Sen. Bernie Sanders has spent decades at podiums across the country screaming into microphones as the self-proclaimed champion of the 99%. He s an unapologetic leader for democratic socialism. And yet, in his nearly twenty years as a senator, Sanders has sponsored only a handful of bills that actually became law.
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00:01:00.000this is the stone zone with roger stone people love him and respect him roger stone
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00:01:38.180Has there ever been a more sanctimonious blowhard and hypocrite in the United States Senate other than Vermont's Bernie Sanders?0.99
00:01:46.180Bernie Sanders has spent decades at podiums across the country screaming into microphones as the self-proclaimed champion of the 99%, an unapologetic leader for democratic socialism.0.97
00:02:00.280The truth is, Sanders has never had an actual job where he wasn't on the public payroll, serving his entire adult life in government as mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989, 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives from 91 to 2007, and more than 18 years now in the U.S. Senate since 2007.
00:02:23.960He was actually an independent until about a year before he chose to seek the Democrat nomination for president against Hillary Clinton, and his radical socialist views were so popular that Hillary Clinton and Democratic National Chairwoman Deborah Wasserman Schultz had to rig the rules in order to defeat him.
00:02:45.280Yet, in his nearly 19 years as a senator, Sanders has sponsored only a handful of bills that actually became law, most of them minor or token gestures such as poster office renamings or the like.
00:03:00.320His ambitious flagship proposals like Medicare for All and sweeping wealth taxes have failed to pass his stand-alone legislation.
00:03:10.520He's been far more affected of offering amendments and co-sponsoring bills than acting any of his own major ideas.
00:03:17.300Sanders, of course, became a household name during his 2015 to 2016 presidential campaigns through his obnoxious, well-documented rhetorical assaults on millionaires and billionaires.
00:03:30.320From the podium, he repeatedly railed against the rigged system controlled by the ultra-wealthy, portraying elites as greedy puppet masters and the roots of America's inequality.
00:03:44.640This tirade continues even as he himself became a millionaire because it was in those two presidential campaigns that he and his wife skimmed millions of dollars in media placement funds from his grassroots funded campaigns.
00:04:01.840Bernie Sanders now has a net worth of $2 to $3 million, according to Senate filings, all while stirring up young people by promising to forgive student debt, insisting he would provide free college, as well as massive wealth redistribution.
00:04:23.300If you listen carefully, he no longer criticizes millionaires.
00:04:29.440He touts small-dollar donations from grassroots donors, but those funds are bankrolling private jets, limousines, five-star luxury hotels, and high-end travel.
00:04:41.180The hypocrisy is glaring in its numbers.
00:04:43.700In 2025 alone, Bernie Sanders spent more than $550,000 on private jets, including $221,723 in the first quarter and nearly $230,000 in the second quarter, often with ventures like Ventura Jets, as reported by the Center Square.
00:05:07.400That's where the 2025 totals are also detailed by the New York Post as well as ABC News.
00:05:13.120By mid-2026, Sanders' official campaign committee had already funneled between $680,000 and $619,000 into lavish travel, including $562,000 for 11 private jet charters, $16,000 on limousines and chauffeured services, plus stays at upscale four- and five-star hotels.
00:05:38.140These expenditures, drawn from federal election records by my staff, occurred while the year was only half over.
00:05:46.700Sanders is not only a Democratic Socialist engaging in such practices.
00:05:51.080In 2025, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined him on the Fighting Oligarchy Tour.
00:05:59.040Fox News Digital obtained exclusive photos and videos of both boarding a Ledger Bombardier Challenger jet
00:06:06.660Costing about $15,000 an hour to fly just from Bakersfield to Sacramento
00:06:13.020A distance that one could easily drive
00:06:15.580That same year, AOC's campaign spent over $53,000 on luxury hotels
00:06:22.060including the five-star Vidara Hotel and Spa in Las Vegas and Asher Adams in Salt Lake City,
00:06:29.380plus high-end meals at New York City, Las Vegas, and Puerto Rico restaurants,
00:06:34.020and nearly $50,000 more on hotels, catering, and venue rental at Puerto Rico's Coliseo de Puerto Rico.
00:06:43.680When questioned on May 7, 2025, on Fox News Special Report with Brett Baer,
00:06:49.120Sander defended his use of private jet. You run a campaign and you do three or four or five rallies
00:06:55.540in a week. It's the only way you can get around to talk to 30,000 people. You think I'm going to
00:07:00.440be sitting online waiting? That's the only way to get around. No apologize for that. In other words
00:07:06.000it's not it's good enough for thee but it's not good enough for he. Private jet travel is a
00:07:11.980bipartisan norm in politics of course. We Republicans also racking up substantial charter
00:07:17.040costs. The key difference is that Sanders and AOC aggressively championed climate change initiatives
00:07:24.680while leaving quite a carbon footprint with those private jets and, of course, their humble
00:07:29.720working-class lifestyles spent in five-star hotels, while exempting themselves from the
00:07:35.220very standards they impose on others, whereas Republicans rarely preach the same level of
00:07:41.260personal sacrifice, or environmental alarmism.
00:07:45.940Sanders owns three houses, two vacation homes,
00:07:49.920and his principal residence driving a top-of-the-line Mercedes.
00:07:53.360See, socialism is good for thee, but not for he, as they say.
00:07:58.800These are all, of course, the results of the very capitalist system
00:08:09.180For all of his hatred of capitalism, he has shown little ability to deliver meaningful legislation or any real change in nearly 19 years in the Senate.
00:08:18.620The receipts from 2025 and 2026 fighting oligarchy to reveal the condescending pattern of self-described Democrat socialists who preach experimental ideologies while refusing to live by them.
00:08:32.320The anti-wealth crusading losses loses all credibility when they live like they are very targets they claim to despise.
00:08:40.980The pattern extends to his long-standing commentary on authoritarian regimes, by the way.
00:08:46.380Bernie Sanders has repeatedly highlighted the positive things about Fidel Castro's Cuba,
00:08:53.080particularly its literacy program and its health care system.
00:08:56.300In a 2016 Democracy Now interview following Castro's death, he stated a lot of positive things can be said.
00:09:04.140Their health care system for a third world country is quite good.
00:11:13.400Its sponsor estimates would be worth $7 trillion.
00:11:17.240One policy analyst called the idea nutty, while others said it would put American AI companies at a competitive disadvantage and would lead to offshoring.
00:11:27.240offshore. Senator Bernie Sanders, independent again of Vermont, introduced the American AI
00:11:33.860Sovereign Wealth Fund Act, which would impose a one-time 50% tax on AI company stock and deposit
00:11:42.000those shares into a fund that he says would pay every American more than $1,000 annually.
00:11:48.740Sanders says that AI was built on the collective knowledge of humanity and the creative work of
00:11:54.180tens of millions of people, and that the public deserves a direct ownership stake in the companies
00:11:59.860that have profited from it. Well, here's the first thing that Senator Sanders gets wrong.
00:12:05.820AI wasn't built solely on the collective knowledge of humanity and the creative work of tens of
00:12:11.600millions of people, although that's certainly a minor factor. AI was built by thousands of
00:12:17.040programmers who write and maintain the software, not to mention all the people involved with the
00:12:22.760building, maintaining the physical assets of the big data centers required, and financing them.
00:12:29.420Sanders' bill would, in effect, yank away half of the results of their efforts
00:12:33.460by partially nationalizing an entire industry.
00:14:00.800this is the stone zone with roger stone roger stone who's a very very one of the smartest
00:14:16.320political minds roger stone was persecuted people forget he's actually a brilliant brilliant
00:14:21.100political analyst now get him a zone it's the stone zone here's roger stone
00:14:27.760In the wake of the disclosures and declassifications by Tulsi Gabbard that proved that Dr. Anthony Fauci lied under oath to the United States Senate when he said that taxpayer dollars were not used to weaponize the COVID-19 vaccination in a Wuhan China lab.
00:14:49.880Senators Rand Paul and Senator Ron Johnson, both Republicans, are urging the Trump Justice Department to prosecute Dr. Anthony Fauci and challenge the validity of his preemptive pardon from President Biden, according to a June 18, 2026 report by Just the News.
00:15:08.980Senator Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and a longtime critic of Fauci, describes Biden's pardon as unusually broad and vague.
00:15:20.700It covers sweeping unspecified period of years without naming any particular crimes similar to the pardon granted to Hunter Biden.
00:15:29.060Personally, I do not think that that is the flaw in the pardons after all.
00:15:33.360General Forbes pardoned Richard Nixon for any crime he may have committed.
00:15:37.800Nixon at the time had not been charged with any crime.
00:15:42.080Paul has questioned the pardon's legitimacy, though, noting it was issued via AutoPen on or around January 19th, 2025,
00:15:51.400in Washington, D.C., at a time that Joe Biden was most demonstrably in the Virgin Islands.
00:15:57.480He has raised questions about whether the former president personally reviewed or authorized the pardon,
00:16:02.380asking, was President Biden of sound mind?
00:16:06.080Did he understand who he was pardoning?
00:16:30.620would allow a judicial review of the pardon's constitutionality.
00:16:36.140Recent indictments of Fauci associates, including senior advisor David Morenz,
00:16:41.160for allegedly destroying records and concealing information,
00:16:44.600could provide leverage as those deputies might cooperate in exchange for leniency.
00:16:51.200Senator Johnson told reporters that Fauci is a bad person,
00:16:56.040ought to be prosecuted because I believe he did indeed commit crimes against humanity.
00:17:01.380Johnson expressed confidence that research supported by Fauci's agency
00:17:05.600contributed to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:17:10.100Both senators see prosecution as a means of accountability for alleged misconduct
00:17:15.820and a way to challenge executive overreach in issuing broad preemptive pardons.
00:17:21.160The Trump administration has declared various Biden-era pardons, including Fauci's null and void due to auto-pen use, citing concerns over Biden's mental fitness and lack of personal authorization.
00:17:37.800As Mike Howell of the Oversight Project said on this show Sunday,
00:17:45.580if Fauci were to be charged, he would argue that the pardon,
00:17:50.200even though it was preemptive and signed by Odopan,
00:18:05.420In 2025, the president issued a memorandum directing a review of Biden's auto pen clemency actions, tasking the Department of Justice and the White House counsel with investigating potential unauthorized use of the auto pen.
00:18:20.980House oversight Republicans and reports such as the Biden auto pen presidency have called for DOJ a scrutiny and the Biden DOJ pardon attorney has raised questions about auto pen pardons absent further court review.
00:18:36.220Legal experts, including constitutional experts like Jonathan Turley, have noted that the auto pen's use is historically permissible, absent clear proof of total lack of personal awareness.
00:18:46.220And that's what they would have to prove in court.
00:18:47.980I'm Roger Stone. You're listening to The Stone Zone. We'll be right back.
00:18:57.340The Stone Zone. Entertaining and informative.
00:19:58.340following weekend negotiations in Switzerland
00:20:01.220between the American and Iranian officials.
00:20:04.540The U.S. delegation was led in person by Vice President J.D. Vance, with Pakistan and Qatar helping mediate the talks.
00:20:12.620The center of the trip is the newly drafted U.S.-Iranian Memorandum of Understanding.
00:20:18.580The agreement creates a 60-day framework for negotiations, including Iran's pledge not to seek nuclear weapons,
00:20:26.540and a process for reopening safe commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
00:20:31.860In exchange, the United States would eventually dismantle its naval blockade of Iranian ports and begin addressing sanctions.
00:20:41.200The Treasury Department has already issued a temporary 60-day license allowing the production, delivery, and sale of Iranian oil.
00:20:49.700Rubio is also expected to meet with the Gulf Cooperation Council in Bahrain to discuss regional security, shipping lanes, and how to restore safety after recent attacks.
00:21:01.140that occurred amidst both operations, Epic Fury and Midnight Hammer.
00:21:07.780We know that diplomacy is only useful when backed by strength.0.73
00:21:11.220Iran has a long record of delay, deception, and terror sponsorship.0.70
00:21:16.660And any final deal must be enforceable, verifiable, and tied to consequences.
00:21:22.700Trump administration knows this. Donald Trump knows this.
00:21:25.900But they've made enough of an impact where Iran knows they have no choice but come to a deal0.91
00:21:30.460or continue to get bombed into oblivion.
00:21:34.240Rubio's job during his travels is to protect American interests,
00:21:38.000reassure our Gulf allies, keep pressure on Tehran,
00:21:41.920and make sure peace does not become another excuse for weakness.
00:21:45.960He will excel in this role as he has in the myriad of roles within the Trump administration.
00:21:53.600Meanwhile, eight members of a North Texas Antifa cell
00:21:57.420have been sentenced to decades in federal prison for their roles in a violent attack
00:22:03.220on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in July of 2025.
00:22:10.760The sentences range from 30 years to 100 years.
00:22:15.040The ringleader, one Benjamin Hanil Song, received the maximum sentence of 100 years
00:22:22.200after being convicted of attempted murder and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.
00:22:28.240Prosecutors say Song shot Alvarado Police Lieutenant Thomas Gross in the neck during
00:22:34.200the July 4th attack. Other defendants received 50 and 70-year sentences, including migrants who
00:22:41.040arrived in black black attire and were equipped with firearms, body armor, medical supplies,
00:22:48.740and explosive devices. Prosecutors said the group set off fireworks, vandalized vehicles,
00:22:55.340and opened fire on responding officers. Evidence presented at their trial showed planning through
00:23:03.000encrypted messaging along with firearms training and coordination before the attack. Several
00:23:09.280co-defendants pleaded guilty and others cooperated with prosecutors. Additional charges in Johnson
00:23:15.800County included attempted murder, domestic terrorism, and conspiracy. This case is a
00:23:22.280reminder that political violence is not activism. It is terrorism when militants organize, arm
00:23:29.600themselves, attack law enforcement, and try to storm a federal facility, whether it's in Texas
00:23:36.260or whether it's in Newark, New Jersey. The left spent years minimizing Antifa, claiming it was
00:23:43.260just an idea or a protest movement when nothing could have been further from the truth. Somebody
00:23:49.420paid for the pallets of bricks, someone paid for the buses, somebody paid for the flatbed trucks,
00:23:55.700somebody paid for the lawyers who were there in an instant to bail those who were arrested out of
00:24:01.080jail. The ideas underpinning Antifa thuggery are those of militant communism, type of ideas that
00:24:08.740have led to the most grotesque and evil tyrannies mankind has ever known. That's why these sentences
00:24:15.600are so necessary. Antifa goons need to understand that when you attack law enforcement, threaten
00:24:22.700public order, and wage violence against America's immigration system, your freedom will also
00:24:28.520disappear. They're lucky they aren't being sent to Guantanamo Bay because make no mistake about it,
00:24:34.320Antifa is just as dangerous of a terror threat as al-Qaeda is or ISIS is to our Constitutional Republic.
00:24:42.640Meanwhile, a happy 78th birthday to Justice Clarence Thomas.
00:24:47.980Clarence Thomas, one of the most consequential constitutional conservatives ever to serve on the Supreme Court.
00:24:54.220Born in Savannah and raised in Pine Point, Georgia,
00:24:57.500Thomas rose from modest beginnings to Holy Cross, Yale Law School, Missouri State Government,0.67
00:25:03.340the Reagan administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the D.C. Circuit, and
00:25:09.460finally, the U.S. Supreme Court, where he took a seat in 1991 after being attacked with baseless
00:25:15.940allegations meant to destroy his career. Those attacks failed, and now Clarence Thomas has
00:25:22.640become the second longest serving justice in Supreme Court history. He spent more than three
00:25:28.360decades shaping American law through originalism, decades that were respective of textualism
00:25:36.780and a fierce independence that is rarely seen in Washington, D.C. His influence is not just
00:25:43.360symbolic. He's written more than 800 opinions, including major decisions that shape civil
00:25:49.580procedure, employment law, religious liberty, regulatory power, and yes, the Second Amendment.
00:25:57.900Thomas's opinion in the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruin
00:26:03.140strengthened the constitutional right to carry and bear firearms
00:26:07.240and reshaped gun rights jurisprudence nationwide.
00:26:11.580Thomas is also known for standing alone when principle requires it.
00:26:15.380With more than 50 solo dissents, he has often placed constitutional arguments
00:26:21.420years before the rest of the court was ready to follow.
00:26:24.680His legacy extends beyond his own writings. Ten of his former clerks have become federal judges, helping carry constitutional conservatism through the judiciary that is often hostile terrain for those who lean right.
00:26:38.460Justice Thomas represents courage under fire, fidelity to the Constitution, and refusal to bend to elitist pressure.
00:26:46.340On his 78th birthday, America should recognize his justice, whose life and work proves that standing on principle can make a major difference against a corrupt system.
00:26:59.880Meanwhile, this breaking news, Attorney General Allen Wilson of South Carolina has defeated Pam Evitz, the lieutenant governor in the Republican runoff for the governor's office.
00:27:11.980This was a unique situation in which President Donald Trump endorsed Evitz, the lieutenant governor, in the first round, but then issued a very rare co-endorsement of both Evitz and Attorney General Alan Wilson in the runoff.
00:27:31.420Wilson is a good personal friend, and I wish him the very best.
00:27:34.800Meanwhile, all eyes are looking northward.
00:27:37.560Tonight is the Republican primary in the 21st district, the seat being vacated by Elise Stefanik, where businessman Anthony Constantino faces off against veteran Republican Assemblyman Robert Smollin.
00:27:53.760This has been a slugfest, as they say, and all eyes will be looking at those results.
00:28:31.400The company says it is the first U.S.-owned operator back in the DRC in more than a decade.
00:28:38.640That matters because the DRC produces roughly 80% of the words cobalt, and China controls much of that supply today.
00:28:48.060Cobalt and copper are essential for everyday things from mobile phones and electric vehicles to electronics, infrastructure, and military equipment.
00:28:58.520Virtus is investing in Chemfa, a local producer with mining operations in different local regions.
00:29:06.140Together, the projects are expected to produce 75 tons of copper and 20,000 tons of cobalt per year once processing plants come online.
00:29:16.120The minerals will move through the U.S.-backed Labiso Corridor, a major railroad to Angola's east coast, created to secure supply chains for America and its allies.
00:29:28.480In what is the serious America-first foreign policy looks like, instead of devoting resources to promoting social justice and wokeness in other countries,
00:29:38.880while China locks up these crucial resources, President Trump has cut off USAID.
00:29:45.320And strangely enough, suddenly, a rash of Latin American countries, Peru, Chile, Colombia,
00:29:52.760have all elected right of center leaders and Argentina to that list, as well as Honduras.
00:29:59.840Funny that the last time the left won an election in South America, it was in Brazil,
00:30:06.480and much of it with your tax dollars through USAID.
00:30:11.940Now you see the America First policies working in the area of rare earth minerals.
00:30:17.240For too long, Beijing has dominated Africa's mineral wealth
00:30:21.540through opaque systems that left the West dependent and vulnerable.
00:30:26.240Strong American presence in the DRC begins to change the balance.
00:30:30.920Critical minerals are not just an economic issue,
00:30:33.720they're a national security issue.1.00
00:30:36.020President Trump understands whoever controls the supply chain controls the future, and he intends for America to maintain its edge over the red menace.0.99
00:30:46.460The president is serious about competing again in the area of rare earth minerals and look for other big deals throughout Africa in the near future.1.00
00:30:56.860Meanwhile, Major League Baseball is backing down after warning Christian players on the San Francisco Giants for writing Bible verses on their Pride Night baseball caps.
00:31:09.340Commissioner Rob Manfred has apologized and told U.S. Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri that the players will not be fined, were not disciplined, and will never be disciplined over the incident.
00:31:22.060The controversy began when San Francisco Giants players added these biblical references to their hats bearing the Times Pride Night logo.
00:31:31.360After a public backlash and scrutiny from lawmakers, Manfred explained that Major League Baseball had adopted a policy eliminating special uniforms, hats, and equipments during celebration nights with narrow exceptions.
00:31:45.580The Giants and the Dodgers haven't been allowed to keep pride-themed uniforms items because both cities have large LGBTQ communities.
00:31:55.020But Manfred admitted the Giants players received inadequate communications and may not have understood that they were allowed to wear their regular uniforms instead.
00:32:05.780No player should be forced to wear a political cultural message that violates his or her religious beliefs.
00:32:12.120Manfred said that Major League Baseball agrees that players and team employers should not be compelled to participate in workplace celebrations, especially by wearing something in their bodies, if doing so conflicts with their sincere religious beliefs or values.
00:32:28.120Of course, he only says this now after the public backlash first reported right here in the Stone Zone.
00:32:35.140This is, of course, a win for religious liberty and basic fairness caused by conservatives mobilizing and expressing their anger.
00:32:46.340Professional athletes or anyone in their workplace do not surrender their First Amendment values when they're on the clock.
00:32:54.980If the leagues provide pride messages, which is fine, they should also respect Christians exercising their consciousness and refusing to go along with the facade.
00:33:06.820Tolerance should never mean forced participation for one side and punishment for the other.
00:33:13.080I'm Roger Stone and you're listening to The Stone Zone.
00:33:15.700Don't go away because we'll be right back.
00:35:14.360Sanctions should hit the military elites, corrupt networks, and foreign companies that are enabling this repression.
00:35:21.260Ruby is showing any business entity that if they bankroll Cuban tyranny, they will face consequences, too.
00:35:27.960It's only a matter of time before Cuba embraces freedom, one way or another.
00:35:34.300I have a personal interest in this, of course, because, as many know, my wife is a Cuban immigrate.
00:35:40.640My father-in-law was the longtime attache in the Cuban consulate in Washington, D.C., when Castro came to power and Batista fell.
00:35:52.840He was ordered to return to Havana for briefings and was about to do so until he was warned by a friendly CIA man that his name was on a list of those to be liquidated.
00:36:04.480It is therefore a given within my family that we understand the repressive regime of Fidel Castro, but we also recognize the role that our own State Department played in bringing Castro to power.
00:36:20.800Now, Donald Trump and Secretary Marco Rubio have it within their power to end the grip of the oppressive communism and Marxism that grips Castro's Cuba.
00:37:35.520I think Cuba is finished as a brutal dictatorship, and the democracy is headed there.
00:37:43.620I do think there are Americans who are having conversations with those on the island that could violate the Logan Act, and I would warn them against that. It's a bad idea to try to go around Marco Rubio, but Rubio is born of the anti-Castro movement in Miami, and he sees what we see.
00:38:03.620that freedom for the Cuban people is very, very near.
00:38:07.760I would not break, I would not challenge Donald Trump on this key point.
00:38:14.000I say to you, to finish this show, as my wife would say, Cuba Libre.
00:38:20.620Thank you for joining us today in the Stone Zone.
00:38:23.040Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.