the heck is going on here?

Mark Vargas ｜ 10-31-25

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