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Feb. 12, 2025 - The StoneZONE - Roger Stone
56:09
Cliff Maloney Defends Elon Musk as Liberal Heads EXPLODE over DOGE | The StoneZONE w/ Roger Stone
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With legendary Republican strategist and political icon and pundit Roger Stone.
Stone has served as a senior campaign aide to three Republican presidents.
He is a New York Times bestselling author and a longtime friend and advisor of President Donald Trump.
As an outspoken libertarian, Stone has appeared on thousands of broadcasts, spoken at countless venues, and lectured before the prestigious Oxford Political Union and the Cambridge Union Society.
Due to his four-plus decades in the political and cultural arena, Stone has become a pop culture icon.
And now, here's your host, Roger Stone.
And yes, you are back in the Stone Zone.
Donald Trump is in the White House.
Elon Musk is heading Doge.
And every single day is like Christmas.
In the last 48 hours...
Two monumental developments.
Former Illinois Governor Rob Blagojevich, an old-fashioned, common-sense Democrat, pardoned from the weaponization, probably the earliest victim of the political weaponization of our criminal justice system, pardoned.
By President Donald Trump, a massive uprising in Chicago, people demanding that he run for mayor.
We're going to talk about that.
And then, of course, the Senate confirmation of Tulsi Gabbard as the next director of national intelligence.
This makes deep state operatives guilty of treason, weak in the knees.
Patriot Tulsi Gabbard overcomes the combined opposition.
Of the Socialist Democrats and their deep state allies in the media who tried to smear this patriot as pro-Russian, that's a lie, or as propping up Assad, another lie, now positioned to join the Justice League in the Trump administration.
This is turning out to be an all-star lineup in this cabinet.
Here to help me break this down and also...
Talk to our guest, Cliff Maloney, one of the architects of Donald Trump's massive 2024 victory, the man who pinpointed Pennsylvania as the pivotal state it became, predicted exactly how it could be turned around, and then went out and did it, is going to join us.
But first joining me is my co-host, the publisher and editor of the Illinois Review, Mark Vargas.
Roger, it's great to be with you.
Thank you very much.
It's great to have you riding shotgun.
Let's go to our guest because he's a busy man.
Cliff Maloney is a true patriot.
As I say, he's one of the architects of victory.
What's amazing about Cliff is he set out his goals in public.
He told us...
How we would go about chasing down, first of all, registering, and then chasing down mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.
He exceeded his goals.
It was a shock to the political world.
Everybody told him he couldn't do it.
I knew he could.
Let's bring in my friend, Cliff Maloney.
Roger, it's great to be in the golden age.
Thanks for having me.
So, Cliff, I want to show you what I got in the mail today.
We were supposed to be matching.
I was hoping we'd rep it and match together.
I just got it out of the box today, but I will wear it on a show.
It's not my style, it's your style, but I'm proud to have it.
You are so crucial to this victory we had.
You have huge political credibility with me because at every step of the way, you told me what was going to happen.
And then you and your people were not living under, you know, ideal circumstances.
I mean, it's a hardship to be out there working, pounding the pavement and chasing these ballots.
But at every step of the way, everything you told me would happen did happen exactly as you said it would.
And Pennsylvania turned out to be, as you said it would be, the key state here.
So I think congratulations and credit is due.
Obviously, the most credit goes to our candidates, President Trump and J.D. Vance.
But when people ask me, you know, who are the true architects of victory beyond Donald Trump and the team immediately around him, I always say Cliff Maloney is one of those key architects.
So congratulations off the top.
I appreciate that, Roger.
You know, it feels good to win, you know, when you set out to do something that everybody said you couldn't do, except for you.
You've stood by me this whole time when we put out the plan to knock 500,000 doors.
And as I said a year ago on your show, you know, Trump getting 20% of the mail-in vote, there was no way to win.
We had to fix that.
We had to get to 33%, obviously knocked 510,000 doors, locked in 34.5% of the mail-in vote for Trump.
And like you said, you know, it's a team effort.
You've got the candidate.
You've got different patriots like yourself, strategists, organizers.
People like Charlie Kirk, Scott Pressler, everybody coming together.
And this needs to be a permanent thing, right?
For those that think we can sit out for the next year, I got news for you.
Josh Shapiro, our governor here in Pennsylvania, he was back out on January 1. You know, so we are relaunching.
We're going to double down.
But we should enjoy the victory, but we got to be prepared to get back to work.
Well, as I've said many times, I've had it up to here with Josh Shapiro.
This guy's got a lot of questions to answer about what he knew about what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he knew it.
That's one place to start.
Also, a very controversial murder case in his state where he was, I think, Attorney General.
And one of his heavy donors may not have been held responsible for their actions.
That's for another show and another time.
The Democrats are right back at it.
They may be hysterical.
They may be apoplectic.
That's because within the first month of his term, President Trump has accomplished more in just a few weeks than he did in the entire first year of his first term, as he attempted to see how deep the deep state really is.
Mark and I have talked about this.
I think the four years in the wilderness, the four years fighting the tsunami of lawfare.
Really prepared him to be a much greater president in this term than he would have been if he had been rightfully awarded the office when he won it in 2020. The level of preparation, the level of strategic thinking, whether it's banning men from playing in women's sports or whether it's banning the DEI policies, this is really amazing.
So, Cliff, what are your thoughts?
Have you seen the president knock out?
Promise after promise after promise to rein in the size and reach, I would say, even overreach of the federal government.
If you would have told me four years ago that we would all be, you know, singing in harmony about how maybe it was better that he was not in the White House for the last four years, I probably would have thought you were crazy.
But that is what I would say today.
I would say that him having those extra four years, all of us having those four years to plan, to build infrastructure, I mean, look at just the executive orders on day one and month one.
I mean, these things are every single day.
I mean, it's three to four times a day.
We're having something that, you know, over the past four years or even over Trump's first term, like you said, would be a monumental moment.
We're dealing with those three times a day.
And I just have to say that, you know, I am so excited about what Elon Musk is doing with Doge.
I am so excited about the potential.
Look, as a hardcore libertarian Republican, you know, this is my pipe dream, right?
To have somebody or have this Department of Government Efficiency set up, coming in, doing what they're doing, these executive orders that we've prepared for the last four years to be able to really just gut and pull back some of this horrendous progressive policies of the left.
I mean, somebody usually gets mad about what politicians are doing, right?
It's always, oh, we can't do it that way.
Oh, that's not how we do things here.
Trump is just completely rewriting the playbook, and I think it's going to have tremendous ramifications for the future of this country.
But maybe we needed those four years in a weird, odd scenario for us to prepare and to be able to execute the way we are right now.
Mark, next question to you for our guest, Cliff Maloney, who for many months I called Mahoney.
And now, sometimes I call him Cliff Maloney, a.k.a.
Mahoney, but my good friend, and as I say, one of the architects of victory here.
Without your effort, Cliff, I don't think we'd have carried you, Pennsylvania.
Not taking anything away from Charlie Kirk or Scott Pressler.
Key players in this whole movement.
Couldn't have been done without them either, but I think you've got to credit where credit is due.
Mark, go ahead.
Cliff, remarkable job, and I love the hat, by the way.
But I've got a question for you.
You know, we're seeing states like Illinois, where President Trump gained 600,000 votes, flipped several very dark blue Democratic wards in Chicago, flipped them red without spending a single dime.
In that state without ever visiting Illinois or holding a campaign rally, and we saw these significant gains.
From your experience on the ground there in Pennsylvania, what are some thoughts to folks in states like Illinois where we can begin to see massive gains and of state go from blue to red?
What are your thoughts or advice?
For those grassroots activists in states like Illinois, where we're seeing tremendous gains without any resources being dumped into the state.
Yeah, well, let's remember in Pennsylvania, I mean, we were down by over 700,000 registrations back in the 2020 election when you look at Republicans versus Democrats.
And so I always say to folks in blue states, you know, there's two major things I look at.
You know, what's organic and what's organized?
That's how I like to break it down.
Organic versus organized.
Because of Donald Trump's popularity, because of the left really just being unhinged with a candidate for three and a half years that couldn't put a sentence together, let alone try to put a sandwich together.
I mean, he really struggled, as we all know.
But that was organic support for us, right?
And that's where you saw, even in 2024, the organic support, the organic movement towards Trump based on the messaging, based on the policies, right?
And we're not spending money.
I'm not talking about organization, right?
You mentioned it.
There were certain...
Certain counties that were able to flip and move in Trump's direction heavily without any type of ad spend, with no money and no resources directed there.
That was just that organic power of the America First movement.
But I think if you pair that with organization, right, similar to what we did in Pennsylvania, if you have real organization that is funded, that has a strategy, that is executed correctly.
I think that's the double whammy that a lot of these blue states need to be able to turn the tide and to be able to head in the right direction.
Get that organic support and that organic messaging that is out there for the America First movement and especially tap into when these policies start to really benefit the American people or people, you know, residents of Illinois or these other blue states, pairing that with strong organization, grassroots but funded organization because that's what the Democrats do.
Look at the Democrats right now.
They don't have organic support.
Everything's going the opposite direction, but they've doubled down on their organization.
They are serious people.
This is a business to them.
It's not a hobby.
It's a business.
It's the business of power.
And when we start to take it that seriously, and we pair it with that organic support of people moving towards our message and really wanting those Trump policies, I think that's a recipe for success.
Cliff, as you know, only New Jersey and Virginia hold their gubernatorial elections in the off year.
That will be coming up.
And New Jersey ended up being extraordinarily close, given the fact that it was not a targeted state, that no resources were given to the Trump effort there.
So there you had very much a grassroots campaign.
Huge credit goes to Mike Crispy.
In an all-volunteer organization, America First Republicans, many in the Chris Christie-dominated New Jersey Republican Party sat on their hands or worked quietly for Kamala Harris.
Yet Donald Trump came tantalizingly close to carrying the state, and that's with no targeting and no resources.
Have you examined New Jersey and what are the chances that the Citizens Alliance will go in there for the upcoming gubernatorial election?
Yeah, so I'm in conversations right now with different governor campaigns in New Jersey.
I've sat down with different members and elected officials in Virginia.
They're one seat away from flipping and taking back the state house.
And obviously, they've got a governor's race as well.
What I tell people is this.
I say, listen, you know, if there's folks out there that want to fund programs like the PHAs, I'm happy to bring our people into some of these states and to get involved.
My focus is Pennsylvania.
And we're also moving into New Hampshire for 2026. That's something I'll announce here, Roger, that I'm very excited about.
We did door-knocking in New Hampshire in 2024. I was very quiet about it, but I was really proud of the results.
We went in, knocked about 100,000 doors, and almost pulled off a win in a state that people weren't even talking about.
So the door-to-door, it works.
When it comes to 2025, I am happy to lend out any of our team from PHAs.
If folks have the funds.
So my big push right now is, hey, governor campaigns.
Hey, in both states.
Hey, members in the House of Delegates in Virginia or the state senate.
If you guys have resources, and I'll say this, Roger, I know some people get mad when I say this on your show, but if the political consultants have a budget of $30 to $40 million in both of these states, hey, how about pulling off $2, $3, or $4 million and running a real ground game effort?
I am happy to volunteer my time.
I'm happy to get involved.
We have a proof of concept now in Pennsylvania that if there are other America First campaigns that want to utilize that, to tap into it.
I mean, it takes a lot to have 120 full-time people on the ground, 10 Airbnbs across the state, the hiring process, the vetting process, the training process, then actually executing the program once they're on the ground.
You know, it is a skill set, and it's one that I will offer to anybody.
As long as they believe in the America First agenda.
So we're working now to figure out which campaigns and which state parties want to get involved, want to bring this type of program in.
But I'm all ears.
And I'm hoping that we can lock something in and really make a dent in both Virginia and New Jersey.
You know, Cliff, I think you have just put your finger on something that's absolutely key, which is one of the things you did very successfully in this cycle.
Because our politics have become very much automated, you know, but people thought, well, you buy TV commercials, radio commercials, cable commercials, you pay for text messages, you pay for email.
There were no people involved.
You have returned boots on the ground, door to door, shoe leather politics.
It's something we we departed from.
And now I think you've brought the party back to and you've proven that that personal contact works now.
Working against you is that in the high crime days of the Biden administration, many people don't want to open their door to a stranger and our neighborhoods are not safe.
So that's an extra burden on your efforts to connect one-on-one with the voters and kind of add the personal touch to this.
But you did it with great success.
I think you're wise to be looking at New Hampshire.
New Hampshire is a state that's changed dramatically.
Once a reliably Republican state.
The influx of voters from Massachusetts, from Boston fleeing higher taxes, but unfortunately bringing their liberal tax policies and their liberal worldview with them has changed that.
It's a state that I think is in flux, but one that I think we can flip red again, just like I believe New Jersey can be flipped red again.
Mark, do you believe that Illinois, where you edit the Illinois Review, is it possible for a Republican to win statewide in Illinois again?
Absolutely.
I mean, that's why Governor Rob Lagojevich's election was so monumental back in 2002, because he was the first Democratic governor to be elected in 26 years.
And although the Democrats controlled the state legislature, had a firm grip on the state legislature, the Republicans always Predominantly maintained the governor's mansion.
And so, unfortunately, today the Democrats control every statewide office, the Supreme Court, a majority of congressional seats.
But we are beginning to see signs of life, given the numbers of this past election and the strength of the MAGA vote throughout Illinois.
You know, I've seen Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker say that he's not going to cooperate with the efforts of Tom Homan and ICE to depart.
To deport dangerous, violent illegals.
And I mean, look, first of all, J.B. Pritzker is so fat, the guy's got his own zip code, you know?
Here's a wealthy billionaire lecturing Robert Kennedy about health.
It's laughable.
And I can't wait until that morning that 29 ICE agents raid his home to arrest him for breaking the law and standing in the way of the president's deportation orders.
Doge is very much in the news.
The radical left is apoplectic because President Donald Trump is keeping his pledge to go after waste and fraud and corruption and federal spending.
And he's got Elon Musk on the scene.
He absolutely has the executive authority to do this.
You can already see the hard left trying to drive a wedge between the president and Elon Musk.
Let's run this video.
You okay?
This is X, and he's a great guy, high IQ. He's a high IQ individual.
So thank you very much.
We had a busy day today.
The king just left, and we've had a great discussion, terrific discussion, concerning Gaza.
The whole feel of that is so family-oriented.
I see leftists saying, how disrespectful of Elon to be standing up.
I've been in the Oval Office.
That's the way it works.
The president is always seated.
Guests in the Oval Office always stand unless they're specifically directed to seat.
And having his son there shows that, well, we're a family-friendly administration.
We actually like the idea of families and children.
Unlike the hard left.
But they seem to be very scared, Cliff.
People seem to be scared about, on the left, seem to be scared about what Elon is going to discover next.
What's your thinking on Doge and their efforts?
Well, I think Doge is going to come down to one major thing, which is Doge versus the swamp, right?
And look, a lot of us think that all Republicans are going to be on the side of Doge.
I'm not so sure of that.
I think there's...
There's going to be some people that the swamp is going to try to wrestle with and try to get them to stick to their side.
And the biggest excuse I'm nervous about is hearing this, well, that's not how it's done here in Washington, D.C. Well, listen, we've just had a serious mandate given by the American people.
And I think what we've seen so far in the first month has been, like I said before, a pipe dream for me.
So what Doge is uncovering, I mean, this USAID stuff is just...
Wild.
Some of the things they're finding that, you know, the staff on leave was one thing, but some of these other things, I mean, it's almost unbelievable.
Now, Roger, you know, Rand Paul for years has put out his Festivus report, and I used to look at a lot of it, and, you know, I used to just be baffled, but now that we've had access to see even deeper, you know, Elon is, I feel like they're just getting started.
And what's wild to me is the left's response, pretty much saying, We don't want to give him access because we don't want that type of transparency.
You don't want transparency on where you're spending the money.
You don't want transparency on who's committing this type of fraud, waste, and abuse.
This is finally what we've needed.
It cut, what, a billion dollars in month one?
This is the type of reform.
When we talk about draining the swamp, Roger, you're 100% correct.
correct, this extra four years has given us the time to plan, to prepare, and to act on actually draining the swamp.
So I'm very excited about it.
And my message is simple.
Anytime the Democrats try to shut these folks down or block them, keep moving forward.
If you're exposing the truth, then that is the right thing to do.
Yeah, the thing I found most exciting as a libertarian, as a longtime critic of the Federal Reserve, was the announcement that Elon intends to audit the Federal Reserve.
It's about time.
First we should audit it, then we should shut it down because it's unnecessary.
It's nowhere in our Constitution.
It's not in any of our founding documents.
It's a private bank.
It's not a government bank.
It's a private bank.
Why do we need that other than to manipulate our currency?
So this is very exciting to me as a libertarian.
These Democrat congressmen and congresswomen storming the education department, which Donald Trump has promised to shut down, is going to shut down.
I saw Maxine Waters leading the charge.
Very bad news for Maxine.
She's not going to be able to wear that wig in prison.
Because once they look at her and the profiteering she's done in California, I think she's got serious, serious problems.
Mark, your thoughts?
Well, there's no question about it.
And Roger, I want to...
Highlight just something.
I served at the Pentagon for three years as a civilian from 07 to 10. And a lot of people don't realize is that if you don't spend all of your money by the end of the fiscal year, your budget, you get penalized the following year.
Why not create a system that rewards Fiscal responsibility instead of disciplining government agencies and organizations for saving money and taking away more money, even more money, the following fiscal year.
And so what I saw at the Pentagon in the last quarter was a gigantic spending spree, buying things that you didn't even need.
In Iraq, buying 100 flat-screen televisions instead of needing just four flat-screen televisions.
Waste, fraud, and abuse.
But, yeah, this idea that...
Democrats using this narrative that, you know, our kids aren't going to be able to learn that there's going to be an impact in their test scores.
Well, sorry to break the news to you, but as you all are well aware, I mean, our students are falling way behind.
Even in not just in inner cities, but in wealthy, affluent communities all across the country.
Math, reading, science.
We are dropping like a rock.
Our numbers, our kids, students aren't learning the impacts of shutdowns and remote learning during the pandemic.
So it's laughable to use that argument that our kids are going to struggle.
Because the question is, can it get any worse?
I recently saw a report that we...
Spent $50 million on condoms.
Can either one of you explain this to me?
No, I'll let Mark take that one.
Not even Wilt Chamberlain, Roger, could explain that one.
But no, it's laughable that we're beginning to see just this.
Wasteful spending.
But the funny part is the Democrats keep digging an even deeper hole by complaining about shining a light, putting some sunlight on these issues and really exposing.
My last thought on this is Elon better have some security because, as you know, Roger and Cliff, I mean, that deep state unit party is going to be going after him because what he's going to be uncovering here in the next few months.
Buckle up because you thought it's bad now.
We're going to go into some of these other organizations and find out where your taxpayer money is going.
It's going to be shocking.
All right, here's a final question from my friend Cliff Maloney, the CEO of Citizens Alliance, one of the architects of the most sweeping consequential Republican victories in recent presidential history.
As you know, Cliff, traditionally the party in power loses seats in the off.
Now, the situation in the current U.S. House is really perilous.
We have two vacant seats in Florida.
The president has nominated Elise Stefanik to the U.N. She's been approved by the committee, have not moved her nomination to the Senate floor because we can't afford to vacate that seat until we fill the two seats in Florida in April special elections, and Republicans will win.
Meanwhile, the RINOs in New York 21 are trying to ensure the nomination of a Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger-style Republican and trying to shut out MAGA candidate Anthony Constantino.
I wouldn't be so sure about that, folks.
I'd keep an eye on that.
It's a special election.
The Democrats are trying to change the schedule on us.
My question for you, Cliff, is since everything that we know about politics, all the old rules kind of out the window because Donald Trump, the first business person to become president, not a governor, not a senator, not a congressman, not a general, I don't buy the idea that we will automatically lose seats or lose the House.
I actually think Yeah, I think this is the golden age.
This is unlike anything anybody's ever lived through.
You know, I'm 33 years old.
If I look back at any of the political things I've seen just over the last couple decades, you know, this is very unique.
It is a moment in time where I think a lot of things have the potential to change.
I would make a prediction that we expand.
Our majority in the House, potentially even in the Senate, depending on how things shake out with some of these key races.
And look, the reason I make that prediction, Roger, is I think the American people are going to look at what they pulled up with over the last four years.
And they're going to compare that to what's going to happen in 2025. I think it's going to be a great year.
I think the market's going to go well.
I think prices are going to go down.
And I think that that's what people voted for.
They voted for sanity.
They voted to end the woke nonsense.
They voted to end all these endless wars around the world.
They voted to really make life better.
And I think if we can produce that, if we can deliver on that mandate from the American people, I think 2026 could be extremely valuable and extremely effective and a huge winning year for Republicans.
Now, it would go against all the trends.
You're exactly right.
History tells me that won't happen.
But history also has never had a president who's been impeached, who's been convicted, who's been shot in the face, and comes back and wins the White House.
So it's a new dawn in America.
It is the golden age.
And I think that we have a huge potential here to make this a great year for the American way of life and then benefit politically in 2026. All right.
We're going to leave it there.
Cliff Maloney, the Chief Executive Officer of Citizens Alliance.
Founder of the Pennsylvania Chase, his greatest political victories lie ahead, but absolutely one of the architects of the most transformational victories in American political history and a key foot soldier in the greatest comeback in American political history.
Cliff, great honor to have you on.
God bless you.
Great seeing you both.
Take care now.
We have some breaking news that has just come across my desk.
Pam Bondi, newly appointed attorney general, has announced federal charges being filed against Kathy Hochul, the governor of New York, Letitia James, the attorney general, and Mark Schroeder.
I'm not familiar with Mr. Schroeder.
Now, we learned just days ago that Letitia James inflated the value of her assets in order to qualify for mortgages to buy commercial properties that greatly increased her net worth. we learned just days ago that Letitia James inflated the To buy commercial properties that greatly increased her net worth.
This is really extraordinary because, of course, that is exactly what she accused President Donald Trump of doing and brought a fake case against him.
Additionally, she's got two other problems that I know of.
During her six years on the New York City Council, she engaged in the same fraud that Mayor of New York Eric Adams engaged in, taking illegal money, laundering it essentially to straw donors, and then putting it through New York City's 8 to 1 campaign finance matching fund program.
She covered up at least three sexual assaults by her chief of staff against women.
One of those cases was settled.
The other two women, I think, were threatened and haven't brought suit.
There's one case in which Letitia James herself is accused by a woman of sexual assault.
And then there's the financing of her campaign for attorney general, utilizing ActBlue, which, of course, is the payment processing company.
That funnels millions of dollars into these Democrat campaigns from donors that don't really exist.
They turn off the feature where you have to match your credit card to a mailing address in order to funnel millions of dollars into these campaigns.
This is breaking right now, federal action against these New York officials.
Let's run that video.
Thanks for the communication with us with the delay.
We're here today because we have filed charges against the state of New York.
We have filed charges against Kathy Hochul.
We have filed charges against Letitia James and Mark Schroeder, who is with DMV. This is a new DOJ and we are taking steps to protect Americans.
American citizens and Angel Moms, like the mom standing right behind me, who you're going to hear from in a moment.
New York has chosen to prioritize illegal aliens over American citizens.
It stops.
It stops today.
As you know, we sued Illinois, and New York didn't listen.
So now, you're next.
Millions of illegal aliens with violent records have flooded into our communities, bringing violence and deadly drugs with them.
With me today, I'm so...
There you go.
There's the beginning of it.
I made reference to this earlier, Mark, when I pointed out that J.B. Pritzker has...
Already announced his defiance of this effort to deport illegals.
Now you see Pam Bondi stepping up and using the federal law enforcement mechanism the way it was supposed to be used.
Tom Homan, who I know personally, is a tough customer.
He's a no-nonsense guy.
He's on a mission, and he's going to perform that mission.
Your thoughts on this announcement by Pam Bondi?
I'm thinking of all the innocent citizens and visitors and residents of these Sanctuary cities that have been held hostage by their Democratic leaders who have been prioritizing migrants over their own citizens, who've been prioritizing violence over safety.
It's remarkable.
Roger, there's video that has been captured by everyday people in Illinois of migrants getting off of trains and buses wearing ankle monitors.
We've seen Chicago, for example, has seen an 11,000.
11,000% increase in arrests of Venezuelans.
It's laughable, again, that J.B. Pritzker and other Democrat leaders in sanctuary cities would talk about, oh, we want the violent and dangerous ones.
We want to deport them.
But yet it was just...
Within the last two and a half years that they were welcoming them.
And what makes it sickening is that you have taxpayer dollars that were being used to feed, to house, to clothe these migrants, these violent and vicious and dangerous.
Individuals who belong in jail, not in a home that was set aside for a single parent or a veteran.
It's remarkable.
And so bravo to the Attorney General for her leadership, for President Trump, for his leadership in directing this, because this will send shockwaves to these other Democratic leaders in these sanctuary cities.
It's time to regain control and restore law and order.
Look, I can just tell you based on my own knowledge.
New York Attorney General Leticia James is in deep trouble.
Hats off to Sam Antar, who's an investigator and also an accountant, who has dug deep into her campaign finance reports and into her personal disclosure reports to uncover massive fraud.
I urge folks to follow him on X. It's all there, and he documents everything he says.
He's examined the mortgages.
He can prove that she actually did what she falsely accused Donald Trump of doing.
So a major shout-out to Sam, hoping to get him on the radio this weekend to lay some of this out.
Before we talk about Rob Blagojevich, because this is a topic I want to talk about, there's nothing that makes me happier than the fact that he's gotten the pardon that he so richly deserved, because he was actually patient zero, in a sense, victim zero.
When it came to this war of weaponization and abuse of our criminal justice system.
I want to talk about that for a moment.
But before we do that, Caroline Levitt is just a breath of fresh air in the White House press office.
That mop top that had the job before was horrific.
And then that other woman who looked at me like she smelled very bad, Jen Psaki.
That girl had that stank, if you ask me.
When you look at Caroline Levitt, Who's only, I think, 26, 27, but really on top of the game, Caitlin Collins.
I really enjoyed it when President Trump humiliated her in that town hall that CN had.
She got her comeuppance.
Try talking over Donald Trump once.
Try that once.
See how that works out.
Take a look at Caroline Levitt today shooting back at the fake news media.
I don't agree.
Which Senator Mitchell made the decision to make your report from the Oval Office and the Diplomatic Reception Room last night?
Well, first of all, let me just set the record straight.
It is a privilege to cover this White House.
It's a privilege to be the White House Press Secretary.
And nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions.
That's an invitation that is given.
And there are hundreds of outlets on this campus, many of you in this room, who don't have the privilege of being part of that pool every single day and getting to ask the President questions.
We reserve the right to decide who gets to We're good to go into the Oval Office, and you all have credentials to be here, including the Associated Press, who is in this briefing room today.
But isn't it retaliatory in nature, is the argument, because the reason that the AP was barred, which they said was because they're not using the phrase Gulf of America, they're using Gulf of Mexico in line with their standards.
And so the question here is, is this setting a precedent that this White House will retaliate against reporters who don't use the language that you guys believe reporters should use?
And how does that align with The First Amendment commitment that you were just talking about.
I was very upfront in my briefing on day one that if we feel that there are lies being pushed by outlets in this room, we are going to hold those lies accountable.
And it is a fact that the body of water off the coast of Louisiana is called the Gulf of America.
And I'm not sure why news outlets don't want to call it that, but that is what it is.
The Secretary of Interior has made that the official designation in the geographical identification name server.
And Apple has recognized that.
Google has recognized that.
Pretty much every other outlet in this room has recognized that body of water as the Gulf of America.
And it's very important to this administration that we get that right, not just for people here at home, but also for the rest of the world.
Sure.
What an incredible breath of fresh air this is, pushing back against the fake news media And as for Caitlin Collins, I'm not sure what that guy is all so upset about, in all honesty.
One thing I do know, and that is AP and Reuters, who are included in the press pool, then try to charge conservative media outlets for that video footage, which I think is really outrageous and unfair.
We're trying to do something about that right here at the Stone Zone because we think it is so outrageous.
All right, let's get to this because it's something I'm excited about.
Mark, you worked very, very hard on this.
So did I. Rob Blagojevich, who's become a great friend.
Really the first victim of the political weaponization that we saw become full blown over the last four years.
His crime seems to be that he was caught red handed engaging in politics.
When the Senate seat of Barack Obama became vacant, He essentially refused an order to appoint Valerie Jarrett to that seat.
And he explored his political options because that's what politicians do.
But he was targeted.
He was put through the ringer in an unfair trial.
And the central evidence of him, an audio recording, I guess, of a wiretapped conversation, was never actually played in court.
Walk us through his case.
And why the president's decision to pardon him is so monumental.
It is.
Well, for starters, and there's so much to unpack, but I'll be very brief, Roger.
But for starters, the legal standard to start tapping his phones and listening was an illegal standard.
It was the governor is going to engage in aggressive fundraising.
That was the justification to tap.
All of his phones.
That's an illegal justification.
His judge sat on the FISA court and helped issue that surveillance.
So that's point number one.
Point number two is this sale of the Senate seat, which was a complete fraud and which was that was the call mark sale of the Senate seat that eventually was overturned on appeal.
And it was just labeled political routine, political log rolling.
There was no sale of the Senate seat.
Governor Bogoyevich was talking about deals.
If I get your support for this.
Person that I appoint to the U.S. Senate, will I get your support for an infrastructure bill?
Will I get your support to expand my all kids children's health care proposal?
Will I get your support to create more jobs?
Will I get your support to make sure we don't raise taxes on the working people in Illinois?
Those were the deals.
No one ever testified that he testified that he took one cent.
It was not about allocate money to this account or hire my wife.
None of those conversations transpired.
And Roger, to this day, Today, 98% of the tapes in Blagojevich's case are hidden.
They're under seal.
And we're hoping that Attorney General Pam Bondi will put her signature to that and release those tapes.
We're also hoping that Kash Patel, as FBI director, will be able to release Obama's FBI interview, 302, because we believe that that interview is going to show that Barack Obama...
Is a liar.
And did he lie under oath?
Did he perjure himself?
That's going to be very interesting.
But Roger, that the idea of what they did to.
Blagojevich and his bribery as they criminalize routine politics.
They said that your campaign donations in your account are not donations, they're bribes.
And under that legal standard that they use to convict him and put him in prison for 14 years, every member of Congress would be in prison.
Every political candidate would be in prison.
Any person with any money in their campaign accounts would be in prison because they're going to say those are not...
Donations, they're bribes.
And so he was sentenced to 14 years because they wanted to silence him.
They wanted to bury him.
He served eight years before President Trump reached into the cold, dark Atlantic waters and saved him and rescued him and returned him to his wife and to his daughters.
...who have suffered so terribly.
Roger, you know this firsthand, how deep the wounds are for your family members and those closest to you that love you, like your wife and your daughter and your son and grandchildren.
It's a very painful experience.
And so President Trump saved him and reunited with his family.
And just the other day, and Roger...
I want to thank you.
And I know the governor is going to be talking to you about that as well.
But you played such an instrumental role in ensuring that President Trump issued a full and unconditional pardon to Governor Bogovic just the other day.
And it is remarkable.
You can see a burden is lifted from his shoulders.
It is another step in the path towards total and complete vindication.
But, Roger, he likes to say, I was Roger Stone before Roger Stone in terms of the FBI raid on his house.
Signed by Robert Mueller, a name that we all know very well, Robert Mueller, a very corrupt individual who should be in jail.
These are the same people, James Comey, Patrick Fitzgerald, the same people that went after Blagojevich, the same people that are going after President Trump, going after you, Roger, and so many others who's only guilty of becoming as being friends with Donald Trump.
So a big, big day in Illinois and across the country, and the governor and his family couldn't be happier.
You know, my mentor always said, look forward, never look back.
And therefore, I guess, first of all, let me say, I've come to have great affection and respect as well as admiration for Rod Blagojevich.
He went through this horrific ordeal, but he's not bitter.
He's not broken.
It deepened his faith in the Lord, but it also encouraged him to speak out.
He calls himself a Trumpocrat now.
I love that.
But he was, in fact, the first person who was subjected to this kind of abuse.
Kudos to President Trump for recognizing that.
But now, Mark, I hear there's a groundswell of people in Chicago, as that city literally is falling apart, who want Rod to come forward and be a candidate for mayor.
But there's a problem with that because the political establishment in Illinois is so afraid.
Of the popularity of Rob Blagojevich.
By the way, I've been out with him in Chicago, and it's amazing how the people love him.
The people, the working people, black, white, Hispanic, across the board, young and old.
They love this man because they know he was the last common sense Democrat governor in Illinois history.
Never raised taxes, but expanded health care for women, expanded programs that helped the people, made transportation.
Available to everyone.
You have here this conundrum, this contradiction.
The Democrat politicians in Illinois so fear Rob Blagojevich, they passed a law that said Rob Blagojevich cannot run for state or local office.
But at the same time, they passed a law that said if you're a convicted felon, largely the constituency of the Democrat Party, you can run for any state or local office.
I have no idea.
Whether Rod is interested in running for mayor, he certainly has no obligation to do it.
Here's a man who's already served his state and his country with great integrity as a member of the House and as governor, and has been put through the wringer by Barack Obama and his circle of criminals.
But how does this play out?
I mean, the laws seem to contradict each other.
And I can just tell you, having been in Chicago, that people want Rod Blagojevich back in public service.
In the last 48 hours, Roger, I've gotten calls from a variety of different attorneys in downtown Chicago who have all said, I'd be happy to work on this case pro bono because that law...
Banning him from running for office is unconstitutional.
And yet, when they bring up the other law that was passed to allow someone with a convicted felon to run for office, these two laws contradict each other.
And that's the point.
The law specifically for Bogoyevich is he's a convicted felon, so he cannot run for office in Illinois.
But all these years later, they pass another law contradicting that one.
The governor has shared with this publicly and...
And he still, Roger, has another campaign in him because he feels like he was taken out of the ring too soon.
And he said, I've been training.
My mind is ready.
My body is ready.
My heart's ready.
I'd like to get back.
And the race, because he said in the arena, he said, because I think I like a champion fighter.
I think I've got one more fight left in me.
But he's got to get through his hardest primary.
He's won all 14 elections.
He's 14 for 14 in elections.
But he said, I'll tell you, the hardest primary that I'm facing right now is a primary in my own home.
And that's convincing my wife, Patty, to allow her to let me run for office.
And he said, if there were polls right now on this primary, polls would suggest.
That I'm losing, but I'm not but I'm not losing hope.
Over 65% Illinois Review is going to be publishing a story on this, Roger, but over 65% of Chicago's agreed and supported President Trump's full and unconditional pardon of Governor Bogovic the other day.
We're also seeing.
Mayor Brandon Johnson's approval rating is at just 14%, the lowest of any mayor in the history of Chicago, 14% approval rating.
There's no doubt in my mind, there's been smaller sample polls that have gone on, that if Rod Blagojevich were to run for Chicago mayor, he would win that race by a country mile.
And so it's exciting, now that there's partners behind him, it's exciting to see what's in the future, but don't rule out a run for Chicago mayor.
Yeah, I've seen these headlines suggesting that Rod might aspire to be ambassador to Serbia.
Obviously, Serbia is very proud of the fact that he's probably the most famous Serbian-American political leader in America, perhaps the world.
I don't think that's the right job for him.
That's a job for somebody who's retired.
Rod's not retired.
He's got a lot of fight in him.
He's extraordinarily skilled.
I see why.
Obama, the Democrats, had to send him to prison because I think he himself may have become president.
On the other hand, he was the first governor in the country to endorse Barack Obama, and look what he got for his pains.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I admire him.
I'm going to be with him and you this weekend.
Very much looking forward to that.
We're going to be watching this story very, very carefully because I think this could become the second greatest political comeback in American history, second only to that of Donald J. Trump.
As you know, Mark, this is kind of where I end the show today.
President Trump has issued an order to release all of the government's files regarding the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King.
But that's not as easy as it sounds.
And right now, I can tell you, just yesterday, a big story in Axios, broken by their reporter, Mark Caputo, one of the few objective reporters who works for that news outlet, a guy who actually neither left nor right, but kind of goes where the facts lead.
Suddenly, the FBI has come up with a...
2,400 documents about the Kennedy assassination that, you know, maybe they were under the couch or something.
It's hard to know.
14,000 pages of information that we've never seen.
I can tell you, because I know a lot about this, having written a book, The Man Who Killed Kennedy, The Case Against LBJ, it's a New York Times bestseller, that all of the documents that we're interested in finding are not in the JFK assassination archive.
And therefore, Congressman Tim Burchett from Tennessee, who's a real fighter for the taxpayers, a real MAGA loyalist, one of President Trump's favorite congressmen, true fighter for the American people, has written a letter to the president suggesting that he direct all federal agencies,
including the CIA. This is a trick they used before.
My friend James O'Keefe, Investigative journalist who started Project Veritas, now with O'Keefe Media, shocked when the FBI stormed his home to search for Ashley Biden's diary, something that had been given to him by a source, something he'd never written about or publicized or talked about on the air.
He merely had it.
The FBI raided his home.
It was very exciting two days ago, three days ago.
The Justice Department announced they're dropping charges against him.
The charges against him were ridiculous.
I think they were trying to charge him with transporting stolen material across the state line.
But when he demanded to see the probable cause affidavit to justify the raid on his home, every single word was blacked out and redacted.
Every word in the document.
This is what they intend to try to do with the Kennedy documents.
It's telling.
That in 2017, when these documents were supposed to be released, that CIA Director Mike Pompeo interceded with President Trump at the very last minute and got him to hold back 20% of the documents.
Now, if he's the head of the CIA, what does that tell you about what we're about to learn?
There's a lot of curves in the road here.
The bureaucrats are going to try to hide this stuff.
We're going to try to get Congressman Burschit on to lay out the game plan that he's laid out to make sure that doesn't happen.
We've got about two minutes here.
Mark, let's wrap it up on this topic.
Your thought on these upcoming revelations regarding the JFK assassination documents.
Well, you hit the nail on the head, and you continue to do this, Roger, when you talk about how Mike Pompeo, when he was CIA director, how he did not, he opposed the release, the further release of these documents.
Why?
Because he's protecting something.
And I think you were right, protecting the CIA, and we're going to understand the role.
That they played in this, but that was my number one fear, Roger, or concern, not fear, but number one concern is, okay, so they're going to release all these documents, but 99% of it's going to be redacted, and the only thing that we're going to see in the top right-hand corner is perhaps the date, and maybe the and and, while the rest is redacted, and we're not going to learn.
Anything from that.
And that seems to be a deep state trick, an old trick that the deep state will use to make sure that this information remains hidden.
But I appreciate that they're making these efforts because we need full and complete transparency.
And you have been leading the leader on this.
Topic for so long.
And so I can't wait, Roger, to get your analysis as these documents start to become available and what we'll continue to learn and will there be additional bombshells in this new release.
It's going to be really fascinating to tune in here to the Stone Zone to watch your analysis of this.
I checked in with author Gerald Posner, who wrote the book.
Case closed.
He's the last person on earth who actually believes the conclusion of the Warren Commission, actually believes that Lee Harvey Oswald killed John F. Kennedy and acted alone.
I just want to do a wellness check on him.
He's doing okay.
I've asked him to come on with Patrick Ben David on his platform when the documents are finally released.
I understand that he's probably hiding under his desk right now, but hopefully Gerald Posner will come out and duke it out because he literally is the last person on earth who believes that...
Lee Harvey Oswald did this and acted alone.
All right, we have to leave it there.
Folks, on behalf of Mark Marcus and myself, I want to thank you for joining us today on The Stone Zone.
Remember, you can follow us at rumble.com slash Roger Stone, rumble.com slash Roger Stone.
See the show every day at 8 p.m.
There it is.
Just follow us there.
Set the notifications there.
Of course, you always have the option of watching us at worldviewtube.com.
There, we're at 4 o'clock Central, 5 o'clock Eastern.
We really appreciate your tuning in to The Stone Zone.
Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him.
Not everybody, but people love him and respect him.
Roger Stone.
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