Fixer, dirty cheater, Trump confidant, convicted felon – Roger Stone is all of these things. However, if he had a choice, he would probably label himself a political strategist. So what does the man pardoned by Trump in July, without serving one day of a two-year prison sentence for lying to Congress and manipulating witnesses, do with the campaign strategy to re-elect Donald Trump?
He doesn’t admit it, but feels that Stone would feel better about the war against Joe Biden and the Democrats if he himself were in the middle of it. After all, he was up to his neck in the Trump campaign last time, allegedly trying to dig up things about Hillary Clinton.
He claims there were no wrongdoing on his part, and blames “partisan and politically motivated prosecutors [who] he went out and fabricated crimes. “Whatever it is, many believe the presidential pardon was about shutting him up, given everything he knows about Trump.
Unlike many, Stone has remained loyal (“the president requires loyalty and commitment to his agenda”), but he seems no longer wielding the same influence when it comes to his old friend crossing the line in the swing states.
There are some political advisers who seem too busy to respond to a text message, but Stone, who has listened to five American presidents since Richard Nixon, speaks at length to the Sunday Independent by phone from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Fifteen minutes goes to 45 and I keep waiting for him to say, “Sorry, I just have time for one more question.” Yet he seems to have all the time in the world, especially on the issue of Trump’s re-election. Perhaps, by accessing the interview, he was thinking of Irish-American Catholics fondly for the old country. Their votes, he says, “will be important” to Trump’s chances.
However, his interest in the Irish dimension of politics seems confined to his own country. When asked if there is an Irish politician on this side of the Atlantic that he admires, he cannot find a single name.
Naturally, he predicts “an unexpected victory” for the man languishing at the polls and loyally refuses to respond when asked to name the biggest mistake Trump has made in the campaign so far.
Yet when pressed, he’s willing to point the finger at the strategists running the show this time.
“It seems that the Trump campaign has made the mistake of not accumulating its financial resources for mass communications, that is, television, radio and digital advertising, until the end. It seems that they have wasted too many resources too early in the campaign. Bell”.
That, he adds, is “particularly strange given that he never really had serious opposition to his appointment.”
“So Biden is beating him on Network Television four to one.
“They are beating it on cable television six to one. It has no presence on Spanish radio, urban radio, Christian radio or gospel radio. All of which are crucial in changing states.”
In September, Stone made claims about Democratic election fraud and said Trump should impose martial law if he loses.
He advocated for the arrest of Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and “anyone else who can be shown to be involved in illegal activity.”
He seems to have calmed down a bit since then, because when I ask him what will happen if Trump loses, he quotes the president as saying that there will be “a peaceful transfer of power” if Trump’s defeat is “just and right.”
But then he talks animatedly that his great hero Nixon (whose face is tattooed on his back) ended up strong against JFK in 1960, only to have his elections “stolen through electoral fraud.”
Many believe a Biden landslide will be necessary to keep Trump from crying badly, and Stone warns that “if there is substantial and serious evidence of voter fraud, you have the option to challenge the result in court.”
“He and I are both against violence. We are Americans. We do not solve things through violence.
“Unfortunately Black Lives Matter and Antifa do not share our opinion,” he says.
Could you see a civil war break out in the United States after the election?
“One thing I’ve learned in politics is never to answer a hypothetical question,” he says.
However, he’s more than happy to throw another shot at Zuckerberg and the Twitter bosses he accuses of “suppressing” a damaging story about Biden’s son Hunter.
“It’s not about whether what they’re doing is against the law, it’s clearly against the law. And I’m hopeful that Trump’s Justice Department [will] Do something about it. “
Back to Trump, then, and Stone’s boundless admiration for his 40-year-old friend.
He says the 74-year-old has “enormous physical stamina”, needs only five hours of sleep a night, but is “incredibly stubborn, he won’t be deterred no matter what.”
In language that will not have affected his chances of getting votes from the evangelical movement, Trump recently described his recovery from Covid-19 as “a blessing from God.” Facing jail last year, Stone said he “put me in the Lord’s hands.”
There are, he says, “many conceited elites in this country who take my profession of faith with a giggle or scorn, but I don’t really care what they think. I only care what He thinks.”
When I ask him if he was ever really afraid of being locked up, he says: “I was until I decided to reaffirm my faith in Jesus Christ. And confess my sins. From that moment I knew that God would deliver me from my persecutor.”
Although it turned out that Trump arrived first.
