The Stone Zone dissects Don Lemon’s legal risks—from a 2024 Minnesota church disruption tied to ICE opposition to potential Klan Act violations—while contrasting his media tactics with Adam Clayton Powell Jr.’s decorum. It ties Trump’s 98.6% conservative approval to economic wins like tariffs and Fannie Mae privatization, then pivots to Venezuela, where Maria Corina Machado’s Nobel advocacy clashes with her socialist ties. The episode frames Trump’s Iraq withdrawal and ISIS negotiations as pragmatic, contrasting past blunders, before linking rural healthcare to broader policy failures. [Automatically generated summary]
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The Stone Zone.
Entertaining and informative on the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Welcome to the Stone Zone.
Could former CNN talking head Don Lemon, a guy referred to as Don Limone by my good friend Tucker Carlson, be in the hot seat.
Don Lemon, a storied career as a CNN anchor and agent provocateur for the far left.
Who can forget the lawsuit in which he was sued by a young man because at a gay bar on Long Island one summer, Don in an inebriated state put his hands down his pants, pulled them out, put them under the youth's nose and says smell good.
And that lawsuit was finally settled, as I understand.
He is a Trump hater par excellence, and now it appears that he may actually be in some trouble.
It's a long fall from CNN.
I believe he's with News Nation now, although he may be doing his own podcast.
I'm not sure that anyone is carrying the would-be star, but yes, there is active talk that he could be legally liable because he was just kind of standing by and just happened to be there when a Black Life Matter contingent and other radicals attacked a Christian service in the state of Minnesota.
A terrorist attack on a house of worship during a service or a mass or any other ritual of that religion cannot be tolerated.
And this is one of the most chilling videos I've ever seen.
And a senior department of department of justice official is now announcing essentially a crackdown on extremists who masquerade as journalists.
That's exactly what Don Lemon is here.
Exploiting that date next year in a deceptive attempt to operate above the law.
Basically, while he's claiming to cover politics, he's really engaged in politics.
On Monday, Assistant Attorney General Harmit Dylan, good friend of mine, floated the possibility of federal charges against the former CNN host Don Lemon following his involvement in this outrageous anti-ICE disruption at a Minneapolis church.
Dylan referenced the Civil Rights Act of 1871, commonly known as the Klan Act, because it was first used against the Democrat risen in the South, Ku Klux Klan.
And it explains that it could be used whenever individuals are conspired to violate civil rights of any American.
That's what the Klan Act is, Klan Act of 1871.
In this case, the churchgoers attendering a Sunday service found themselves targeted by radical activists accusing the pastor David Easterwood of cooperating with ICE as he should be required to do by law.
That means supporting the immigration, customs, and enforcement officers.
Lemon was reportedly interviewing protesters before the incident and then following them into church as they disrupted the service.
It was clear that Lemon was a fellow traveler of this hate-fest, anti-Christian mob attacking people at the time of worship.
If there were ever any greater piece of evidence for President Donald Trump and the fact that it's time to enact the Insurrection Act of 1807, which is that rare codicil of law,
of the Constitution, the one exception in which armed forces can be used to enforce order on the United States soil is this so-called loophole put in the law by the founding fathers who were wary of a police state.
So Dylan, the special assistant attorney general, essentially, according to Dylan, later acknowledged that he knew advance what would occur inside the facility.
That for noting Lemon's actions were a participation, not legitimate journalism.
Dylan, the Assistant Attorney General, is arguing that material support for disruptive activity, conspiracy to violate civil rights, and the use of media platforms as instruments of unlawful conduct could be relevant to prosecute Lemon under the Klan Act.
Don Lemon, unfortunately, getting less and less relevant.
For years, these left media figures have been hiding behind their press credentials, always embedding themselves in the subversive activity, helping to orchestrate the actual attacks on law enforcement, border security, religious institutions.
Conservatives have long warned that this double standard completely erodes the rule of law and chills the constitutional rights of ordinary Americans.
The answer now is whether equal justice will finally be applied, if you ask me.
If so-called journalists knowingly exist exercising their faith, their free faith or association, the First Amendment does not grant them immunity.
We need to charge these lowlifes and we need to lock them up, starting unfortunately with Don Lemon.
Don Lemon lost me.
It was a New Year's Eve, and he and his inebriated white boyfriend, now I believe they're married, would be hosting the CNN show.
And Don Lemon appeared in an impeccably cut tartan shawl-collar tuxedo jacket, black pants, a starched formal shirt, and this is where he lost me.
No bow tie.
No bow tie.
That is just one of the great wastes.
And therefore, Don Lemon did not make my I guess I was probably in my 14th year or my 13th year of my international best and worst address list that I put out, you know, as like clockwork every New Year's Day.
The one year that I didn't publish it was the year that a federal judge had me an unconstitutional gag, and I wasn't allowed to comment on any public issue, but most particularly I wasn't allowed to defend myself in the Russian collusion hoax.
But I know Lemon well.
I had an apartment first on the Upper East Side, and then I moved into gentrified Harlem, lived right off of Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard.
Adam Clayton Powell, one of the true great leaders of civil rights, Adam Clayton Powell used to infuriate the old white Senate bulls in the House and the Senate in the Congress.
He was impeccably clad.
He had a thin pencil mustache.
He was impossibly handsome.
He was the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
He could pass, as they say.
He was a man of impeccable style, a great dresser.
He was elected to the House, and he rose through the ranks to become chairman of the Powerful Appropriations Committee.
He had an excellent relationship with Lyndon Baines Johnson, the vice president who became president.
He brought a lot of bacon home for New York.
He was ultimately jammed up in a scandal.
There were several around him.
He was a rogue.
He was a ladiesman.
He was impossibly handsome.
He drove a powder blue Jaguar convertible, a 1938 Mark, pardon me, I guess it was a Mark V or Mark VI Jaguar convertible that he would purposely park at the base of the Capitol where they had valets where all the segregationist senators could see them.
Widespread Uprisings and BLM00:03:42
It aggravated the heck out of them, reportedly.
But in any event, what you have here in this particular case is John Lemon, no longer a journalist, an activist.
If he was interviewing people before this vile attack on the church, then he had time to warn ICE and law enforcement or others that there was a high potential for violence.
If you've seen the video, it is horrific.
The children watching all of this look like this possibility is very real.
This comes the day after a BLM spokesman, you heard it right here in the Stone Zone, said it was time to burn the city down to get their attention.
Now, I, for one, believe that one of the great tests of the last four years was when you had widespread uprisings, let's call them that, in the United States, run by BLM and Antifa across the Pacific Northwest and in many major cities where hundreds of millions of dollars of public and private property was destroyed,
where at least 37 people were killed, where thousands were injured, and the amount of fires was extraordinary.
And very, very few people have actually ever been charged in this horrific uprising.
The president could have enacted the Insurrection Act then.
There was some talk of him doing so.
But he ultimately was convinced, I think, by his advisors, that it was the governor's prerogative to call out the National Guard rather than order them out.
And every governor in those states where they were having widespread problems delayed.
Tim Waltz was very late.
Minneapolis, St. Paul, was already burning.
But Tim Waltz, the governor who was the vice presidential candidate's wife, said when she flung open the French doors in the morning, she loved the smell of the city burning because it reminded her of the fight for justice.
That's the kind of thinking we're dealing with here.
And that insurrection across the country was not put down forcefully.
But now history is repeating itself.
And what you see in Minnesota is a situation that is spinning out of control.
If local law enforcement and state law enforcement will not enforce the law, then federal law enforcement must.
It's required in the Constitution.
There's a complete abdication in the city of Chicago.
J.B. Pritzker, the Orotund would-be candidate for president, and Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has a 6% approval rating at this moment, have essentially passed through a provision of law that prevents the Chicago Police Department to coming to the physical aid of an ICE agent whose life may be endangered by protesters or other criminals.
Legal experts who have looked at this say that Pritzker and Johnson could both be found personally liable, significant in the fact that the governor, J.B. Pritzker, is a billionaire 20 times over.
He's worth billions.
Reagan's Political Survival00:16:02
But beyond that, we've just learned that the state has basically enhanced and put contracts into his blind trust that give his earnings, the earnings of his family-owned Hyatt Corporation, just blows them through the sky.
So he's self-dealing.
Before this scandal's over, it's going to make the Somali stuff going on in Minnesota look like small potatoes.
But J.B. Pritzker, another elitist billionaire, but dipping into the public system to help himself.
I never understood this.
I saw it with Dick Cheney.
He stepped down from Halliburton, where he owned a big ton of stock, and he knows his stock was put in a blind trust.
And then, of course, he convinced the American people to go to war in Iraq under a number of false pretenses.
And his Halliburton stock skyrocketed in value.
So how blind is the trust?
These politicians pull this one all the time.
We'll talk more about it on the other side when we come back right here in the Stone Zone.
Got more hot politics for you on the way.
So please stand by.
Keep listening.
We'll be right back.
Rural Americans deserve access to the best of what our country has to offer, especially health care.
Across every state, every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones.
No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out.
They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
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.
Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe.
Hospitals are our community's lifelines.
They employ our neighbors and keep our families healthy.
But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care.
Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.
Don't cut rural health care.
The Stone Zone.
Entertaining and informative.
On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Welcome back into the Stone Zone.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
I started as a traditional conservative Republican and a full-fledged swamp creature before I became an outsider and recognized the elitist elements that have dominated both parties that are destroying our country.
Sure, I'm proud to be a member of the party of Lincoln, the party of Theodore Roosevelt, the party of Eisenhower, the party of Nixon, of course, Reagan and Trump.
That's my Republican party.
On the other hand, I also recognize that we still have, even after Donald Trump took over the Republican Party in the hostile takeover of 2016 and has fully dominated it, easily turning back a number of politicians who thought they could wrest the nomination from him, like Governor Ron DeSantis, Governor Nikki Haley, operating behind the scenes,
former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, all maneuvering to succeed Trump when Trump went to jail in the tsunami of Lawford.
All of these people were out there planning for a day that never came because Trump had the courage to fight it out.
And it just remains to me that they continue to underestimate him.
The ovation he got at the college game was, you know, I think is a closer measure of where he stands with the American people.
The polling is kind of all over the place.
Trump had thunderous applause this past Monday, if you didn't hear it, at the college football playoff in Miami, the most football crazy town there is, choosing to spend Martin Luther King's federal holiday alongside every American celebrating one of the nation's most cherished traditions.
Fresh off a long weekend at Mar-Lago, where my friends saw him dining.
He watched the football game like most red-blooded Americans, and then he headed to the game in Miami.
President Trump has always been a great, great football fleet.
And if you heard that crowd and you look at the polls that left-wing media outlets are reducing, you're seeing and hearing two different things.
We'll talk about it when we come back.
You're listening to Stone Zone on the Red Apple Audio Networks, and we've got more politics for you on the other side.
The Stone Zone.
Entertaining and informative.
On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Welcome back into the Stone Zone.
You know, working as a political strategist for many years, I've had a time and the responsibility of reading an enormous amount of sophisticated polling, what we call survey research, and recognizing a number of things about it.
The most important thing to remember is that any poll is a snapshot in time.
In other words, it is valid at that exact moment that it is taken and tabulated.
But in the volatility of our politics today, people change their opinions quickly, and poll numbers can shift very quickly.
So while there are some mainstream polls today who have given President Trump a net unfavorable rating, what they fail to recognize, those same polls, reflect the rock-solid nature of his base, which of course is at an all-time high for Republicans.
The importance of base is essentially How he continues to win not only 2026 election, but obviously for his party.
He is obviously, I think, very freed by the fact that he cannot and he's not running for re-election, whatever stinky Steve Bannon may have tried to say.
The Constitution's quite clear about that.
It says no person may be elected two times.
Doesn't say they have to be contiguous.
And in fact, Donald Trump is only the second president in our history to serve two non-consecutive terms.
Interestingly enough, it was Grover Cleveland, a conservative Democrat, governor of New York, who won, then lost a disputed election.
I think that was 1888, I believe, actually 1888, only to come back four years later and serve another four years as an extremely conservative, sound-minded Democrat, a New Yorker like Donald Trump and a scrappy survivor.
But Trump, it's among Trump's base that interests me the most.
I mean, Richard Nixon survived in American politics because even at the lowest levels of Watergate, he had a solid 35 to 38% of the American people who stuck with him through thick and thin.
And he had a constituency.
And that was in his darkest days.
He survived after the 1960 election because he had lost such a close race.
And he had a core constituency in the parties that supported him, started him on the comeback trail.
But he essentially reassembled himself.
But with Donald Trump, his numbers are superlative beyond anything I have seen.
In other words, I also worked for Ronald Reagan, had an opportunity as his Northwest political director for two campaigns.
The first one, in which I had responsibility for New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
It's where I met the great George Clark, who was then the Brooklyn County Republican Party chairman, and also Yonkers Mayor James F. Excel Rourke, who was our Reagan chairman for the state.
Westchester County Sheriff Dan McMahon, another strong early supporter of Ronald Reagan, in what was a truly great campaign.
Of course, the local Republican establishment was locked up for George H.W. Bush, or Poppy, as they called him.
We ended up filing petitions to run Reagan delegates in every district in the state.
But many party leaders saw the wisdom of endorsing Reagan early.
Therefore, the Nassau County delegates controlled by then County Chairman Joe Marciata became Reagan delegates.
And one by one these party chieftains would fall and everything fell into place.
The point is that base is everything and probably and nothing has rattled Donald Trump.
He has 96% approval ratings among Republicans, 98.6% among conservatives, in many reputable polls.
There is, despite the fact that there is not total approvement with all of the policies of the Trump administration, his cutting taxes, his cutting registration, his initiating his tough tariff policies, he's switching to seeing every question put before the federal government through one simple prism.
What is best for the United States of America?
Because you see, Trump likes to win.
Trump's a winner, and he wants to see America win.
So he wants to make the country as rich and as prosperous and as powerful as he can.
And these tariff deals have brought literally billions of dollars to America's bottom line.
And there's and more money to be had.
You also have a president who has unleashed a gas and oil explosion, which is why gasoline prices, which until recently plagued Republicans as they plagued Joe Biden, as the number two or sometimes even number one issue when you ask people how to judge their personal financial strength, what was their greatest concern, ranked repeatedly in all the polls.
Because gas prices have now dropped so much, it has dropped to people's fifth or sixth concern, with food prices continuing to lead the list.
But the other thing I can tell you is clever pollsters and researchers such as Tony Fabrizio and others tell me is that the fundamentals are essentially still in place.
There's no erosion in the president's support and there is strong support for these revenues entering the country.
And then people should also recognize that Trump will get a boost when a non-politicized Federal Reserve Board gives the country the interest rate it deserves.
If you use the unemployment rate and the inflation rate as the two measures which, by law, they're supposed to measure by the two things that were not as beneficial then as they are today or challenging as they are today when the FED cut rates for Joe Biden to try to help him get re-elected.
So why can't we have a deep cut now?
The economic indicators that we're due this cut with low inflation and low unemployment, both lower than the last time they cut rates.
So it's Jerome Powell who's actually the one who's acting politically, but that will also give Trump a lift for the 2026 elections.
The food prices have come down, but they're not down low enough, but they will go much lower.
Gas prices are already low.
Interestingly, affordable housing is now an issue that was really kind of first identified by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his presidential campaign, but has now moved into second place as the availability and cost of housing becomes a major problem for many Americans.
Part of that problem, of course, is caused by the influx of illegals seeking to rent properties that are available, particularly low-cost properties.
That's one of the issues, but high mortgage rates have made it difficult, and a tighter economy have made it difficult in the Biden years for home ownership to become a reality for millions of Americans.
In Bill Pulsey, formerly with the Pulcey home family, the president appointed a tiger as the federal housing and finance agency.
Not only has he ferreted out mortgage fraud in multiple cases, such as New York Attorney General Latiji James, Senator Adam Schiff, and even Congressman Eric Swawal.
He is working with others about whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-owned mortgage companies, which Bill Pulce also chairs as the head of FHFA, should be taken public.
They have now billions of dollars of worth.
Donald Trump could take them to the public markets, but maintain U.S. government control of them and literally reap hundreds of billions of dollars for the United States.
So all of these things will happen between the 20 and 26 elections.
It's pretty clear to me that the entreaties of the Ms. Machado, Maria Corina Machado, the would-be opposition leader to Donald Trump, have failed.
While it may have been a nice gesture for her to give him the Nobel Peace Prize that actually I think he deserved, given the fact that he ended eight conflicts around the war.
People I know in the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Rwanda individually have told me how much they appreciate Donald Trump's successful effort to end that bloody conflict after decades.
Just another example why Trump should be given the Nobel Peace Prize.
Venezuelan Regime Disarmament00:09:00
But Machado talks a great game, but when I began to do deep, deep research, I found that she had supported the disarming of all of the Venezuelan people, which is, of course, what has allowed the Machados and those, pardon me, not the Machados, but the Maduros and those before him just to suppress the people.
And she also showed up at a number of these international socialist gatherings that really make you wonder what her real politics is.
Our own CIA, of course, always props up opposition, but that doesn't mean that the opposition isn't kind of created or reinvented itself.
And then some of the people around Machado concerned me.
Her top advisors called Donald Trump an idiot, dismissed entirely the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Even dismissed the idea that he was spied upon, said that that was absolutely absurd, said Trump's crying was absurd.
This was Machado's top advisor, who she brought to the White House meeting with her.
That's not the way to handle Donald Trump.
Trump was cool but perfunctory.
It's very interesting how he staged this.
He did allow some pictures to be taken, but he did not come out and do a side-by-side stand-up press opportunity with a world leader, as he would often do.
And she did basically come in a side entrance rather than through the formal evidence entrance where the press was waiting for her.
I think the president has said from the beginning she's a nice lady, but according to the president, she doesn't have the national support.
The real question, of course, is what comes next in Venezuela.
Right now, we seem to be in a position for those who said there he is with George Bush-style regime change, which to me appears like the current regime is still in control.
So the arrest of Maduro is very clearly not about regime change, because believe me, if Donald Trump wanted to change the regime, he can and will do so.
Del Codriguez, who at first declined to take the position of president, insisting Maduro is still the president, he was illegally snatched, finally took the oath of office and became president.
But she's just another hardline socialist Javista, like the long line of tyrants before her.
And the president, she clearly has gotten President Trump's message that she, to use President Blunt's language, must do everything we tell her to, or we will obliterate her.
She must take that very seriously.
On the other hand, these people are like trapped rats.
You have to understand that Venezuela ceased to be a country.
It was like a mafia drug importing operation in which all of the government officials were involved in one major enterprise, which was moving billions and billions of dollars.
There is no question that it's time for a change, but I'd like to see at a minimum as some short-term transitional group.
And among those, I think, who should be included is Edward Bittar, who's a small but fledging Rumble Party, has been on the move.
He's been the one candidate who's been independent of all this previous corruption and all of the fact that the Shavistas are smart Marxists.
They set up what is called controlled opposition.
And that is precisely what I fear has happened in Venezuela.
The situation there has got to be watched very carefully.
But I'm glad to see Donald Trump when they say, oh, it's about oil.
He's absolutely right.
It is about oil.
Donald Trump understands that China not getting that oil is a huge advantage.
China was taking 80% of the oil.
This was a shot in the kidneys to our biggest and most dangerous enemy, and that is the communist Chinese president.
Donald Trump recognized that much of the interest community refused to admit the Maduro regime was illegitimate, was running, eroding essentially as a drug cartel under the facade of being a government.
President Trump's America First policy consistently refused to normalize this kind of narco-tyranny.
To me, this places the safety of the American people above all else.
These are drugs that end up on the streets of the United States, killing American citizens.
So whether you're confronting Maduro's regime, above all, it was a matter of protecting the American people.
I say Trump did the right thing.
We'll be right back.
The Stone Zone, entertaining and informative.
On the Red Apple Podcast Network.
Welcome back to the Stone Zone.
The United States evidently has quietly concluded its withdrawal from having two decades of American troops at the Assad Air Force Base in Iraq's Anbara province, officially ending more than, as I say, 20 years of American political military presence in Iraq.
The fact that these troops are even in Iraq, of course, is a leftover from the fact that former Vice President Dick Cheney, essentially manipulating, I think, President George W. Bush, manipulated us into a war for which there was no basis.
First of all, he claimed that Saddam Hussein, who was a CIA-corrected connect, I would say a CIA-constructed puppet, a creation of the CIA, was said to have weapons of mass destruction.
To have access to yellow cake uranium, they forced Colin Powell against his will.
Dick Cheney did, the vice president, who was the, in many ways, the de facto president under George W. Bush, at least early on, into saying on the floor of the United Nations.
Essentially, very damaging to Powell's career when it was learned that that was not true.
So it's extraordinary that we are just now pulling down the final troops from Iraq.
The drawdown follows actually a September 2024 agreement between Washington and Bandai.
It dissolves the U.S.-led coalition that once served as, I guess it was, I thought, I guess we used it as a barrier against the Islamic State.
Now, the original target date, I'm told, for full exit was as late as 2025, leaving about 250 to 200 and 350 military advisors behind.
Those are CIA agents folks.
President Trump has made it clear that this was royal does not mean weakness.
Only last week he held direct talks with the Syrian president, Ahmed Al-Shahr, reforming support for Syria's territorial unity and a joint commitment to destroy ISIS.
Al-Sharar is a tough guy in his own right.
Both leaders agreed continued cooperation against terrorism is essential to regional stability.
U.S. Central Command echoed that resolve, emphasizing coordinating military pressure against ISIS and supporting de-escalation through strength.
Look, Trump has bombed ISIS on the ground in Nigeria.
He's bombed ISIS on the ground in Somalia.
He is clearly set to destabilize and deconstruct ISIS.
But again, it is very Trumpian the way he, like the swamp fox, he rushes in, he projects American power with a direct strike, like he did in Iran against their nuclear weapons program, like he did with the lightning-like arrest of Nicholas Maduro in a police action.
It was a law enforcement action in which he was arrested for crimes committed in the United States by the Department of Justice, and the U.S. military merely served as backup for his arrest.
That's not a regime change.
If that were regime change, well, then Del Codriguez would not be president.
In any event, that's about it for us today.
Thank you very much for joining the Stone Zone, where we talk politics, news, history, and yep, style.
The Stone Zone With Roger Stone00:01:32
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Until tomorrow, God bless you and Godspeed.
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Rural Americans deserve access to the best our nation has to offer, especially when it comes to health care.
Across every state and every community, America's rural hospitals are the first line of defense, protecting our families, neighbors, and loved ones.
No matter where you live, hospital care doesn't clock out.
They're there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.
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.
Behind every one of those patients are doctors, nurses, and caregivers working tirelessly to keep people healthy and safe.
Hospitals are our community's lifelines.
They employ our neighbors and keep our families health.
But now, some in Congress are threatening access to care.
Tell Congress, protect patient care to keep America strong.