Jake Novak fills in for Roger Stone, who is in Washington, D.C. for a final interview for his upcoming book on the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan. They talk about the Nixon administration, Watergate, the Iran deal, and much more.
00:01:12.800But of course, as you know, Roger, the biggest victims of crime in America0.95
00:01:17.520are black people and other minorities, and he understood that very well.0.99
00:01:23.020And he also, I think, would have understood what's going on now, Roger,
00:01:25.400that our problems in this country, in my opinion, can all be traced back to lax law and order.
00:01:31.080Today's big news, these hearings on Capitol Hill with these Soros prosecutors letting people out,
00:01:36.160not prosecuting illegal aliens. You got J.D. Vance in Maine detailing fraud after fraud
00:01:41.920after fraud, bankrupting this country. We have a congresswoman violating the Logan Act and J.A.
00:01:47.980Powell going over to Cuba or working with the Cubans to try to undermine American policy.
00:01:52.680It goes on and on and on. Law and order isn't racist, Roger.
00:01:56.140And Richard Nixon understood that he got the ball rolling.
00:01:59.420It took 30 years. But by the mid 90s, the ball he started rolling had really created a great situation in this country with less crime.
00:02:08.640Well, Jake, as you know, I'm calling in from Washington, D.C.
00:02:12.280I'm here to conduct a final interviews for my upcoming book on the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.
00:02:19.620But what's striking is how different the city is today than it was when I lived here.
00:02:25.480First of all, it's much cleaner, but more importantly, it's much safer.
00:02:29.420That's because President Donald Trump has empowered the National Guard to clean up Washington, D.C.
00:02:36.340This is now, we have some of the lowest crime rates in the city's history.
00:02:41.480Even the mayor of D.C., who, let's face it, is no friend of Donald Trump's, has prayed this effort.
00:02:47.840So what you say is absolutely true. But the most important thing I guess I want to talk about right here on the Stone Zone, I appreciate your sitting in for me, Jake, as I finish this book, is as I predicted last night, President Donald Trump has had some key agreements, key breakthroughs in his trip to China.
00:03:07.480The Chinese have now essentially agreed not to send any weapons to Iran and committed to helping us end the conflict with the president Xi Jinping actually reporting to say that he would give Trump whatever he needs to achieve a peaceful solution.
00:03:25.100Now, China, as you know, is Iran's largest oil customer, purchasing about 90 percent of its exports, holding significant leverage, which the United States is now seized through the leadership of Donald Trump.
00:03:37.480So you've got economic and strategic outcomes of the Trump-Xi meetings.
00:03:42.380First of all, the Chinese have pledged to end the flow of deadly fentanyl precursors in the United States.
00:03:48.860There's also a new shift in Chinese energy imports towards taking American oil and natural gas, reducing independence on the Strait Hormuz entirely.
00:03:58.960Also, increased Chinese purchases of agricultural goods, pork, beef, soybeans, and they've agreed to buy 200 Boeing military jets.
00:04:11.560Beyond that, you have mutual agreement that Iran cannot possess nuclear weapons or militarize the straightforward move.
00:04:19.040So Trump has accomplished an enormous amount in this brief trip, which you and I talked about only last night.
00:04:26.160Yeah. Now, with Ronald Reagan and when we had successful summits back with when Ronald Reagan was president, of course, he coined that term trust but verify. What's what's your feeling about how we go forward, you know, to make sure that China lives up to some of these comments that they've made?
00:04:45.080my thought is that well they'll probably cause problems elsewhere and that's not the fault of
00:04:50.180president trump or or other factors but what's your feeling on the solidness of their promises
00:04:57.500i i don't doubt president trump's promises here whatever he's promised to china but on their end
00:05:02.740uh what's the leverage we have we have oil leverage right and we also have we could we
00:05:07.120could completely wreck iran's oil supply couldn't we no that's exactly right i was just talking to1.00
00:05:12.900my grandson, when I said, you know, I don't trust the Chinese, who often do one thing and say1.00
00:05:18.740something else. But at the same time, between cutting off their oil from Venezuela, where they1.00
00:05:25.200were getting 90% of that output, and cutting off their oil now from Iran, they have no access
00:05:31.700to cheap oil. This very significantly reduces the threat. And Trump, as you know, a plane load of0.68
00:05:39.960leading business men and women from this country and they've just they've agreed to open their
00:05:46.940markets to us so we will be able to tell pretty easily whether they're living up to it the one
00:05:52.440place i trust them the least and where i think they are are doing the most damage to the country
00:05:58.020is in the drug trade they cannot pretend that they are not the major importer of fentanyl and
00:06:05.260fentanyl precursors that go to mexico and let's face it cross our southern border roger stone um
00:06:13.340and i think it's let's let's continue to talk about this this fentanyl thing and the drug
00:06:17.760trade in china because i think that there's a lot of americans who still think about miami vice
00:06:23.880times with the drug a big drug kingpins big money uh financial reasons things like that but
00:06:30.840this is uh when it comes to china and what they're exporting this country they're not looking for
00:06:35.680customers they're looking for casualties i mean that's really what it is isn't it no they've done0.90
00:06:41.680enormous damage to the united states uh the one place we don't seem to have any agreement
00:06:46.460uh is on taiwan they continue to say that it's not negotiable on the other hand i don't think they
00:06:54.100have the military strength today to move on taiwan but they also recognize that in donald trump
00:07:00.400they don't have a patsy like joe biden if the chinese had moved on taiwan while joe biden was
00:07:07.420president he would have earned out sent a strong letter of objection donald trump would send icbm
00:07:14.100missiles and they know it which is why they will not move on our ally taiwan uh and why i think0.52
00:07:20.220they really need to think twice about the drug trade because trump will crack down on them if
00:07:26.280They don't keep their word in these these bilateral agreements.
00:07:29.960Roger, how much confidence do you have in some of these American tech companies, whether it's NVIDIA or in some cases an Apple and some of these other chip companies to keep the kinds of technology that has been developed here and is very sensitive and has national security implications?
00:07:49.400My thought is, you know, we got to let business continue to flow.
00:07:53.080We want business to succeed here in America, and China's an important customer.
00:07:57.520But I'm feeling like an owner of a big retail store where you know they always factor in, what is it, 3% or something, 4% for theft, for shoplifting, something like that.
00:09:14.620If you're a Democrat, you will get eight emails on Google, on Gmail, reminding you to vote.
00:09:21.420If you're a Republican, you won't get a single one.
00:09:24.480Or if you're unregistered, they will read your searches, see whether you lean left or whether you lean right.
00:09:33.400If you lean left, you'll get multiple reminders to register to vote.
00:09:37.700That's just one example of the way these big tech companies play games.
00:09:41.600Meanwhile, they're donating to the building of the of the White House ballroom.
00:09:46.320And while we appreciate their check, I trust them not at all.
00:09:51.160How did we get to this place with these large tech companies?
00:09:54.080You know, one of the things I think Americans are really naive about is they think, well, it's now because of the technology that, you know, we're losing our privacy or these government, these people in the bureaucracy and the and things like that are spying.
00:10:11.600on us. They never really wanted to before. I think it's the other way around, Roger. I think that
00:10:15.420the powers that be in the world since the time of the cavemen wanted to control the public,
00:10:20.260but they never had the tools with which to do it. But with everyone in the world walking around
00:10:24.840with a smartphone that can listen to us and monitor us, let alone record what we type into0.93
00:10:29.980it, suddenly the Chinese model of full surveillance, full censorship, full repression0.56
00:10:36.060is possible even in the so-called free world and i think that that's really incredibly enticing for
00:10:44.700statists communists leftists of all kinds how do we how do we push back on that without just
00:10:51.400throwing all of our phones away well first of all i think you have to look at the plus and the minus
00:10:55.980without the internet and without social media donald trump could never have been elected
00:11:02.460president. The the the rise of social media and the rise of the Internet broke the monopoly of
00:11:09.380big media, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC. And Jake, as I often say, I don't I don't get my news from CNN
00:11:18.680for the same reason I don't drink out of the toilet. So these companies didn't realize that
00:11:25.380When they essentially leveled the playing field and provided a platform for Donald Trump to counterpunch against the caricature of him that they tried to paint in the 2016 election, now they're trying to shove the toothpaste back in the tube.
00:11:43.480On the other hand, I just operate, having been through a bad experience, shall we say, I operate in the assumption that all my emails, all my text messages, all my phone calls are being monitored by someone.
00:11:57.700Before the 2024 election, the FBI contacted my personal attorney to tell me that my cell phone and my email had been compromised.
00:12:09.160And when my lawyers said compromised, by whom?0.94
00:12:31.500I think you have to operate on the assumption that anything you say, anything you write, could appear tomorrow morning on the front page of the New York Times.
00:12:44.020Your scenario that you're talking about, although this isn't what happened to you, but it very much reminds me of 2018 and that whole Jeff Bezos incident, if you remember.
00:12:53.060the nude pictures of him which uh as anyone could tell you including the brother of Lorena Sanchez
00:12:59.760who is now married to Jeff Rezos was something that Lorena herself put out there she was trying
00:13:04.020to get Jeff's marriage ended and I guess he was on the fence but Bezos had the gall and he got
00:13:09.340Gavin DeBecker a security expert or at least a theoretical security expert to go to the UN of
00:13:14.700all places not to mention other places and claim that he was hacked by the Saudis and by the way0.57
00:13:19.180every phone hacker i knew who i interviewed about that story told me this is not the way you hack a
00:13:24.320phone um you know the point being that you are can't expect privacy whether it's tech or not
00:13:32.900in the case or someone who wants to put someone close to you who might want to compromise you
00:13:37.260but the fact is it does make everything more heightened before the age of smartphones
00:13:43.660this would have been some pictures sent maybe uh in the mail or something like that and it would
00:13:48.560have been much less of a situation everything's on steroids and i i gotta say it certainly gives
00:13:55.080power to uh to these uh social media companies uh roger can you stay with us for a few minutes
00:13:59.440after this break to talk about i want to talk about mixing with you on one more time because
00:14:03.180you know i like talking about him with you absolutely i'll be i'll be right here all
00:14:07.300right fantastic we're gonna take a break i'll be back with roger stone i'm jake novak this is the
00:14:10.920stone zone when you travel well your klm royal dutch airlines ticket takes you to more than just
00:14:18.040your destination it takes you to front row views voices lost in the music and new shared memories
00:14:25.500and when the last song fades welcome aboard the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines crew is here to ensure
00:14:33.880your journey home hits all the right notes KLM Royal Dutch Airlines when you travel travel well
00:14:42.320i'm jake novak and i have roger stone on the phone for a few more minutes before the end of
00:14:48.940the hour and roger um i played a soundbite of then candidate richard nixon running for president
00:14:55.100in 1968 at the republican national convention his acceptance speech where i think he surprised
00:15:00.440a lot of people by making law and order the cornerstone of his message that evening and
00:15:05.600he carried it through the campaign, and it was very successful. But you are probably the best
00:15:12.280person to talk about this with. It wasn't a harsh law and order that Nixon imposed once he was
00:15:18.180elected. He was not looking to bring martial law into this country. For one thing, he knew that the
00:15:25.240drug problem in this country couldn't just be solved by throwing everyone in jail. He started
00:15:29.480that process of creating clinics for people to get off of heroin, for example, and that was very
00:15:34.540successful he also went to some of these protests some of them illegal uh and spoke very famously i
00:15:40.800think it was either the lincoln or the jefferson memorial in the middle of the night spoke to some
00:15:43.940of the anti-vietnam war protesters i mean it doesn't have to be harsh law and order is not
00:15:49.840about being harsh and hitting people over the head it's about protecting the greater public
00:15:53.620i think nixon understood that and he wasn't given um his due for that well i think you had a unique
00:15:59.600circumstance in which Richard Nixon who had lost the 1960 election by a whisker I've written two
00:16:06.620books on it I believe was stolen from him then tried to run for governor of California was
00:16:11.040defeated but then you had a unique circumstance in which the assassination of John F. Kennedy
00:16:16.280the assassination of Robert Kennedy the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King
00:16:21.520the Vietnam War which was really dividing America and the fact that our cities had become unsafe
00:16:27.960and many of them were burning really parted the seas in a way in which richard nixon made0.71
00:16:34.340what was until donald trump the greatest single comeback in american history now it is true that
00:16:42.040i have a tattoo of richard nixon a portrait of him on my back about the size of a grapefruit
00:16:47.820between my shoulder blades and in a way jake it's not a political statement what it is is a daily
00:16:54.920reminder that in life, when things don't go your way, when you're defeated, when you get knocked
00:17:01.380down, when you reach for something and you fall short, that that's the time to get up off the
00:17:07.300canvas, dust yourself off and get back in the fight. See, the story of Nixon is a story of
00:17:12.540resilience. It's a story of persistence. It's a story of indestructibility. And it's a purely
00:17:18.900American story. That's why four American presidents were there at Nixon's funeral to pray homage to
00:17:24.900to him and why he made his greatest comeback at the end of his life as an advisor to President
00:17:31.780Bill Clinton, telling him how to handle the Chinese and the Russians. So I think you're
00:17:37.700absolutely right about the fact that he recognized earlier than most that America had a crime crisis.
00:17:44.160But as you point out, he's also the president who desegregated the public schools. He's also
00:17:50.120the president who appointed more african americans to federal office than lyndon johnson and john f
00:17:56.460kennedy combined he is also the president who quadrupled the financing for civil rights law
00:18:02.820enforcement he's also the president who tripled the spending on black colleges so he's also the
00:18:09.340president who gave us affirmative action which many of my conservative friends are not not very
00:18:14.540happy about but still remains part of his overall civil rights record so when they talk about the
00:18:20.360southern strategy what exactly are they talking about the fact that he did more for civil rights
00:18:26.000than any president since abraham lincoln yeah you know uh it makes the point it's one of the
00:18:31.960things that really bothers me this continued belief in red states you know red states and
00:18:37.720blue states you have to be a candidate like nixon and accept the fact that or go after the fact
00:18:44.500that there's no such thing you have to campaign you know he was he was mimicked in 19 he was
00:18:50.440mocked in 1960 for for visiting every fifth at one of the 50 states you know everyone oh that's
00:18:55.600a waste of your time no it's not not if you really believe you have a message for this entire country
00:19:01.100i would really like to see that uh happen again in this country somebody do that and in 1968 maybe
00:19:07.400he didn't visit all 50 states like he did in 1960 but he did make it clear that he wasn't giving up
00:19:13.040on any states and his election flipped that script in the south all of a sudden now there were both
00:19:19.960democrat there were democrats in the south then who had to run on something other than being
00:19:25.060pro-segregation you know i mean it changed things overnight and i think donald trump's done that too
00:19:30.240and that's why there's been so much resistance against him by some of these republicans we got
00:19:34.720a minute left roger i think you're absolutely right what people don't realize is many people
00:19:39.920say that had robert kennedy lived and nixon had a face-off with him nixon would have lost actually
00:19:45.560that's not true john f kennedy carried every deep southern state robert kennedy could not have carried
00:19:50.960georgia mississippi louisiana and so on so it was an extraordinary breakthrough and it was a
00:19:57.860massive political realignment the coalition that elected nixon in 1972 elected reagan in 1980 is
00:20:05.280the same coalition that elected Donald Trump in 2016.