The StoneZONE with Roger Stone - June 20, 2024


The Epic Corruption of JB Pritzker + Chaos at Democrat Convention in Chicago? The StoneZONE


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 2 minutes

Words per Minute

159.62096

Word Count

9,972

Sentence Count

756

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

On this episode of The Stone Zone, host Troy Smith is joined by Mark Vazquez, editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review, to discuss J.B. Pritzker's recent comments on President Trump and his potential run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and why he should not be considered a serious contender. Also, Stone takes a shot at Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner, and explains why he thinks he's a better choice than Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination than she is for the White House. The show is hosted by Troy Smith and is brought to you by The Stonezone, a production of Native Creative Podcasts. Produced in Chicago, Illinois. Art: Mackenzie Moore Music: Hayden Coplen Editor: Will Witwer Editor: Mike Alessandrini Fact or Fiction: Roger Stone Special Thanks to our sponsor, VaynerMedia, for sponsoring the show and sponsoring this episode! Our theme song is Come Alone by Suneaters and our ad music is by The Baseball Project, courtesy of Lotuspool Records. Our ad music was written and performed by Haley Shaw, and our sound design is by Chase Gray and the heavy beat is provided by Micah Vellian with additional mixing and mastering by Ian Davenport, and the mixing and mixing is by Joseph McDade, and additional mixing by Mark Vanderput, with additional engineering and mastering assistance by Bobby Lord, and his excellent mixing skills are provided by Mark Van Dyke, and Jeff Perla, and mastering the music was done by the acapella version of . and the lighting design and mastering and mixing by by , and , with additional thanks to , we are , & in this episode, and , the production assistance by . Thank you for making this episode we hope you enjoy it! and we really appreciate your feedback! - Thank you so much for all your support and your support, and thanks for all the love and support and support, we really really appreciate it. - The StoneZ Zone - Roger Stone, - and we appreciate all the support we can't thank you for all of you, you're amazing - we really do appreciate it, we appreciate it - Thank you, so much - Your support is so much! - Thank You, Thank you - Sarah, Sarah, and Thank You So Much, Thank You For Your Support & Support, and Good Morning, and Your Support, & Thank You for Your Support and Good Luck, and We'll See You, My Best Effort & Good Luck!


Transcript

00:00:00.740 The Stone Zone, with legendary Republican strategist and political icon and pundit Roger Stone.
00:00:08.280 Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents.
00:00:12.320 He is a New York Times bestselling author and a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald Trump.
00:00:17.980 As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts, spoken at countless venues,
00:00:23.600 and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the Cambridge Union Society.
00:00:28.360 Due to his four-plus decades in the political and cultural arena, Stone has become a pop culture icon.
00:00:34.320 And now, here's your host, Roger Stone.
00:00:40.020 Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Troy Smith. I'm your regular co-host here on The Stone Zone,
00:00:44.500 and I'll be filling in for Roger today, as he sadly couldn't be with us.
00:00:48.300 I am so happy to be here with you today because I have an amazing guest, somebody who I can't wait to bring on,
00:00:54.440 and we're going to do so right here at the beginning.
00:00:56.540 He is the editor-in-chief of the Illinois Review.
00:01:01.120 He is a great writer and somebody who I think is working very hard to push the envelope here,
00:01:08.760 as far as the truth is concerned.
00:01:10.200 And in Illinois, he has more than enough on his plate to discuss.
00:01:13.440 His name is Mark Vargas, editor-in-chief of Illinois Review.
00:01:16.120 Sir, welcome on The Stone Zone. An honor to have you here today.
00:01:19.880 Troy, it's great to be with you. Thank you for having me.
00:01:21.760 Well, sir, I wanted to start with you. You know, I was reading the Illinois Review,
00:01:26.000 and I was looking—I would encourage everybody to go out there and check out the Illinois Review
00:01:30.320 because you published some great information.
00:01:32.580 And being that you're Illinois, I pulled a tweet this morning of J.B. Pritzker
00:01:37.060 talking about Donald Trump's felony convictions in the, of course, set-up lawfare being waged by the Biden administration.
00:01:45.440 And there's J.B. Pritzker right there.
00:01:47.780 Wanted to open up the beginning of the show for you to comment on this
00:01:50.420 because pretty amazing stuff from a governor who I understand has some problems of his own there in Illinois.
00:01:56.340 Well, Governor Pritzker certainly has a lot of problems, big problems, certainly like his waistline.
00:02:01.740 But what's interesting is, you know, he starts out his campaign many years ago
00:02:06.000 when it was discovered that he bought a mansion next to his own home
00:02:09.840 and had all the toilets removed from that home so that it could be labeled legally uninhabitable
00:02:15.120 so that he could save a ton of money on property taxes for that building.
00:02:19.700 So that was problem number one.
00:02:21.300 But the bigger issue, Troy, is during what I like to call the plandemic
00:02:24.900 when Governor Pritzker shut down businesses, shut down schools, forced children to wear masks.
00:02:31.880 Our economy has never recovered since that time, destroyed lives, destroyed livelihoods.
00:02:40.520 At the same time, our streets are a war zone.
00:02:44.100 And what has Governor Pritzker done?
00:02:45.780 Absolutely nothing.
00:02:47.940 And here we are here in downtown Chicago, the host city for the Democratic National Convention.
00:02:53.240 And the city isn't any better since 1968 when they had their first convention in Chicago.
00:02:59.220 It's not any better since 1996 when they had the last convention in Chicago.
00:03:03.540 And with crime skyrocketing, with businesses leaving Illinois and large droves,
00:03:09.360 some of the largest companies in the world, some of the most well-known companies in the world,
00:03:14.480 are all leaving Chicago.
00:03:16.720 People are leaving Chicago by the droves.
00:03:19.400 I like to joke that Governor Pritzker has been Florida's Realtor of the Year in 21, 22, 23, and certainly 2024.
00:03:27.500 So it's remarkable, and it's not surprising that he'd say this.
00:03:31.700 Because after all, J.B. Pritzker believes that he is presidential material.
00:03:36.380 And he's going to learn that you can open up your wallet and write big checks.
00:03:40.880 But at the presidential level, he is not even close.
00:03:45.520 He's an amateur.
00:03:46.360 And so this is all done on purpose to try and boost his profile because he thinks he can be president.
00:03:53.120 Well, Mark, I think it's interesting.
00:03:54.680 I'd like you to comment on this, too.
00:03:55.660 It seems to me J.B. Pritzker and Chris Christie really not all that different, you know, hated by their states.
00:04:00.860 They oversaw the destruction of their states.
00:04:02.840 Yet they're on the same, you know, they're on the different sides of political aisle.
00:04:05.960 I think it speaks to the kind of unity of the establishment, doesn't it?
00:04:10.860 It really does.
00:04:11.620 And he is on a warpath here in Illinois.
00:04:15.280 Again, this migrant issue, Troy, I can't emphasize the crisis that we're experiencing here in the city of Chicago.
00:04:24.480 Violent crimes are up.
00:04:27.420 Public transportation crimes are up.
00:04:29.160 At any given time, late at night on a weekend, you'll hear shootings just this past week.
00:04:35.180 And from Friday to Monday, 71 people were shot in Chicago.
00:04:40.920 This is all under Governor J.B. Pritzker's leadership.
00:04:43.520 He's not only going after our First Amendment rights and trying to silence the voices of conservative grassroots Republicans.
00:04:50.120 He's also going after the Second Amendment and his assault weapons ban, which is penalizing everyday law-abiding gun owners, while at the same time, they're allowing these violent criminals to continue to roam the streets without any consequences.
00:05:07.700 And what's interesting is that under J.B. Pritzker's Illinois, my toothpaste spends more time locked up at CVS than the violent criminals do.
00:05:16.420 And it's why our jails and our prisons here in Illinois, and particularly in Chicago, are empty.
00:05:21.820 They're out on the streets, walking around, causing havoc.
00:05:25.380 This is J.B.'s America.
00:05:26.860 This is J.B.'s Illinois.
00:05:28.500 Well, and it seems like a dumpster fire, Mark, as somebody who's not really close to Chicago.
00:05:33.600 What you're describing is a real horror show.
00:05:36.840 I'm interested to know what your thoughts are as far as the Democrat convention coming up,
00:05:41.700 because there's been speculation that there's going to be chaos that's caused by, you know, political things like the, you know, the whole Israel-Palestine thing that's going on right now.
00:05:50.700 They say that there's going to be pro-Palestine, anti-Biden people there.
00:05:55.420 But from what you're telling me, it sounds like there's just going to be chaos in general because that's how Chicago is nowadays, it appears.
00:06:01.880 Well, the rhetoric from the anti-American, pro-Palestinian protesters is really amping up, and their protests are getting larger and larger.
00:06:13.960 And what's interesting, Troy, is the anti-American, anti-Israeli sentiment here in the city of Chicago is shocking to me,
00:06:20.700 just because 20 minutes, nearly 20 minutes north of downtown Chicago, in a town called Skokie, Illinois, resides the second largest Holocaust museum in the United States.
00:06:32.340 And so it's shocking to me.
00:06:34.620 It's astonishing that we have so much anti-Israeli rhetoric here in Chicago.
00:06:39.360 But these anti-American, anti-Israeli groups have already gone on social media, Troy, to talk about bruises.
00:06:45.760 They're calling for bloodshed.
00:06:47.400 They're wanting to make the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago look like child's play.
00:06:52.840 They're calling for violence.
00:06:55.240 It is a mess.
00:06:56.180 What's interesting is that last year in the city of Chicago, 225,000 high-priority 911 calls went unanswered.
00:07:04.840 High-priority 911 calls like shots fired, man down, assault in progress, individual with the knife.
00:07:11.800 225,000 went unanswered in the city of Chicago last year.
00:07:16.100 Why?
00:07:16.700 We've got a police shortage.
00:07:18.340 At the same time, crime skyrocketing.
00:07:20.500 At the same time, anti-American, anti-Israeli rhetoric is amping up.
00:07:25.800 At the same time, they're making preparations for the Democratic National Convention here in downtown Chicago.
00:07:31.000 We have a massive police shortage.
00:07:33.120 We are short over 2,000 cops, and as a result, not only Chicago residents but Chicago visitors, tourists in the city, their lives are in grave danger.
00:07:44.960 And let's be honest.
00:07:46.500 The only reason why the Democratic National Convention is in Chicago is because Governor Pritzker is the wealthiest politician in America.
00:07:53.700 He's the wealthiest governor in America.
00:07:55.920 And the decision was between Atlanta or Chicago, and this has been well-documented.
00:08:01.340 Governor J.B. Pritzker picked up the phone, called President Biden, said, if you choose Chicago, I will tell you I will cover the cost of the convention, which is $100 million roughly.
00:08:11.520 I will cover the cost myself if you name Chicago as the host city for the Democratic National Convention.
00:08:19.320 So it's remarkable, as they're making preparations for all of these dignitaries and top Democratic leaders and visitors to come into Chicago, the city is a war zone.
00:08:29.460 Well, and so let me ask you this.
00:08:31.420 I hear that you guys actually have a full-throated communist mayor there in Chicago.
00:08:37.080 Is that the truth?
00:08:37.920 What can you tell me about Mr. Communist there running the city of Chicago?
00:08:42.640 Well, Mayor Brandon Johnson is a product of the very corrupt Chicago Teachers Union.
00:08:47.900 He was a teacher, and Mayor Johnson isn't making any of the decisions.
00:08:51.200 I'll call it Mayor Teachers Union is making all of the decisions.
00:08:54.460 He's just the guy warming up the chair.
00:08:56.780 So, Troy, when he's actually not checking himself into the hospital for panic attacks, which is absolutely true, I've heard anywhere from between three and 14 times he's been hospitalized since he's been mayor for panic attacks because he can't handle the pressure.
00:09:11.600 Whenever he's asked by reporters at press conferences, he doesn't give very many, but when he is asked by reporters, Chicago reporters, about the rise in crime, preparations for the convention, this anti-Israeli sentiment, anti-American sentiment, he likes to pull the race card.
00:09:26.800 And he'll say, you're only asking me these questions because I'm a black man.
00:09:30.620 No, we're asking you these questions because you're the mayor of Chicago.
00:09:34.860 And it's quite remarkable.
00:09:36.700 There is no leadership.
00:09:37.860 And as a result, Troy, he has the lowest approval ratings of any mayor in Chicago history.
00:09:44.540 His approval ratings right now, as we speak, hover around 21 percent.
00:09:48.700 That's terribly low.
00:09:50.860 And so let me ask you this.
00:09:52.900 You know, we have all of this corruption in Chicago between J.B. Pritzker and we have, you know, the Democrat complex.
00:10:00.040 How much is Obama involved in that?
00:10:02.780 Because we know Obama, obviously, you know, he comes from Chicago.
00:10:06.320 How wrapped up is he in this whole J.B. Pritzker Democrat Illinois that seems to be really leaving the people to die?
00:10:15.140 Well, here in Chicago, this is no secret.
00:10:17.200 It might be outside of Chicago, but J.B. Pritzker and Barack Obama do not get along.
00:10:21.800 They're not very friendly.
00:10:22.980 In fact, J.B. Pritzker is a huge supporter and friend of the Clinton family, of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
00:10:29.300 And in fact, during the 2008 campaign, J.B. Pritzker supported Hillary over Barack Obama, even though Barack Obama was from the city of Chicago.
00:10:40.280 So there's no love lost there.
00:10:42.100 His sister, Penny Pritzker, is obviously a huge Obama supporter and served in Obama's administration.
00:10:49.420 But J.B. and Barack Obama are not friends.
00:10:52.120 And in Chicago, the shine has worn off because his eight years as president, Barack Obama abandoned Chicago.
00:11:00.360 He abandoned his home, he abandoned his constituents, he abandoned his friends.
00:11:06.800 And the only time he seems to come into Chicago is to check on his presidential library.
00:11:12.920 The streets are still shut down around his home that he hasn't stepped foot in in over a decade.
00:11:18.620 And so he really hasn't done anything.
00:11:21.860 The black community is not any better today than they were when Barack Obama was president.
00:11:27.880 There was very little resources, very little energy, very little attention spent in his own backyard.
00:11:34.340 And as a result of that, I can assure you that President Obama remains highly unpopular here in Chicago.
00:11:41.920 Well, and you touched on something there that I was going to bring up next, and it was incredibly caught my eye because it was just like, I believe the total was $400 million they are spending on this Obama presidential center.
00:11:54.120 And he goes there with a high-vis vest with neon colors with an Obama change symbol on the back.
00:12:03.580 I mean, it's really unbelievable.
00:12:05.000 Have you ever seen a waste of taxpayer money this exuberant?
00:12:08.060 I have not.
00:12:10.280 And he looked ridiculous walking around in gigantic black boots when other people were just wearing normal shoes.
00:12:16.680 I mean, he was really trying to show that he's the blue-collar construction worker type, the people's former president, which is not true.
00:12:25.320 And as we've seen, Troy, over the last several years, that it's President Donald Trump who's realigned politics in America.
00:12:32.520 The Democratic Party is no longer the party of the working man.
00:12:35.100 And the Democratic Party is now the party of the elites.
00:12:38.260 It's now the party of Wall Street.
00:12:40.280 And as a result of President Trump, the MAGA Republican Party is now the party of the working class.
00:12:46.520 It's now the party of the blacks, the Hispanics, the minorities, women, because of how our economy flourished under President Trump's economic policies.
00:12:58.100 And I can assure you, Troy, that President Obama can wear any of these logos that he has and talk about hope and change.
00:13:07.100 But when under his presidency and certainly thereafter and under Biden's presidency, there is no hope.
00:13:13.520 And that's all we've got is change because Biden inflation is hurting everyday hardworking Americans.
00:13:20.080 So President Obama is a perfect example of when you get fame, when you get money, you forget your roots.
00:13:26.580 And he was always an elitist to begin with.
00:13:29.140 But every time he comes to Chicago, it's laughable.
00:13:32.220 He just parachutes in and gets the heck out of there.
00:13:35.040 He's not here for very long.
00:13:36.120 No, it doesn't seem that they really it seems like the Obamas love saying they're from Chicago more than they like being in Chicago.
00:13:43.620 And it's it's kind of ironic because it's their policies and the Democrat Party policies that have made it kind of an uninhabitable, not a nice place to live.
00:13:51.580 And it's a tragedy because, you know, I look at these cities like Chicago and New York.
00:13:55.860 You know, isn't it sad, Mark, that these used to be beacons for people around the world to come and experience the American life?
00:14:02.060 And now I feel like most Americans and people around the world see them as places that they really want to avoid.
00:14:08.260 They do. And these the Democratic Party has been hijacked by these anti-police, anti-American Marxists who hate our country, who hate everything that we stand for.
00:14:18.720 And as a result, these policies in place, the power of George Soros, who funds a lot of these district attorneys all over the country.
00:14:26.520 You know, the pattern is pretty clear. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to just to to to see that the communities that have the highest crime are our Democratic controlled major cities like Chicago, for example, like New York.
00:14:40.440 And when you don't support your police, when you advocate and pass legislation that turns victims into criminals and criminals into victims and when you can commit crimes, when you can riot and loot loot and bounce on top of cars and shatter storefront windows and and steal merchandise for up to nine hundred dollars.
00:15:03.920 It's essentially a parking ticket. And so it's incentivized criminals to terrorize the streets, terrorize citizens, terrorize visitors.
00:15:15.720 Basically, the Magnificent Mile in downtown downtown Chicago has historically been one of the most beautiful and remarkable shopping strips in the country next to Fifth Avenue in New York and Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
00:15:26.680 Number three was Michigan Avenue. Now they've got over a thirty five percent vacancy rate.
00:15:31.940 Some of the largest retailers have abandoned Michigan Avenue.
00:15:36.520 It looks it's boarded up and signs in the windows for lease when it used to be a location where you had people coming from all over the world to shop and to sightsee.
00:15:47.380 You have the president of the neighborhood association. They're literally begging the mayor for assistance because of the high crime that is occurring on Michigan Avenue as visitors and residents shop.
00:16:00.300 And what is our Democratic leadership doing about it? Absolutely nothing.
00:16:04.980 So I think it's all smoke and mirrors as they make these preparations for the Democratic National Convention.
00:16:10.120 They want to make Chicago look like a postcard. But in reality, it's a war zone.
00:16:15.700 Well, and Mark, as we approach what's going on here in the 2024 election, the DNC obviously having their convention there in Chicago and a man that was challenging Joe Biden initially for that nomination was RFK Jr.
00:16:28.640 And Roger couldn't be with us today physically, but he's here in spirit.
00:16:32.360 And I wanted to play this video of a recent interview Roger did with Breitbart.
00:16:37.300 And he talks a little bit about Kennedy and he talks a little bit about what's going on now.
00:16:42.860 And I want to get your thoughts on what Roger has to say about the the Kennedy Shanahan ticket currently running as an independent.
00:16:48.440 Let's roll that and get Mark's thoughts in the back half.
00:16:50.340 How much of a threat do you think Robert Kennedy Jr. is to Trump with regards to pulling away votes?
00:16:55.660 He seems to be appealing to some people on the right or maybe neutral leaning people politically.
00:17:00.200 What do you think about that?
00:17:01.040 Let me be very candid. I think a vote for Robert Kennedy is a vote for Joe Biden.
00:17:06.600 It's hard to make a blanket statement across the entire country.
00:17:10.440 If you look at the swing states in the majority of the swing states, he is robbing votes from Donald Trump with no ability to win himself.
00:17:19.440 He talks about health freedom. He talks about his opposition to the war in Ukraine.
00:17:25.340 He talks about the border, but he never talks about his position in favor of abortion on demand or his radical climate change position in which he thinks those who disagree with climate change should be arrested.
00:17:38.100 He never talks about reparation.
00:17:39.680 So I think it is designed to pull votes from Donald Trump and therefore to benefit Joe Biden.
00:17:46.940 Again, you can't make a blanket statement. That isn't true in every state.
00:17:51.660 But as I look at polling, that is my overall impression.
00:17:55.340 If you saw Robert Kennedy Jr. face to face, what would you say to him?
00:17:59.720 I guess I would ask him why he chose a globalist whose wealth comes entirely from Internet censorship and information manipulation on the Internet as his running mate.
00:18:12.640 I mean, it's amazing how Nicole Shanahan went overnight from being a radical progressive who funded the defund the police movement in California to suddenly whining about Internet censorship, to which I say, speak to your ex-husband from whom you derive all of your wealth in a divorce.
00:18:32.020 Maybe you should talk to him about that problem.
00:18:33.820 So the Democrats have been trying to do a lot of things, as we have seen.
00:18:38.440 What do you think they're going to pull during the 11th hour of the election?
00:18:42.380 Well, I mean, these people are capable of starting a war.
00:18:45.540 Again, Antony Blinken, who's as bad at guitar playing as he has statesmanship, has already said that in September they intend to force NATO to accept Ukraine.
00:18:56.900 That's a violation of the Budapest Memorandum, which we signed.
00:19:02.800 It's a violation of the Minsk Accords.
00:19:04.920 It's a violation of two different bilateral agreements that we have signed with the Russians.
00:19:09.400 It's a propagation for war.
00:19:11.320 And then, of course, Joe Biden would be a wartime president.
00:19:14.500 I think they're entirely capable of that and worse.
00:19:18.600 Could we have another pandemic?
00:19:20.360 Entirely possible.
00:19:22.180 In all honesty, I also I pray for the safety of President Trump.
00:19:26.220 I wrote a New York Times bestselling book on the assassination of President John Kennedy.
00:19:32.340 I sadly don't put it beyond those in power who seek to hold power and to fear who fear prosecution for their previous crimes to do virtually anything to remain in power.
00:19:45.360 I think it was Benny Thompson, the congressman, who proposed legislation to pull Trump's secret service, presumably if he were to be put in jail for whatever reason.
00:19:57.860 What's your reaction to that?
00:19:59.160 Is that a death threat, basically?
00:20:01.180 First of all, I'm having been through the D.C. judicial meat grinder myself and finding out the hard way that the Constitution doesn't matter, the facts don't matter, the rules don't matter, the evidence doesn't matter.
00:20:15.000 However, I'm very apprehensive about the president's sentencing on July 11th.
00:20:22.680 The legislation by Congressman Thompson is mean-spirited.
00:20:27.380 It makes it very clear that they would be very happy if Donald Trump were to die.
00:20:33.120 Yet if we said something like that about Joe Biden, who, candidly, I only wish the best.
00:20:37.860 He should retire to his golden years.
00:20:40.220 So I thought that that was disgusting, but I thought it was also naked in terms of the purpose.
00:20:48.920 Do you think Joe Biden is going to drop out of the 2024 election?
00:20:52.020 Well, if you went to the Turning Point event in Palm Beach, which was a great, great event, I predicted in my remarks that shortly before the convention,
00:21:00.960 the Democrats would recognize that Joe Biden is just not capable of getting through another campaign.
00:21:07.460 If anything, things are worse now than they were then.
00:21:10.900 He's non-composimentous.
00:21:12.480 It's quite obvious.
00:21:14.280 The epic corruption of his family, including his son, his brother, and others, is now manifest.
00:21:19.860 Everyone can see it.
00:21:21.420 So I think the chances are greater than they have ever been before that Joe Biden will be replaced,
00:21:27.540 that shortly before the convention, he will announce his decision not to resign but to not run again.
00:21:33.540 He will throw it open to the convention, and I still believe that the convention will draft Michelle Obama.
00:21:41.160 Now, I haven't said that Michelle Obama is running for president or wants to run for president,
00:21:46.020 but I think the Democrats may persuade her that she could be their last best chance to stop Donald Trump's return to the White House.
00:21:55.000 So I'll stick by my prediction, and we'll see.
00:21:57.620 What do you think getting justice for what the Democrats have done to Trump, what do you think that should look like?
00:22:03.960 Should we start looking into why Nancy Pelosi is so good at stock trading?
00:22:08.480 I mean, we need to have equal protection under the law.
00:22:12.040 So this whole Democrat media cabal revenge thing is, no, as someone who was convicted of lying to Congress when there was nothing to lie about,
00:22:22.320 when there was no underlying crime that would motivate me to lie, I look at Hillary Clinton, who lied to Congress,
00:22:30.660 James Comey, who lied to Congress, John Brennan, who lied to Congress, Andrew McCabe, who lied to Congress.
00:22:36.180 And they lied to Congress regarding material matters, important matters.
00:22:40.060 Again, the two-tier justice system.
00:22:42.200 Why should Steve Bannon go to prison for denying a congressional subpoena, but it's perfectly all right when Merrick Garland does it?
00:22:50.660 It's the two-tier justice system.
00:22:52.440 So, no, we're not looking for revenge.
00:22:54.620 What we're looking for is equal protection under the law, and those who have broken the law,
00:22:59.520 those who engaged in treasonous activities, such as the Russian collusion hoax,
00:23:04.420 yes, I do think that they should be prosecuted.
00:23:06.640 That's not revenge.
00:23:07.760 That's justice.
00:23:10.720 Mark Vargas, your thoughts?
00:23:13.060 Well, regarding, there's a lot to unpack there, but let me try and go in order a little bit.
00:23:17.640 But in terms of Robert Kennedy's candidacy, you're right.
00:23:20.760 A vote for Robert Kennedy is a vote for Joe Biden, and the stakes couldn't be any higher.
00:23:25.460 I believe that we're facing the greatest constitutional crisis since the Civil War.
00:23:30.660 This isn't an election about ideologies or beliefs or policies.
00:23:36.840 This is an election about good versus evil.
00:23:40.120 Joe Biden is cognitively disabled.
00:23:43.020 This is a result of the two very serious, life-threatening brain aneurysms that he suffered in 1998 that required life-saving surgery.
00:23:51.800 I had a chance to interview extensively Dr. Ronnie Jackson, congressman from Texas, who was both Obama and Trump's White House physician.
00:24:01.200 And we talked about the long-term effects of just one massive brain aneurysm, let alone two.
00:24:09.040 And the result is that is significant, significant brain damage.
00:24:12.980 And we're seeing the results of that, those episodes of 1988 today.
00:24:18.280 Stakes couldn't be higher.
00:24:19.340 We're seeing our enemies abroad are emboldened.
00:24:22.060 We're being silenced here at home.
00:24:24.900 Try every time I give a speech here in the Illinois-Chicagoland area, I ask everyone in the room, who's been harassed?
00:24:32.520 Who's been intimidated?
00:24:34.120 Who's been canceled?
00:24:36.020 Whose voices have been silenced?
00:24:38.860 Who's lost their jobs because of their political beliefs?
00:24:41.900 Who knows somebody that's lost their jobs because of their political beliefs?
00:24:45.160 And virtually every single person in the room raises their hand.
00:24:49.400 This is Joe Biden's America under his second term.
00:24:52.780 Again, we cannot allow Biden to be reelected.
00:24:59.140 But the Democratic Party is clearly in panic mode.
00:25:02.820 You know, Troy, you've got a problem when political pundits and political strategists like Van Jones and David Axelrod and James Carville
00:25:12.240 are all singing from the same sheet of music talking about Joe Biden's age and the fact that over 80 percent of Americans,
00:25:19.320 whether Republican or Democrat or independent, over 80 percent are very seriously concerned about Joe Biden's health and his mental state and his cognitive disability.
00:25:29.160 And so they may be forced to try and figure out an alternative choice.
00:25:33.880 But I know Roger mentions Michelle Obama.
00:25:36.800 I don't think it will be Michelle Obama.
00:25:39.460 And here's why, Troy, for President Obama really rolled into two very easy presidential elections.
00:25:46.100 You couldn't challenge him.
00:25:47.700 There were virtually no negative stories about him.
00:25:51.160 There is a lot of dirt on Obama and the Obama family.
00:25:55.020 And the fact that if Michelle were to run again for the first time in their political careers,
00:26:01.700 they'd face a tsunami, tsunami of negative stories, negative coverage,
00:26:07.140 things coming to the surface that they had hoped had been buried for a very, very long time.
00:26:11.780 And I think the thought of that horrifies the Obama family.
00:26:16.660 And so why it may be good for them financially, it may be good for their brand to tease the fact that maybe Michelle Obama will be elected president.
00:26:24.820 In reality, I don't see that happening because as a Chicagoan, we know the dirt that that's on the Obama family.
00:26:33.400 We know where the bodies are buried and running for president exposes that and potentially ruins their brand.
00:26:41.820 Well, Mark, you know, you make so many good points there.
00:26:44.300 I think it's a perfect reason why people need to go and check out the Illinois Review.
00:26:47.980 Where can they actually find you?
00:26:49.340 I saw you on Twitter.
00:26:50.580 But can you tell people the web address where they can find your work?
00:26:53.460 Sure. You go to Illinois Review, I-L-L-I-N-O-I-S, illinoisreview.com.
00:26:59.280 You can check us out on X, Facebook, and you can follow me at Mark A. Vargas on X as well.
00:27:06.220 Well, ladies and gentlemen, it's been my honor to have Mark Vargas with us today.
00:27:09.680 Mark, thank you so much for coming on to discuss Chicago.
00:27:12.640 It's so interesting to get a perspective from inside of the city there,
00:27:16.600 and you really understand what's going on in all of Illinois.
00:27:20.000 I would encourage everybody, check out what's going on, what you're doing,
00:27:23.600 and thank you again for joining us here on the Stone Zone today.
00:27:26.160 It was an honor to have you.
00:27:27.440 Hey, pleasure to be with you, Troy.
00:27:28.680 Hope to see you again soon.
00:27:30.080 Oh, of course.
00:27:30.740 We'll have you on anytime, sir.
00:27:33.020 You were a great guest and a lot going on there in Chicago.
00:27:35.940 So anyway, ladies and gentlemen, Troy Smith here filling in for Roger Stone.
00:27:39.380 That was the great Mark Vargas doing a fantastic job.
00:27:42.540 Action-packed interview.
00:27:43.640 I think we covered about 15 topics there.
00:27:45.740 Just boom, boom, boom.
00:27:47.040 But that's what you get with the Stone Zone, folks.
00:27:48.880 You get great political information.
00:27:52.340 You get great interviews.
00:27:53.980 And also, you get great information.
00:27:56.920 And here's the deal.
00:27:58.560 The lights only stay on here because of you.
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00:28:19.760 that employ Americans and help this country grow while also keeping the lights on here
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00:28:52.420 Ladies and gentlemen, it's been my honor to be your host today.
00:28:55.620 I thought we covered some really good ground.
00:28:57.580 And we're going to close you out today with a speech from the great Roger Stone.
00:29:01.780 It wouldn't be the Stone Zone without Roger Stone speaking in Chicago.
00:29:06.460 He delivered the speech.
00:29:07.440 I've reviewed the speech.
00:29:08.380 It was fantastic.
00:29:09.500 And I think it's super important that you guys view this and that it be out there for the
00:29:13.200 world to see.
00:29:13.920 So I will see you tomorrow.
00:29:15.940 I thank you again for tuning in here, encourage you to share the show, follow us on rumble.com
00:29:21.800 slash Roger Stone, and we will see you bright and early tomorrow.
00:29:25.460 Thank you.
00:29:26.160 Good night.
00:29:26.840 Ladies and gentlemen, the man, the legend, Roger Stone.
00:29:36.700 Thank you very much.
00:29:45.940 Thank you so much.
00:29:49.160 Let me see if I can park that.
00:29:51.940 It's great to be here.
00:29:54.480 I can't wait to hear what I have to say.
00:29:56.940 So a man goes into a bookstore and he says to the proprietor, I want Donald Trump's new
00:30:05.880 book on immigration.
00:30:07.820 And the bookstore proprietor says, get the hell out of here.
00:30:10.420 And the guy says, yeah, that's the name of it.
00:30:12.020 I think most of you know my story.
00:30:20.880 It's pretty simple.
00:30:21.560 I'm a veteran of 13 national presidential campaigns, starting with Richard Nixon, who was my mentor.
00:30:29.120 There are three campaigns for governor Ronald Reagan, the unsuccessful campaign when we challenged Gerald Ford for the nomination in 1976, our successful campaign in 1980 when we defeated George Bush for the nomination, went on to beat Jimmy Carter.
00:30:47.560 And then, of course, the reelection campaign of Ronald Reagan in 1984.
00:30:53.540 It was in 1979, 78, really, late 78, that I met Donald Trump.
00:31:00.700 And it was because Nancy Reagan had this small card file, like index cards, that were the names and addresses of the people that the Reagans knew in New York.
00:31:16.240 And they were all theatrically connected from their show business days.
00:31:22.440 In all honesty, about half the people on the cards were dead.
00:31:25.440 Some of the rest of them were very recognizable, but there was a card for Roy M. Cohn, Esquire, the infamous attorney who'd been the counsel to Senator Joe McCarthy, whose father had been a bigwig in Tammany Hall, and the Democratic Organization in New York City was notorious.
00:31:49.380 And I needed a lot of things because, well, you know, Ronald Reagan was, pardon me, Donald Trump was not the toast of New York.
00:32:05.700 And I needed help for Ronald Reagan, and I needed telephones, I needed office space, I needed labor connections.
00:32:15.860 I kept calling his office and asking for an appointment, and nobody would call me back.
00:32:20.500 I couldn't get called back.
00:32:22.600 I was very frustrated.
00:32:24.500 And then I was invited to a dinner party.
00:32:27.980 And for me, I was, you know, in my 20s working in New York City, a free meal.
00:32:32.420 For example, Sheila Mosler, who was a socialite, had been, was on our Reagan Finance Committee, told me that Roy Cohn would be there.
00:32:41.720 So I said, wow, that's great.
00:32:43.460 So I went to the dinner, and I found him, and I said, Roy Cohn, I'm Roger Stone.
00:32:48.560 He looked at me, and he said, so are you the son or the grandson of the Roger Stone who's running Reagan's campaign here in New York?
00:32:56.860 I said, no, no, it's, that's me.
00:32:58.820 Roy turns to his law partner, and he says, Reagan's in big trouble.
00:33:04.560 He was joking.
00:33:06.220 But he said, all right, you can come see me in the office.
00:33:10.180 I'll get you an appointment.
00:33:11.140 Come tomorrow morning.
00:33:12.500 Come at 11 o'clock.
00:33:14.860 So I went to the office the next day.
00:33:16.740 I got my shoes shined and everything.
00:33:18.180 And I was still waiting at about 1.30, cooling my heels, waiting to see Roy Cohn.
00:33:27.980 Finally, they said, Mr. Cohn, we'll see you now.
00:33:29.960 Go to the top of the stairs.
00:33:32.400 And I said, I went in.
00:33:34.720 There was a long dining room.
00:33:37.100 Roy was still in a bathrobe.
00:33:40.480 He looked like he'd been out all night.
00:33:42.400 His eyes looked like a relief map of chili.
00:33:44.740 I mean, it was bright red.
00:33:46.900 And there was a very corpulent man with him, a very large man.
00:33:50.600 And he said, Mr. Stone, I want you to meet Tony Salerno.
00:33:54.080 That was fat Tony Salerno, the mob chieftain who was a client of Roy's.
00:34:00.400 And Tony said, so Roy says we're going with Reagan this year.
00:34:06.200 I said, well, yes, I work for Governor Reagan.
00:34:08.200 And he said, you know, we haven't been in politics since Jack Kennedy.
00:34:12.980 That rat bastard, he double-crossed us.
00:34:15.320 But he got his, didn't he, Roy?
00:34:17.360 They both laughed, which made me somewhat uncomfortable.
00:34:21.160 So Roy dismissed him.
00:34:23.280 And he said, how can I help you?
00:34:25.660 And I said, well, I explained that, you know, I've been given his name.
00:34:29.060 And he said, well, I've known Ronnie and Nancy since Hollywood in the 1950s, when Dutch Reagan was the head of the Actors Guild, which the communists had tried to infiltrate and take over.
00:34:42.300 And I'll help you any way I can.
00:34:44.120 What do you need?
00:34:44.780 And I said, well, I need a finance committee.
00:34:47.120 I need office space.
00:34:48.960 I need telephones.
00:34:50.220 And the telephone company is telling me six months for installation.
00:34:53.660 You know, I need a base of operations.
00:34:57.020 I need some contacts in the labor union movement.
00:35:00.740 And he kind of stared out the window and he said, you know what you need?
00:35:04.720 You need Donald Trump.
00:35:06.820 Do you know Donald Trump?
00:35:08.380 I said, no, I only know of him from the tabloids.
00:35:11.780 And he said, well, he doesn't like Jimmy Carter.
00:35:15.460 And maybe you should go see his father, Fred, first.
00:35:19.240 So I'm going to get you an appointment with Fred, because Fred's a real conservative.
00:35:22.040 So I go out to Fred's office.
00:35:25.480 If that goes well, then I'll get you an appointment with Donald Trump.
00:35:28.960 So I went out to see Fred Trump the next morning.
00:35:32.100 And he was very unlike Donald.
00:35:34.820 He was kind of low-key, very friendly.
00:35:37.480 But I walked in.
00:35:38.280 There's pictures of Adelaide Stevenson on the wall and Mayor Robert Wagner and the borough president, all these big Democrats.
00:35:47.220 And I said, maybe I'm in the wrong place.
00:35:49.080 I don't know.
00:35:49.300 So I explained what I wanted.
00:35:52.080 He pulled out a drawer from a drawer.
00:35:54.680 He took out three letters.
00:35:55.700 He had a letter from Barry Goldwater thanking him for $100,000 in 1963, which is a huge amount of money in 1963.
00:36:04.680 He had a letter from Billy Graham thanking him for contributing to Billy Graham's Christian crusade.
00:36:12.380 And he also had a letter from Robert Welch of the John Birch Society.
00:36:17.000 And I was kind of confused.
00:36:18.700 He said, you understand, locally, my politics is Democrat because I need zoning permits and building permits and other approvals.
00:36:27.660 But nationally, I'm a conservative and I love Ronald Reagan.
00:36:30.720 And so what can I do for you?
00:36:32.660 And I said, well, I'd like you to join our finance committee, which would require you to raise $100,000.
00:36:38.780 And I think the contribution limits then were $1,000 apiece.
00:36:42.680 And he said, done.
00:36:44.780 What else can I do for you?
00:36:46.100 I said, well, I'd really like to recruit your son, Donald, for the committee.
00:36:52.160 He said, yeah, Roy told me that.
00:36:55.500 He's going to see you tomorrow morning.
00:36:58.200 But I'll talk to him first because I think he'll be enthusiastic.
00:37:02.300 So the next day, I went to Donald Trump's office, shined my shoes again.
00:37:06.860 And the woman who was his assistant, Norma Federer, who would later become a great friend of mine, said, look, he's very, very busy.
00:37:16.440 He's only going to give you 15 minutes, tops.
00:37:19.220 So if I were you, Mr. Stone, I'd state my business.
00:37:22.100 I'd get in and I'd get out.
00:37:24.860 And I said, OK.
00:37:26.240 So I came in and I said, Mr. Trump, it's a great honor to meet you.
00:37:30.120 He said, please call me Donald.
00:37:31.800 I said, OK, Donald, it's a great honor to meet you.
00:37:33.800 And he said, I was kind of wondering when you were going to show up.
00:37:37.620 I said, pardon me?
00:37:39.000 He said, well, they've all been here to see me.
00:37:40.820 I mean, Howard Baker, George Bush, John Henderson, they've all been through here, John Connolly.
00:37:48.260 And I said, well, what did you think?
00:37:49.920 He said, well, after I shook John Connolly's hand, I had to count my fingers.
00:37:57.020 I said, what about Howard Baker?
00:37:58.540 He said, I had no idea the guy was so short.
00:38:00.820 I said, what about George Bush?
00:38:04.280 He said, the guy has a handshake like a fish.
00:38:07.960 And he said, so tell me why your man can win.
00:38:10.120 So I made a very, you know, kind of organized presentation.
00:38:15.640 And then for the next hour and a half, Trump just peppered me with questions like, can he still carry California?
00:38:21.660 What about the Iowa caucuses?
00:38:23.260 What about the New Hampshire primaries?
00:38:24.920 Do you think Florida, you know, is up for grabs?
00:38:27.840 I mean, he also, interestingly, he knew the number of electoral votes by stage.
00:38:33.020 So this idea that he was disinterested in politics was not true.
00:38:37.320 Finally, he said to me, all right, my dad's already on your committee.
00:38:41.160 I'm going to join your committee and I'll do the 100,000.
00:38:44.300 I'll probably do a little more.
00:38:45.660 And he said, but I want to tell you right now, your man is going to win.
00:38:51.800 And I said, why do you say that?
00:38:52.980 He said, because we live in the television age and your man has the look.
00:38:59.640 And then he said, I have the look, but I'm not interested in running for president.
00:39:05.500 And I said, yet.
00:39:11.260 From that point, we became very good friends.
00:39:13.440 Now, there are no cell phones at this point.
00:39:15.960 He secured for us this great brownstone that was next to the 21 Club on 52nd Street that was abandoned.
00:39:23.900 It had once been magnificent.
00:39:26.180 It was pretty run down, but it belonged to a friend of his.
00:39:29.320 And I was able to get a reasonable rent under the federal election law.
00:39:34.000 You had to pay something close to fair market value.
00:39:38.680 So every morning when I would come in, the very first thing, my secretary would say, oh, by the way, Donald Trump called.
00:39:46.220 What time did he call?
00:39:47.740 About 7 a.m.
00:39:49.460 Because there was an early shift.
00:39:51.720 He was like checking on his investment.
00:39:53.820 Every couple of days, he was checking on his investment.
00:39:57.320 And we became very good friends.
00:39:59.320 And then when Reagan won and I went to Washington, I did not want to join the government.
00:40:05.720 I'd actually worked at the Office of Economic Opportunity under Howard Phillips, who was the founder of the Conservative Caucus, who had been the head of the Republican Club at Harvard as a student, was one of the founders of Young Americans for Freedom, was one of the greatest patriots I've ever known, was an incredible organizer.
00:40:22.520 But I had no interest in going into government, so I went into politics.
00:40:28.120 Pardon me, I went into a public affairs firm.
00:40:30.940 And my first client was a Trump organization.
00:40:34.540 Donald Trump was building a skyscraper in Chicago, actually, I think it was.
00:40:38.800 And he needed a waiver because it was 200 feet too tall for the FAA.
00:40:44.880 And I was able to get him a waiver.
00:40:48.060 Then he was, he bought the Trump Princess.
00:40:50.640 And he was bringing the yacht that he had bought from Adnan Khashoggi into the Atlantic City harbor, except the harbor wasn't deep enough and it needed to be dredged.
00:41:04.180 And an Army Corps of Engineers permit would usually take nine years.
00:41:08.100 I got it for him in a couple months.
00:41:10.320 So we became very good friends.
00:41:11.880 Fast forward to 1988.
00:41:14.060 We're sitting in his office.
00:41:15.260 He's reading the New York Times.
00:41:17.500 And he says, wow, George Bush or Mike Dukakis, that's our choice.
00:41:22.300 There has to be somebody better.
00:41:23.880 There must be somebody better.
00:41:26.320 I said, well, there is somebody better.
00:41:28.720 He said, well, we've got to get behind them.
00:41:30.640 Who is that?
00:41:31.160 And I said, well, I was thinking of you.
00:41:33.320 And he said, and I quote, you're out of your mind.
00:41:36.100 I said, no, not at all.
00:41:37.920 You have strong feelings about the country and the way it's being run.
00:41:41.300 You think NATO is a ripoff because we're paying for the defense of our allies, but they're not paying their fair share.
00:41:48.580 Does this sound familiar?
00:41:49.480 You think these big international trade deals, these one-size-fits-all trade deals are a disaster for America.
00:41:57.820 This is pre-NAFTA.
00:41:58.920 And you criticize the fact that when it comes to negotiations, they send their best and brightest and we send social workers to do our negotiating.
00:42:07.960 You feel strongly about the American military and the way that it's been allowed to atrophy.
00:42:14.160 So I think you should consider it.
00:42:15.840 We made an exploratory trip to New Hampshire, and it's the first time I saw, in a political context, the Trump magic.
00:42:24.700 I saw something that I'd only seen previously with Ronald Reagan.
00:42:30.020 It was then that I realized that Trump had the size.
00:42:32.840 I don't mean the physical size, but the stature and the toughness and the stamina and the courage and the deep belief in America not just to be a great presidential candidate, but to be a great president.
00:42:47.580 And they didn't give up on this, even though he did not run in 1988, I tried again in 2000.
00:42:55.140 We spent, I don't know, somewhere around $20 million exploring an independent candidacy because Ross Perot was a great friend of Trump's.
00:43:04.560 All these billionaires know each other, by the way.
00:43:06.460 And Jesse Ventura had been elected the governor of Minnesota as an independent on the Reform Party, actually, and they were both urging Trump to run.
00:43:17.120 And Trump, who was a lifelong Republican, by the way, as were his parents, thought about it because as the Reform Party candidate, you would get a check from the Treasury for $38 million.
00:43:30.100 So, run for president on OPM, other people's money, Trump was kind of intrigued with that.
00:43:37.220 In the end, he determined that one could not be elected as a third-party candidate.
00:43:42.480 One had to be a Republican or a Democrat.
00:43:45.760 For a couple of years, he would needle me and keep saying, maybe I'll become a Democrat, which he just said to upset me.
00:43:51.280 But by 2016, the time and the man came together at exactly the right time.
00:43:58.060 He was precisely the right person.
00:44:00.680 I really believe divine intervention here.
00:44:03.840 I think he was the right man at the right time, put there by the Lord.
00:44:07.600 Because people were tired of institutions.
00:44:10.560 They no longer trusted government.
00:44:12.660 They no longer trusted the Republicans or the Democrats.
00:44:15.820 They no longer trusted politicians.
00:44:17.260 But for the first time, they no longer trusted the media.
00:44:20.600 And that created, I think, the opening for the most improbable electoral result in American political history.
00:44:29.960 Donald Trump was not supposed to win.
00:44:32.300 The Clintons had far more political experience than Donald Trump, who'd never run for anything.
00:44:40.120 And they made a classic mistake because Donald Trump is a workhorse and a brawler.
00:44:44.760 So in the final days of that campaign, for those of you who are familiar with the regulations, an airline pilot or an airplane pilot can only fly a certain number of hours before they have to rest.
00:44:57.780 Trump would switch out pilots so he could keep going.
00:45:01.680 And he was hitting Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Detroit, Miami, Fort Lauderdale.
00:45:09.720 Hillary Clinton was in Chappaqua, measuring the drapes and looking at swatches to pick out the curtains in the Oval Office.
00:45:18.260 He outworked her in those closing days.
00:45:21.240 And that is what gave us victory.
00:45:25.380 Fast forward.
00:45:28.120 January 25th, 2019, at 6 o'clock in the morning, 29 heavily armed FBI agents in full SWAT gear.
00:45:38.700 Brandishing fully automatic assault weapons, surround and then storm my home to arrest me for the first time.
00:45:46.780 Nonviolent, alleged crime of lying to Congress in my voluntary testimony about Russian collusion that does not exist.
00:45:58.340 It was a nightmare.
00:46:00.040 By the way, they could simply, they talked to the special counsel's office, talked to my lawyer the day before.
00:46:05.600 We handed over 30 pages of text messages that essentially proved that everything I had said regarding my knowledge of the WikiLeaks drops could be found online.
00:46:18.960 All of it was online.
00:46:20.140 I knew no secrets.
00:46:23.180 And I was, you know, so dumb that I thought I was going to get a fair trial.
00:46:27.600 I really thought I'd have a chance to prove my innocence, even though the government has to prove your guilt.
00:46:34.500 And then, only recently did I realize that my prosecution and that of General Flynn, who's become a great friend of mine, and George Papadopoulos, was the template for what they just did to Donald Trump.
00:46:49.300 The exact template.
00:46:51.620 So, in other words, for any misstatement I made to the Congress to be a crime, to be a felony, it had to hide some underlying crime.
00:47:00.160 But there was no underlying crime.
00:47:02.100 Just as these bookkeeping entries in New York had to be connected to or hide some underlying federal crime.
00:47:10.220 And there was no crime.
00:47:11.760 There is no crime.
00:47:13.280 Like Donald Trump, I was gagged.
00:47:15.260 So, the judge said that if Roger Stone is allowed to speak freely on social media, where I was already substantially gagged, it could taint the jury.
00:47:26.640 So, I couldn't defend myself.
00:47:28.300 I had MSNBC and CNN and the rest of them, New York Times, Washington Post, calling me a Russian traitor, insisting that I had coordinated the WikiLeaks drops in cooperation with the Trump campaign.
00:47:42.520 Entirely false, for which they never produced an iota of evidence.
00:47:48.180 I had a biased, hateful, anti-Trump judge who refused to recuse herself, just as Donald Trump had a biased judge who gave a contribution to Joe Biden.
00:48:00.100 And whose daughter was making millions of dollars as a Democratic campaign consultant, fundraising consultant, using this case as the focal point of her fundraising.
00:48:12.680 My lawyers asked for a change of venue, denied.
00:48:15.960 Donald Trump's lawyers asked for a change of venue, realizing that in liberal Manhattan, the chances of him getting a fair jury were nonexistent.
00:48:25.180 Even the limitations on your defense, in other words, Donald Trump's lawyers wanted to bring the former chairman, vice chairman, and general counsel of the Federal Election Commission as a witness,
00:48:38.300 because he would have said there was no underlying federal campaign finance crime here, but he was not allowed to testify.
00:48:45.500 In my case, I wanted to call Bill Binney, who had been the cyber security expert at the CIA, who could have testified and used forensic evidence to prove that there was no online hack of the DNC, the underlying premise of my indictment.
00:49:05.260 But I was not allowed to call him as a witness.
00:49:08.040 The judge denied it.
00:49:09.180 So I realize now that my own prosecution was the was the template, was the prototype, was the dry run for what they just did to our president and what they'd like to do in this case in Florida and this case in D.C.,
00:49:25.400 although I don't think they're going to make it time wise.
00:49:28.520 It is most definitely election interference.
00:49:32.440 Why did they wait to the fourth year of Biden's presidency to bring these cases?
00:49:36.840 It's because they didn't realize that Trump would be re-embraced by the Republican Party and he would storm to the nomination.
00:49:43.500 They thought that he'd be replaced by someone more to the liking of the Una Party.
00:49:49.540 They misunderstood the strength of our movement.
00:49:52.400 They misunderstood the strength of the America First message.
00:49:57.160 And they misunderstood the resolve and the determination of Donald Trump,
00:50:02.840 because it breaks his heart to see the country he left and see the condition that it's in today.
00:50:09.580 When Joe Biden says it's all about him, Trump's campaign is about him.
00:50:12.920 If it was about him, folks, he'd have left.
00:50:15.760 He could have the greatest life in the world.
00:50:18.140 No, it's not about him, not even in the slightest.
00:50:21.240 It's about us.
00:50:22.860 It's about America.
00:50:24.160 It's about the country he loves.
00:50:25.840 This campaign has cost him his reputation in some quarters.
00:50:30.400 It's cost him billions of dollars.
00:50:32.680 It's cost him economic opportunities.
00:50:35.520 He's facing 700 years in jail in a complete confection of a conviction in New York.
00:50:44.600 No, he's not doing it for himself.
00:50:46.340 He's doing it for us.
00:50:48.080 Even the authorization of deadly force that was approved in the raid at Mar-a-Lago,
00:51:01.180 I saw the same thing in my own home.
00:51:02.940 My wife, who is 75 and hard of hearing,
00:51:06.300 she woke up looking down the barrel of two assault weapons being pointed at her head by FBI agents.
00:51:12.000 She didn't know if it was a home invasion.
00:51:15.460 She had no idea what had happened.
00:51:16.840 She'd been asleep.
00:51:17.580 She heard none of it.
00:51:19.860 So here's the real lesson.
00:51:24.500 If we don't win this election, what happened to me can happen to you.
00:51:31.020 It can happen to any American.
00:51:35.020 Donald Trump is the only thing that stands between us and complete chaos.
00:51:39.280 The only thing that stands between us and the total destruction of the country.
00:51:44.580 So can we win?
00:51:49.600 Yes.
00:51:50.280 The answer is we can win.
00:51:52.160 Will we win?
00:51:53.540 Yes, we will win.
00:51:54.680 And there are a lot of pieces to this.
00:51:57.840 Election integrity, as Jim said, is a crucial element.
00:52:01.540 First of all, registering and getting out as big a vote as possible is a crucial element.
00:52:07.240 78% of evangelical Christians voted in 19, pardon me, in 2016.
00:52:12.320 That number was down to 63%.
00:52:15.720 From 78% to 63% in 2020.
00:52:19.060 We cannot have that again.
00:52:20.460 We're making deep inroads into the African-American community, into the Hispanic community, among younger voters.
00:52:26.680 I've seen the polling.
00:52:28.040 This is not a conspiracy theory.
00:52:31.680 This is a truth.
00:52:32.600 So, yes, we will win, but it's going to take something a little extra.
00:52:38.820 It's going to take divine intervention.
00:52:41.540 When people talk to me about what my wife and I went through, because, you see, we lost everything.
00:52:47.460 Our home, our savings, my car, my ability to travel freely, my ability to speak and make a living.
00:52:56.480 People said, well, is this the worst thing that ever happened to you?
00:52:59.160 And I said, no, not really.
00:53:01.000 It's actually the best thing that ever happened to me.
00:53:04.300 Because I was redeemed in the blood of the cross.
00:53:06.820 Because in my despair, in my depression, in my anger, in my frustration, I had a chance meeting with Reverend Franklin Graham.
00:53:24.400 I had met Billy Graham when I was much younger and had worked for Richard Nixon.
00:53:29.080 Billy Graham had autographed or signed a Bible for me, which I still have.
00:53:32.240 And a young pastor, Randy Coggins, knew Franklin Graham and his staff and asked me if, when Franklin Graham visited Boca Raton, Florida, I wanted to meet him.
00:53:45.360 And I was very deeply depressed because I was realizing that I was not only being gagged, but I was about to be lynched.
00:53:52.260 So I had my meeting with Franklin Graham.
00:53:55.500 He was very gracious.
00:53:56.500 He gave me about 20 minutes.
00:53:58.340 And I was thinking, you know, like a politico, which is what I am.
00:54:01.420 And I said, look, my lawyers won't let me talk to the president.
00:54:05.300 And the president's lawyers won't let him talk to me.
00:54:08.000 But perhaps you could put a good word in for me as pertains to executive clemency.
00:54:14.300 Because I'm going to be convicted in a rigged Soviet-style show trial in Washington, D.C.
00:54:21.000 And there's no way around it.
00:54:22.920 And he said, well, I'll see what I can do about that.
00:54:25.300 But let me give you a better piece of advice.
00:54:27.940 Turn your burden over to Jesus Christ.
00:54:31.420 Confess your sins and get right with Jesus.
00:54:34.000 And he said, I guarantee you, the Lord will lift you up and he will deliver you from your persecutors.
00:54:41.640 Now, I had been baptized as a Catholic.
00:54:45.820 And my mother was a very religious woman.
00:54:48.620 I went to Sunday school.
00:54:50.520 I'm half Hungarian and half Italian.
00:54:53.520 I'm Italian from the waist down.
00:54:54.940 And I admit to you, I'd wandered far from the church.
00:55:02.460 I'd wandered far from the Lord.
00:55:04.620 I had great success as a public affairs consultant, as a political consultant.
00:55:11.060 I'd worked for presidents.
00:55:12.420 But I wandered far from the Lord.
00:55:16.420 And I went out in the field at Reverend Graham's revival.
00:55:23.980 I was outside in this huge amphitheater.
00:55:26.200 There was maybe 1,000 people there.
00:55:27.960 It was extraordinary.
00:55:29.240 There were a lot of great Make America Great hats.
00:55:31.720 It was interesting.
00:55:33.100 It could have been a Trump rally.
00:55:34.280 And I was recognized by many people who wanted to pray with me, which was heartening.
00:55:39.640 And then the moment came in his oration when Reverend Graham, who's not his father, but
00:55:45.080 who's a very, very effective speaker in his own right, said, I don't care if your problem
00:55:49.540 is drug addiction or alcohol addiction or gambling addiction or family problems or financial
00:55:55.240 problems.
00:55:55.680 I don't care what your problem is.
00:55:57.900 The Lord will help you.
00:55:59.500 The Lord will lift you up if you confess your sins and you get right with Jesus Christ.
00:56:04.280 And you pledge to walk in his way.
00:56:07.880 So those who want to live with our Heavenly Father forever, stand up now with me, confess
00:56:14.380 your sins, and pledge to sin no more.
00:56:18.480 And in that moment, I stood up with about 200, maybe 300 other people, and I confessed my
00:56:25.940 sins, and almost immediately, everything changed in my life.
00:56:32.520 Everything.
00:56:34.280 We would later learn that the jury forewoman in my case, a woman who said during jury selection,
00:56:46.100 she didn't know who I was, wasn't familiar with me or the case, had been attacking me
00:56:51.060 and Donald Trump on Facebook and Twitter, but she had those profiles on a private setting,
00:56:57.660 so my lawyers didn't see them when we tried to do a due diligence on each prospective juror.
00:57:03.620 That's a crime.
00:57:05.860 She perjured herself.
00:57:07.720 The judge in my case actually ruled that that was not evidence of bias, and she let my conviction
00:57:13.620 stand.
00:57:14.140 And I prayed.
00:57:16.380 There was no Jerry Nadler, no Hillary Clinton, no Adam Schiff.
00:57:23.620 There was no Gary, there was no deal.
00:57:26.100 Stone covered up for Trump, and in return, he got a pardon.
00:57:29.380 Absolutely not.
00:57:30.520 First of all, there was nothing to cover up.
00:57:32.420 There was no information that I could have given them.
00:57:34.440 I was arrested in January.
00:57:36.700 In July, they called my lawyer down to the Justice Department.
00:57:40.980 They took him into one of these safe rooms, took away his phone, and they said, your client's
00:57:45.840 going to die in jail.
00:57:46.860 We're going to give him one opportunity.
00:57:51.180 Here's a record of 26 phone conversations between your client and Donald Trump in 2016.
00:57:57.660 All he's got to do is admit that this had to do with coordinating with the Russians and
00:58:03.320 WikiLeaks over the October releases.
00:58:07.480 He won't even have to testify they lied.
00:58:11.080 All he's got to do is sign this.
00:58:12.560 And my lawyer said, well, I don't think he's going to be inclined to do that.
00:58:18.760 They said, well, he better think hard about it, because if he doesn't do it, we're going
00:58:22.840 to hit him with superseding charges.
00:58:24.340 He'll die in prison.
00:58:26.520 So why don't you go call your client?
00:58:29.220 My lawyer said, well, you confiscated my phone, so I can't do that.
00:58:32.900 I gave him back his phone.
00:58:34.140 He went out in the hallway.
00:58:35.480 And he called me, and he said, and I kind of knew what they wanted.
00:58:38.920 He said, well, you were right.
00:58:40.160 They want to know if you'll cooperate and testify against Trump.
00:58:44.360 Do you want me to get the other lawyers in a conference call so we can discuss this?
00:58:47.760 I said, no.
00:58:49.340 There's nothing to discuss.
00:58:51.740 Go back in there, look in the eyes, directly in the eyes of one particular prosecutor, and
00:58:56.980 tell him that Roger Stone said, go to hell.
00:59:00.040 So I, the Lord answered my prayers.
00:59:13.540 And that's why I really believe what we face today is more than just a political fight.
00:59:19.240 It's a spiritual battle.
00:59:21.220 It's very definitely a spiritual battle.
00:59:23.360 See, the Democratic Party of Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy and Richard Daly, that Democratic
00:59:32.220 Party is dead.
00:59:33.320 It's gone.
00:59:34.560 It's been hijacked by a bunch of Marxist progressive lunatics who want to take our children and
00:59:41.620 change their gender.
00:59:42.760 This is, this is indeed, this is indeed a spiritual battle.
00:59:52.860 But our biggest problem is not the left-wing Democrats.
00:59:55.840 Not really.
00:59:57.300 Our biggest problem are the gutless, feckless, weak-kneed, lily-livered, cowardly, white-wine-swilling,
01:00:08.480 country-club-establishment Republicans who have neither the balls nor the guts to fight
01:00:15.540 for America.
01:00:23.640 So, you know how I feel.
01:00:25.960 Now I want to know how you feel.
01:00:28.220 Are you ready to stand up with me and fight for this country?
01:00:31.220 Are each one of you ready to go out and find ten people who aren't registered or aren't
01:00:39.840 planning to vote and make sure they vote the ticket?
01:00:49.000 You know, as some of you may know, I got my start in politics under Richard Nixon.
01:00:56.780 He was my mentor.
01:00:57.500 I have a tattoo of Nixon's head on my back.
01:01:00.880 It's true.
01:01:02.240 So it's about the size of a grapefruit.
01:01:05.000 It's directly between my shoulder blades.
01:01:08.040 It means I'm the only person you know with a dick on the front and the back.
01:01:15.400 And the truth is, it's not in any way a political statement.
01:01:19.640 You see, the story of Richard Nixon is a story of persistence.
01:01:24.380 It's a story of resilience.
01:01:25.720 It's a story of never giving up.
01:01:28.520 It's an American story.
01:01:31.180 It reminds me of what he said, that the greatness comes not when things go always good for you,
01:01:38.120 but when you take some knocks, you suffer some defeats, some setbacks, when sadness comes.
01:01:44.100 That is when the greatness comes.
01:01:45.580 He also said a man is not finished when he's defeated.
01:01:51.660 He's only finished when he quits.
01:01:54.260 That's what I love about Donald Trump.
01:01:56.440 This is why I want him back in the White House.
01:01:58.840 Because when it comes to his love for this country,
01:02:01.640 and it comes for his determination to restore the country to greatness,
01:02:06.320 Donald Trump will never, ever give up, and neither will I.
01:02:10.780 God bless you.
01:02:11.560 Thank you.
01:02:15.820 Thank you.
01:02:16.740 Thank you.
01:02:17.420 Thank you.
01:02:17.800 Thank you.
01:02:26.480 Thank you.