The StoneZONE - Roger Stone - The Stone Zone | 12-26-25 Aired: 2025-12-27 Duration: 39:23 === Tomahawk Missiles Strike ISIS (04:44) === [00:00:00] If you're looking to create, grow, and sustain your wealth, download and subscribe to the Pain Points of Wealth podcast at bebullish.com with Bob, Ryan, and Chris Payne. [00:00:11] It's your podcast for market insights, money tips, and real talk on the economy. [00:00:15] Download and subscribe at bebullish.com. [00:00:19] The Stone Zone. [00:00:21] Entertaining and informative. [00:00:23] On the Red Apple Podcast Network. [00:00:26] You are now entering the Stone Zone. [00:00:30] It is the day after Christmas. [00:00:34] It is amazing that just as President Richard Nixon bombed Haiphong Harbor, mined in bomb Haiphong Harbor in Hanoi in North Vietnam to bring the North Vietnamese ultimately to the table for peace talks in Paris, which ended that war ahead of schedule based on what the Pentagon and the defense contractors wanted. [00:01:01] President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering attack, air attack, against ISIS, specifically in Nigeria. [00:01:12] President has made it very clear that the mass slaughter of Christians or Jews is unacceptable anyplace in the world, and he will use American power to deliver a powerful and deadly strike, in this case, with the cooperation and intelligence from the Nigerian government. [00:01:30] The strikes were carried out using what is thought to be six Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from a U.S. Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea, hitting two ISIS camps directly. [00:01:42] Sources consistently say that there were more than a dozen total Tomahawk missiles fired. [00:01:51] No official report as to the total tonnage of bombs dropped or the exact payload weight. [00:01:57] Each conventional Tomahawk missile, the four or five variety, typically use a warhead with approximately a thousand pounds of explosives. [00:02:08] So with more than a dozen Tomahawk missiles, the total payload would be in excess of six tons of bombs, making a very strong statement by President Donald Trump. [00:02:22] President Trump announced that the U.S. forces carried out these precision airstrikes in northwest Nigeria on Christmas night, targeting ISIS militants responsible, as I say, for the mass flaw of Christians across the region. [00:02:36] The operation was conducted, as I say, in coordination with the Nigerian government following weeks of escalating violence and warnings from the White House and extensive consultation between the governments. [00:02:52] And the president described the terrorists as brutal and barbaric, described their attacks against Christian communities. [00:03:00] President Trump said, and I quote, these killings reach levels not seen in years, maybe centuries. [00:03:06] I warned these terrorists that if they did not stop slaughtering Christians, there would be hell to pay. [00:03:12] Tonight there was. [00:03:14] This is, of course, a projection of American power by President Trump is completely consistent with his long-standing position of protecting Christians around the world. [00:03:27] Secretary of the War, Pete Hegseth, was backing the President up, saying the strikes fulfilled the President's earlier warning. [00:03:34] Specifically, Secretary Hegset said the killing of innocent Christians must end. [00:03:38] ISIS must be found out tonight. [00:03:41] More to come. [00:03:42] He also, again, thanked the Nigerian government for its cooperation. [00:03:47] The action follows a surge in jihadist violence, of course, Nigeria, including deadly attacks on churches and mass kidnappings of anyone who worships Jesus Christ as Lord. [00:04:01] In response, the administration has announced new visa restrictions targeting individuals involved specifically in terrorist activities and religious persecution, a move that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, surprisingly emerging from his neocon past to be one of the stalwarts of Trumpism, said the perpetrators would be held accountable. [00:04:25] American foreign policy hasn't not been concerned with the well-being of Christians in a long time, certainly not under Obama, certainly not under Biden. [00:04:35] This is why Trump loves the military, and the military loves Trump. [00:04:40] And it is, I think, appropriate on this Christmas Day. === Silver Bullet Cocktail (04:46) === [00:04:45] You know, I'm one of those people, I don't ever like to buy anything new. [00:04:51] And you can live a lavish appearing lifestyle. [00:04:56] You can live in high style, but you don't have to pay prices, the retail price for anything if you're prepared to shop online. [00:05:06] I have written a long article about how much I like Etsy.com and poshmark.com. [00:05:13] You have to be prepared to shop, but basic things like Gucci loafers or a Davy Blue Blazer or a tasteful regimental necktie can be found at bargain prices. [00:05:26] And therefore, you don't have to be wealthy to be well-dressed. [00:05:30] You can find gently used, sometimes what they call new old stock, which means never use things online, for a fraction of their original retail price. [00:05:39] I'm talking about, you know, a garment or a pair of shoes that was once $3,000 that can now be had for $100. [00:05:48] I'm talking about ties that were once $110, now selling for $17. [00:05:54] And one of my great passions is always to have an extensive collection of cocktail shakers, that device that you use for shaking up the perfect gin or vodka martini. [00:06:07] And they come in all types of nice, cool Art Deco designs. [00:06:13] Some you find them in the shape of a penguin or in the shape of a dirigible. [00:06:23] And they're very Art Deco oriented. [00:06:25] I've never bought one new. [00:06:27] I've always bought them online and I buy ones that have some cool design to add to my collection. [00:06:35] Some of the Italian ones are particularly cool. [00:06:38] A lot of them English and from the 30s. [00:06:40] I bought them at yard sales. [00:06:42] I bought them at secondhand shops. [00:06:44] I bought the thrift shops. [00:06:45] I bought many of them online. [00:06:47] I can honestly say I've never went online and bought one new, I don't believe. [00:06:52] The key to a great cocktail shaker is that it does not, when it gets cold and it freezes and expands, it's impossible to get the top or the cap off. [00:07:02] That is, by definition, not a great cocktail shaker. [00:07:06] Of course, it was Richard Nixon who gave me his very secret martini recipe, which he referred to as the silver bullet. [00:07:15] Nixon was pretty reticent and not given a small talk and certainly not retrospective in any way, except for after he'd had a couple of what he called silver bullets, in his case, a gin martini, which case he got absolutely loquacious. [00:07:32] It was his recipe. [00:07:33] He said you take a bottle of olives, you drain the olive juice, you fill it with water, you put the cap back on, you shake it vigorously, and you rinse out the water. [00:07:45] Then you refill the bottle with dry, not sweet vermouth. [00:07:51] You put it in the refrigerator to chill. [00:07:53] You take two glasses, you put them, you splash them with water, put them in the freezer. [00:07:58] And then you take your cocktail shaker and you fill it with both a combination of shards of ice and also small sized ice cubes and then you completely fill that with either gin or vodka, your choice. [00:08:16] Many people don't believe in shaking gin in a cocktail shaker. [00:08:20] They insist gin should be put in a pitcher and stirred, lest they say it bruises the taste of the gin. [00:08:28] I don't care for gin. [00:08:30] I once got sick on gin and tonics while trying to seduce a young woman unsuccessfully instead of ended up, both of us ended up throwing up. [00:08:40] It was not a great experience. [00:08:41] And I've never been able to smell that juniper smell since then. [00:08:47] So I really point out that in Nixon's famous recipe, he would say, if there are not tiny shards of ice on the surface of the glass, then you've screwed it up. [00:09:01] So obviously you shake your vodka vigorously, you pour it into the chilled glass, and then you retrieve the bottle of olives that have been basically marinating in vermouth and drop one or two of them and there you have the famous silver bullet. [00:09:21] It has to be ice cold for it to be good. [00:09:25] I told Nixon it was a great recipe. [00:09:26] He said that he had inherited it from Winston Churchill. === Duty and Drinks (03:06) === [00:09:31] So that was kind of cool. [00:09:33] Winston Churchill would drink an entire bottle of pink champagne before dinner. [00:09:39] Then he would have dinner. [00:09:41] Then he would follow that with brandy. [00:09:45] And then he, later in the evening, would have a couple of highballs. [00:09:48] He had an extraordinary capacity for alcohol, the man who led Britain in the darkest days of World War II, a man who recognized the dangers of international communism, but only did so in many ways too late. [00:10:05] But he did save his nation. [00:10:08] Anyway, I saw this very, very cool cocktail shaker I wanted to add to my collection, and it was, I think I saw it on one of the websites. [00:10:17] I won't say which one. [00:10:19] And it was only $28. [00:10:21] It was beautiful, but it came from Germany, I believe it was. [00:10:26] So I bought it online. [00:10:27] I used Apple Pay to buy it. [00:10:28] And I got a notice from the local UPS store where it should have been shipped that I had to pay duty on it, but that they did not have a link to the website where I had to go to pay the duty. [00:10:45] And I had received no notification in email or text that duty was due. [00:10:50] So this became a mystery. [00:10:51] I went to the local UPS store where I have a box, and they explained they didn't have it, that I could not pay it using ATM or a credit card through them or through Apple Pay, that I had to connect with the USPS International website. [00:11:08] So I thought that was odd. [00:11:09] They said, well, we can give you an 800 number for them so you can call them and explain that you want to pay the duty and then they'll deliver this package from Germany here after you pay the duties and the customs charges, taxes, if any. [00:11:24] So I tried calling this 800 number, but I would find out that it would have, you know, six and eight hour, 20 hour waits for customer service. [00:11:34] Meanwhile, I still have no email notifying me that my cocktail shaker is sitting in a locker someplace in South Florida and can't be delivered to my box until I pay this duty. [00:11:48] The whole thing becomes an extraordinary bureaucratic nightmare. [00:11:53] And what makes it even odder is that the deliveryman for USPS, who somehow has my phone number but not my email address, texts me a photo of him holding up an open cell phone and showing that his phone is open to the link where I have to go to pay the duties. [00:12:13] Of course, he doesn't respond to my text messages to him. [00:12:16] How he got my number, I have no idea, but it was an extraordinary game. [00:12:24] I can't tell you how much I think that you can find amazing things, arts and crafts, custom-made clothing, the old Ralph Lauren line. === John Brennan's National Security Claim (15:47) === [00:12:38] He brought back Ivy League style, classic American style. [00:12:41] You find all these things online. [00:12:43] They don't have to be new. [00:12:44] And you can dress like a king or dress like you went to private school, even if you didn't make it through the first grade. [00:12:52] I strongly recommend it. [00:12:54] Once again, you're looking for the basics if you're a young man. [00:12:58] The key is you don't have to be wealthy to be well-dressed and well-groomed. [00:13:03] And that is precisely my point. [00:13:06] I wrote a book, Stone's Rules About It, which I commend to you. [00:13:10] And coming up this New Year's Day will be my 16th annual international men's and women's best and worst dressed list. [00:13:22] This is a custom that I picked up from the late Mr. Blackwell. [00:13:26] He was the syndicated columnist who passed 17 years ago when I picked up this torch. [00:13:33] So look for that. [00:13:35] Finding men and women of truly great style today and this year, each year gets harder and harder and harder. [00:13:43] But we have an incredible list this week. [00:13:45] And again, I will release that as I have every year on New Year's Day. [00:13:50] The only year I didn't do so was when I was gagged by a federal judge and unallowed to comment on anything during the mother witch hunt days. [00:14:02] But I'm still picking out the key pictures. [00:14:05] I'm still making final selections. [00:14:08] There is a radio talk show host, not on a Red Apple station, but one far away who tried to bribe his way onto the list. [00:14:18] But it doesn't work that way. [00:14:20] I'm Roger Stone. [00:14:20] You'll listen to the Stone Zone, and we'll be right back. [00:14:26] Rural Americans deserve access to the best of what our nation has to offer, especially health care. [00:14:32] Across every state and every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones. [00:14:41] No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out. [00:14:44] They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. [00:14:49] Each year, America's over 5,000 hospitals care for millions of patients, providing 24-7 emergency care, delivering babies, cancer treatments, and other life-saving care that patients rely on. [00:15:02] Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe. [00:15:10] Hospitals are our community's lifelines. [00:15:12] They employ our neighbors and keep our families healthy. [00:15:15] But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care. [00:15:19] Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong. [00:15:23] Don't cut rural health care. [00:15:29] The Stone Zone. [00:15:30] Entertaining and informative. [00:15:33] The Red Apple Podcast Network. [00:15:36] I appreciate those warm words from JD Vance. [00:15:39] JD Vance gave one of the most important and I think impactful speeches I have seen at the Turning Point USA's America Fest in Phoenix, Arizona last weekend. [00:15:49] We played a couple clips from was truly inspirational and very focused, telling conservatives, Trump supporters, free thinkers, independents, people not captive of the far left to stay focused on the dangers of the progressive Marxist left and instead of fighting with each other. [00:16:07] Some criminals are just so dumb, it's beyond belief. [00:16:10] Florida Democrat Congresswoman Sheila Sheriffelius McCormick is facing additional major scrutiny after she appeared to digitally try to remove a luxury diamond ring from her Christmas Day social media post. [00:16:25] This was just weeks after she was indicted on federal charges tied to stealing $5 million from FEMA. [00:16:35] She's currently under indictment, but she then has her picture taken wearing a $109,000 diamond bracelet. [00:16:47] Then she tries to actually delete it from her images after it is too late. [00:16:54] Critics say the congresswoman is trying to erase the evidence of the alleged corruption. [00:16:59] This after she previously is photographed wearing a gold bracelet that was estimated to be worth $300,000. [00:17:07] All this controversy stems from a November 19th federal indictment charging the Democrat Congresswoman Sheriff Phyllis McCormick and her brother Edwin with orchestrating a scheme to siphon off $5 million in FEMA funds intended for COVID-19 emergency service. [00:17:25] Prosecutors say their family-owned company, the Trinity Healthcare Service, inflated invoices through a decimal point manipulation that resulted in massive federal overpayments. [00:17:36] According to the indictment against the Democrat congresswoman, some money was laundered through various accounts used to pay for things like a 3.4 carat yellow diamond purchased from a New York jeweler. [00:17:48] That ring later appeared in the congresswoman's official House portrait. [00:17:52] House records also show that the congresswoman loaned her own campaign $6.2 million. [00:17:58] Money prosecutors say was derived from various fraudulent schemes. [00:18:03] She pled not guilty to all 15 charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, and illegal campaign financing. [00:18:11] And the Democrat Congresswoman Sher Phyllis McCormick was released on $60,000 bond. [00:18:20] Her original victory was celebrated as a victory for diversity and female empowerment. [00:18:28] But all we got here was a DEI fraudster up to her nose in thievery. [00:18:33] I'm Roger Stone to listen to the Stone Zone here on the Red Apple Audio Networks and we'll be right back. [00:18:44] The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network. [00:18:51] Welcome back into the Stone Zone. [00:18:53] Well, here is some sign of hope. [00:18:56] According to Just The News, two criminal attorneys who represent former CIA director John Brennan both publicly acknowledged that their client is the target of a federal investigation into his activities while CIA director, specifically, of course, around the Russian collusion hoax that he helped create. [00:19:18] And they've actually filed an action with a federal judge to ask a judge to order the Justice Department to stop any further investigation of the role of John Brennan. [00:19:31] So Brennan is, this is a Hail Mary Press. [00:19:34] He's hoping that he gets a liberal activist judge, like so many of these controversial cases do, and that he, at a minimum, gets a temporary hold against an ongoing investigation. [00:19:49] Now, I have said for some time that I believed that you had plausibly a long-ranging seditious conspiracy, meaning the issue that the coup d'etat that begins in a White House meeting with Barack Obama in the chair, I believe it is April 17th, 2016, [00:20:15] where the Hillary plan is basically approved and where they utilize the falsified intelligence assessment regarding Trump's ties to Moscow based on the completely fraudulent steel dossier. [00:20:31] That continues into the full-blown Russian collusion hoax, including Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton's national security advisor, later Biden's national security advisor, announcing that Trump had a computer terminal link with a bank in Moscow, the Alpha Bank in Moscow, which turns out to be completely and totally untrue. [00:20:59] But that particular smear was approved by Hillary herself as well as Jake Sullivan. [00:21:06] So the outrageousness of this criminal, Brennan, who is a convert to radical Muslim, who I believe as the station chief in Riyadh, signed the visa for four of the hijackers who we are told attacked America on 9-11. [00:21:28] John Brennan, who got caught red-handed spying on a Senate committee that was investigating his use of illegal torture. [00:21:40] He got busted there, paid no penalty. [00:21:44] The same John Brennan who lied the Steele dossier into that assessment, even though he knew it was faulty. [00:21:52] This is the same John Brennan who signed on and helped move the 51 intelligence assets, former and current, who said that Hunter Biden's laptop and its shocking contents of bribery and money laundering and pay-to-play and involvement with the Chinese and the Russians and so much more, [00:22:17] as well as Hunter's depravity and drug use, was not real, that it was the product of Russian disinformation, which of course turned out not to be true. [00:22:30] The New York Post broke that story. [00:22:32] The Hunter Biden laptop is indeed real. [00:22:35] They were temporarily banned on Twitter, seems like 100 years ago, only to turn out to be right. [00:22:43] 17% of voters told one poll of voters who said they voted for Joe Biden now say, had they known that Hunter Biden's laptop contents were real, they would not have voted for Biden. [00:22:56] So you see the importance of suppressing this story. [00:23:01] And you can find the full compendium of Hunter Biden's laptop if you go to marcopolo.org, marcopolo.org. [00:23:12] That is the nonprofit organization headed by Garrett Ziegler, who is a relative of Ron Ziegler, who was the secretary, the press spokesman, press secretary, essentially, communications director for President Richard Nixon. [00:23:29] Ziegler has painstakingly and faithfully recreated the entire contents of Hunter Biden's laptop. [00:23:38] He has thoughtfully added footnoting so you can understand it a little better, but he doesn't change the substance and he has blurred the most pornographic of pictures so it's safe to have your copy around the house. [00:23:52] It is very, very much worth looking at. [00:23:55] The gall of John Brennan saying you can't investigate me because of national security gives one hope. [00:24:03] Fox had announced some weeks ago that the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Florida, the logical place for this case, had sent out subpoenas to Brennan as well as Andrew McCabe and Lisa Page of the FBI and others. [00:24:23] Now, the reason I say Florida is because if this is a continuing seditious conspiracy, I would argue it's born in the White House. [00:24:31] It goes through the 2016 election and the Russian collusion attempt to remove Trump. [00:24:37] It is behind the two failed impeachment attempts. [00:24:44] It takes you to what I think is widespread fraud in the 2020 election that was abandoned by COVID-19 restrictions on the country, which destroyed Donald Trump's campaigning style. [00:24:58] He had to shut down his famous rallies. [00:25:02] As soon as the COVID restrictions were over and he and he began campaigning again in 2020 in his set piece rallies, he began to rise again in the polls. [00:25:11] It's an interesting phenomena that I noticed. [00:25:15] But then it takes you through the January 6th adventure, the efforts by the deep state to insist over and over again that the formation of alternative elector slates is somehow seditious or traitorous, which it's not. [00:25:33] It's a long legal history of it in the United States. [00:25:36] When state's reaches election results are being challenged in the courts, and you don't know the outcome of those challenges, you would form a farm electoral board of electors for the Electoral College as a precaution in the event that you won your litigation. [00:25:54] But they wanted to put Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell and many fine Michigan Republicans completely, put them in jail. [00:26:05] They did the same thing in Nevada. [00:26:08] And then, of course, it takes us to the January 6th investigation of Trump by Jack Smith, the so-called documents case, which makes no sense at all because there is no reason to launch a raid on Mar-a-Lago, the home of a former president. [00:26:24] We learned just last week that those at the senior reaches the FBI, arguing with the Justice Department, were opposed to raiding Trump's property, said that there was not probable cause to do so. [00:26:35] They were overruled in that shocking act on a former president. [00:26:41] Again, the claim was that he had held on to classified documents that he wasn't entitled to have. [00:26:47] But under the Presidential Records Act, it is absolutely true that he's entitled to have any document he wants, that he can declassify documents simply by touching it, simply by having it and declaring it declassified. [00:27:01] He can certainly retain it. [00:27:03] It's interesting that the judge in my case, Judge Amy Berman Jackson, also the judge who sat in judgment of Paul Maynafort, a total partisan, a vicious, vicious Trump-hating partisan, even she ruled in a previous case that President Bill Clinton was entitled to have classified documents anywhere he wanted them. [00:27:29] He had them in his SOC draw in Chappaqua, New York. [00:27:32] So Trump was entitled to have whatever documents. [00:27:35] There was never any read for the invasive raid on Mar-a-Lago. [00:27:40] The FBI rooted through Melania's underwear draw, the same way they rooted through my wife's underwear draw after they stormed our home at 6 o'clock in the morning. [00:27:52] And of course, that therefore means that the conspiracy, which is ongoing, I would argue, continues to Florida, making the U.S. attorney Jason Cronis for the Southern District of Florida the perfect person to prosecute these crimes. [00:28:07] I specifically say that the classified documents as released by Hillary Clinton, pardon me, as released by Tosi Gabbard, and additional information as released regarding Hillary Clinton demonstrate without any question whatsoever that there was a seditious conspiracy, === Venezuela's Uncertain Future (10:01) === [00:28:25] that they knowingly used two places of fabricated evidence, the so-called steel dossier, which was paid for by Hillary Clinton and alleged that Donald Trump, while visiting Russia as a private businessman, had dallied with Russian prostitutes, including the salacious claim that Trump watched these prostitutes urinate on a bed previously employed by President or used by President Barack Obama on an official visit. [00:28:54] This was a completely fabricated report. [00:28:56] And then there was the false claim that the Russians had conducted an online hack of the Democrat National Committee, and that information had somehow made its way to WikiLeaks and perhaps even to the Trump campaign. [00:29:09] That's also a Faghazi. [00:29:12] There was no online hack. [00:29:14] The download times of the theft of material show that it was downloaded to some portable drive and taken out the back door. [00:29:24] So there never was any online Russian hack. [00:29:26] The FBI admitted in my trial that they had never inspected the computer servers of the DNC. [00:29:34] But those were the twin pillars to pin Russian interference on Donald Trump. [00:29:41] I just got to be a bit actor in that particular outrage. [00:29:47] So Brennan now asking a federal judge to put him beyond the law. [00:29:52] Everybody is equal under law. [00:29:53] Nobody is above the law. [00:29:55] That's what Brennan and the left used to say about Trump. [00:29:57] That's what we now say about them. [00:29:59] President Trump turning up the pressure on Maduro. [00:30:02] Maduro is a public relations wizard. [00:30:05] I must say, this guy runs a brutal narco-state. [00:30:10] I don't think people understand that the United States gets between 200 and 250 million metric tons of cocaine from Venezuela annually. [00:30:21] That's $17.5 billion approximately in street value. [00:30:27] Venezuela serves primarily as a transit country for cocaine produced in Colombia with roots including air, land, and sea. [00:30:36] Not all of the cocaine that ends up in Venezuela is destined for the United States. [00:30:41] It's kind of a kind of a cocaine hub where Maduro serves Europe, the Caribbean, West Africa, and other markets. [00:30:51] In fact, the United States, they say, is only getting somewhere between 8 and 20% of the product coming through Venezuela. [00:31:03] To me, this rather than regime change could be the single most important reason to take Maduro out. [00:31:12] Maduro has been posing with Catholic priests and endlessly criticizing America's endless wars, citing our interventions in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and other foreign policy disasters. [00:31:28] He keeps talking about his desire for peace. [00:31:33] He was actually recorded singing, Don't Worry, Be Happy, which you don't see many brutal dictators doing that. [00:31:40] Yet his economy is destroyed and he is fearful, I'm told, of some solomani type takeout, which I think is highly unlikely. [00:31:53] But Donald Trump is going to fulfill the Trump doctrine here. [00:31:58] There's a big question about what would happen in Venezuela post-Maduro if Maduro really is removed or whether he leaves. [00:32:08] That is still an open question in my view. [00:32:13] But Marco Rubio is very adamant here. [00:32:15] And folks, it's very, very much about drugs and American lives rather than regime champions, although Marxism cannot be accepted here, nor in Honduras, nor in Cuba, because they all engage in narco-Marxism, narco-Marxist drug trafficking, killing Americans. [00:32:34] listening to the roger stone right here on the stone zone show and we'll be right back the stone zone Entertaining and informative. [00:32:50] On the Red Apple Podcast Network. [00:32:53] We're back in the Stone Zone. [00:32:54] I'm very, very wise to the ways of the swamp, having spent 40 years, almost 50, in the corroded rectum of the two-party system. [00:33:04] And it's not clear that Maduro will be ultimately removed in Venezuela. [00:33:09] There are fissures around Trump. [00:33:12] Some advisors suggest that Maduro should be allowed to remain. [00:33:17] Others say that he should be allowed to leave, but retain no wealth or power, just leave without and get safe passage. [00:33:26] Others insist on his complete removal. [00:33:30] But then what would happen if he did leave? [00:33:32] Maria Carina Machado, who of course was given the Nobel Peace Prize, who has dedicated that prize to President Trump. [00:33:40] Many argue that she won the last real election. [00:33:43] Maduro and the Chavistas had to cheat to hold on to it. [00:33:48] Some argue she should be one of, say, nine commissioners who have a transitory period in which they prepare for new elections. [00:33:57] A lot of this is about the oil, folks. [00:33:58] There's a lot of powerful interests in Washington who are looking at those oil deposits in those oil wells in Venezuela. [00:34:09] Although Venezuela makes far, far more money through narco-trafficking than they could even make as one of the oil, the country's oil producers. [00:34:16] Also, their crude is not as desirable as the crude oil from, say, Nigeria, where they have what they call Bonnie-like crude. [00:34:28] It is an oil, a natural oil with a much lower sulfur content and therefore costs much less to refine into products like gasoline and motor oil and other products. [00:34:42] So it is going to be very interesting to watch this particular war. [00:34:49] I was thinking about a Twilight moment, a Twilight Zone moment in my life. [00:34:54] I was working in Bermuda. [00:34:55] I was working for the United Bermuda Party. [00:34:58] I represented them in two parliamentary elections. [00:35:00] They were the multi-racial and more conservative free enterprise pro-U.S. party in Bermuda. [00:35:10] John Swan, their very charismatic and photogenic premier, was my client and their candidate. [00:35:19] He brought a great growth and stability to Bermuda. [00:35:23] There were only two flights out of the airport in Bermuda. [00:35:29] It was a small facility, a chain link fence, and there was one flight a day to New York and one flight a day to Washington, where I lived. [00:35:42] And I rushed to the airport to get the flight. [00:35:47] I was assigned, it was both American airline flights. [00:35:50] I was assigned C-16C, which was interesting because 16C was the famous rule number that the Reagan forces introduced at the 76th convention to try to require that Gerald Ford name his running mate prior to the ballot for president because Ford had promised the vice presidency to at least five people in order to beat Reagan at the 76th convention. [00:36:15] So I went to, got on the plane and I went to my seat and there was a man sitting and I said, pardon me, I think that may be my seat. [00:36:24] And he pulled out his ticket and he was in the right seat, but his name was Roger Stone. [00:36:30] And then I looked on the luggage tag on his briefcase. [00:36:34] It was under the seat in front of him. [00:36:35] And sure enough, it said Roger Stone. [00:36:38] I realized that I had meant to be on the flight for Washington. [00:36:41] I had mistakenly gotten on the flight to New York. [00:36:43] I quickly departed and made my flight to Washington, but not before I asked him whether he was the Roger Stone, the environmentalist who lived in Georgetown. [00:36:56] He said yes. [00:36:57] He says, you know, one of the things that always confounded my wife and I, we kept getting invited to state dinners and other events at the Reagan White House, and I don't even like Ronald Reagan. [00:37:10] So that Roger Stone had been getting all of my invitations during those salad days of Ronald Reagan. [00:37:17] But what are the odds? [00:37:19] What are the odds? [00:37:20] I went to C-16C on the other American flight, which went to Washington, D.C. By the way, the United Bermuda Party won both elections under my leadership and would go on to be a solid party for the country. [00:37:35] But ultimately, even Bermuda would lurch to the left, and its tourism industry would get hurt very badly because of that lurch to the left. [00:37:45] Thanks for joining us today in the Stone Zone. [00:37:48] Until we meet again, God bless you and Godspeed. [00:37:53] Thanks for listening to the Stone Zone with Roger Stone. [00:37:56] You can hear the Stone Zone with Roger Stone weeknights at 8 on 77 WABC. [00:38:03] If you like the podcast, share it with your friends and listen anytime at WABCRadio.com and download the WABC Radio app. [00:38:11] Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms. [00:38:15] Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X. See you next time for a new episode. [00:38:22] So you never have to wonder what the heck is going on here. === WABC's Community Lifelines (00:56) === [00:38:26] Rural Americans deserve access to the best of what our nation has to offer, especially health care. [00:38:32] Across every state and every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones. [00:38:41] No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out. [00:38:44] They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. [00:38:50] Each year, America's over 5,000 hospitals care for millions of patients, providing 24-7 emergency care, delivering babies, cancer treatments, and other life-saving care that patients rely on. [00:39:02] Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe. [00:39:11] Hospitals are our community's lifelines. [00:39:13] They employ our neighbors and keep our families healthy. [00:39:16] But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care. [00:39:19] Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.