The StoneZONE - Roger Stone - The Stone Zone | 03-05-26
Aired: 2026-03-06
Duration: 39:44


=== Bernie's Border Stance (14:12) ===

[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.
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[00:00:15]  Download and subscribe at BeBullish.com This is The Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
[00:00:33]  People love him and respect him.
[00:00:34]  Roger Stone.
[00:00:35]  Now, give him a zone.
[00:00:37]  It's the Stone Zone.
[00:00:39]  Here's Roger Stone.
[00:00:42]  You are now diving headfirst into the deep end of the Stone Zone.
[00:00:47]  I'm your host, Roger Stone.
[00:00:50]  Well, President Donald Trump has announced the first major shake-up in his cabinet, terminating the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam and replacing her with Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen.
[00:01:07]  From the beginning, there have been concerns about Noam's leadership and questions surrounding federal contract decisions involving her close personal advisor and reported paramour, Corey Lewandowski.
[00:01:21]  Noam testified before the Senate just days ago saying that Lewandowski, a longtime personal and political ally, played no role in the awarding of federal contracts, but ProPublica reported that there were documentation proving otherwise.
[00:01:37]  She testified before the Senate saying that he played no role.
[00:01:41]  There's a great deal that demonstrates that that's wrong, but technically he wasn't even a government employee and he had no real authority.
[00:01:49]  The greatest controversy surrounded a $220 million television advertising campaign which featured Christy Noam.
[00:02:00]  Perhaps you've seen those ads.
[00:02:01]  The campaign, which was announced in early 2025, involved national and international ads urging illegal immigrants to self-deport or face consequences.
[00:02:13]  Noam appears in the ads on horseback and they were filmed at Mount Rushmore.
[00:02:20]  The issue here pertains to the no-bid nature of this contract and the completely bypassing the competitive bidding process.
[00:02:28]  The Department of Homeland Securities invoked the border, quote, national emergency to award contracts without the standard competitive processes, which raised concerns about waste, corruption, and a total lack of transparency.
[00:02:44]  The major portion of that $20,220 million went to firms with close personal and professional connections to Nome and her sidekick, Corey Lewandowski, notably a company called Safe America Media, which was only created days before they received $143 million.
[00:03:07]  Then Sumcrack contracted that work to the strategy group.
[00:03:11]  This firm has long-standing ties to Nome, actually ran her gubernatorial campaigns in South Dakota, and its CEO is married to Nome's former DHS chief spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, who resigned last week.
[00:03:29]  The subcontract was not publicly disclosed initially, leading, as you might expect, to accusations of favoritism and self-dealing.
[00:03:38]  Critics, including both Republicans and Democrats, questioned why taxpayer funds were being used for ads that prominently featured Noam herself, arguing that it boosted her personal visibility rather than solely serving border security goals.
[00:03:55]  In fact, I remember a hearing in which Senator John Kennedy, who's kind of like Foghorn Leghorn from Louisiana, he's a sly one, called it terribly awkward in light of the administration's waist-cutting rhetoric and suggested it primarily enhanced the Secretary's name recognition.
[00:04:15]  Then there was the constant costume changes.
[00:04:18]  They called her Ice Barbie, but that's because instead of sitting behind a desk and doing her job, she was showing up on patrol.
[00:04:27]  I think that was image making by her would-be political advisor and live-in boyfriend, Corey Lewandowski.
[00:04:36]  Somehow they had the idea that she would be an ultimate candidate for president or vice president.
[00:04:42]  Now, she has been named or given the title special envoy to the shield of the Americas by President Trump, whatever that means.
[00:04:51]  I think there's some possibility that she could drop back now and challenge Senator Rounds of South Dakota.
[00:04:58]  Rounds is, strangely enough, for a state that is so overwhelmingly pro-Trump, he's kind of a flabby rhino-Republican, and there are polls that show that he is vulnerable.
[00:05:10]  So I actually predicted a week ago that before she was canned at DHS, she would announce that she was leaving to seek the Senate seat.
[00:05:21]  That would have been, I think, a more fitting way for her to go without much political damage.
[00:05:26]  How much political damage she will sustain from this remains to be seen.
[00:05:32]  In her place, Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, very interesting choice.
[00:05:37]  He is an undefeated professional MMA fighter.
[00:05:40]  He's also the only Native American currently serving in the U.S. Senate.
[00:05:45]  He is a staunch Trump Republican, although he's actually managed to kind of be as a former House member and a senator.
[00:05:55]  He has breached the division between establishment Republicans and MAGA Republicans.
[00:06:01]  I don't know if you saw it about a week ago, but he really humiliated Bernie Sanders in a Senate back and forth.
[00:06:11]  It was interesting because Sanders attacked Mullen, and Mullen pointed out that Bernie Sanders, who was complaining about whatever problem it was, has been in the Senate longer than Mark Wayne Mullen himself has been alive.
[00:06:28]  So it was a great exchange.
[00:06:30]  I'm really, I grow tired of Bernie Sanders.
[00:06:33]  He is, to me, kind of the most pompous, loudmouthed blowhard in the U.S. Senate.
[00:06:39]  Notice how he used to criticize millionaires and billionaires.
[00:06:43]  Now he just criticizes billionaires.
[00:06:45]  That's because Bernie Sanders and his wife collected millions of dollars in media placement fees from his two very well-funded but unsuccessful campaigns for president.
[00:06:57]  Now that is not illegal, although I think without informing your donors that you are personally benefiting from their campaign contributions, it is highly unethical.
[00:07:08]  So Bernie has three homes.
[00:07:10]  He's driving a top of the line Mercedes.
[00:07:12]  You see, it's socialism for thee, but not for me.
[00:07:18]  It was only a matter of time here when I thought that the contracting issues, the corruption issues would cost both Corey Lewandowski and Christy Noam her position.
[00:07:32]  But there's also the optics of the ongoing effort to deport dangerous illegal criminals in this country.
[00:07:40]  You see, that is a joint effort of ICE as well as the Border Patrol.
[00:07:46]  Now, the ICE agents under the direction of Tom Homan tend to be more experienced law enforcement officers.
[00:07:54]  They tend to have far more training, a lot more judgment in terms of de-escalating, whereas the Border Patrol agents, many of whom were recruited for this operation, come to it with substantially less law enforcement experience, substantially less training, and I think less sensitivity to the optics.
[00:08:18]  Now, theoretically, when an arrest of an illegal is made, the team is supposed to involve three ICE agents and three Border Patrol agents.
[00:08:30]  But that was not the case when Alex Petty, who I do think was a terrorist, who was armed but wasn't carrying his ID, was unfortunately shot and killed in an altercation.
[00:08:43]  But those were six Border Patrol agents and none of them professional and more experienced ICE agents.
[00:08:51]  So I also think that Noam paid some price here for those mistakes.
[00:08:58]  That is not to say that we at this point can let up on the effort to deport dangerous illegal criminals.
[00:09:09]  Now, I do think this is a key point, and that is that the idea of deporting 36 million people, I think, is both logistically and financially probably unrealistic.
[00:09:24]  And without any question whatsoever, as Tom Holman has insisted, the priority has to go to deporting those who have a criminal record either in their country of origin or a criminal record here or are awaiting trial here.
[00:09:39]  But the idea of deporting 36 million people, I think, is even for a hardliner like myself, unrealistic.
[00:09:47]  So in my view, if you had somebody, let's say an illegal, who had been in the country for 20 years, had been gainfully employed that entire time, had paid taxes for 20 years, had never violated any laws, was a model citizen, I think there are some instances in which the government should keep track of them through some kind of a tracking device.
[00:10:10]  Perhaps it is a device you put in your wallet or in your purse so the government knows where you are, but you are continuing to obviously be a productive member of society in the event that one of those people violated the law.
[00:10:25]  Sure, they then too should also be deported.
[00:10:28]  I think that's just my own political opinion.
[00:10:31]  That is not the view of this administration.
[00:10:34]  I do think that the effort to deport the most dangerous illegals has to continue to move forward.
[00:10:43]  Regardless of this controversy regarding Christy Noam, the administration says their mission will stay the same.
[00:10:50]  That is to secure the border, to stop migrant crime, and combat the flow of deadly drugs into the United States.
[00:10:57]  With Mullen now tapped to lead the Department of Home and Security and Tom Homan, who I think is enormously capable at ICE, the White House signals it intends to be more surgical in pursuing those priorities.
[00:11:10]  I think that is the right direction.
[00:11:12]  Meanwhile, there is no question that President Donald Trump has once again used American strength and power in a very limited and surgical way, as he did the first time in Iran, as he did in Venezuela, and as he did yet again.
[00:11:34]  No endless foreign war, no boots on the ground, no mass American casualties, no big ramp up in defense spending and war-related defense contracts.
[00:11:48]  This is not neocon regime change.
[00:11:52]  This is projecting America's strength in a very limited, surgical, and targeted way, and I think therefore most effectively.
[00:12:01]  What's really amazing is the way President Trump has used both our military strength, but also our economic leverage and our diplomatic leverage in a way that hasn't been seen since, well, Richard Nixon played the Russians off against the Chinese in order to get a strategic arms limitation agreement.
[00:12:21]  That is, I think, the best thing about the Trump foreign policy.
[00:12:25]  And he has managed to cut the communist Chinese access to inexpensive oil by almost one-third.
[00:12:32]  So when they say it's about oil, they're not wrong, but it's about America controlling the oil.
[00:12:39]  And that is what has, I think, Cuba on their knees and China in retreat.
[00:12:43]  I'm Roger Stone.
[00:12:44]  You're listening to the Stone Zone right here on the Red Apple Audio Networks.
[00:12:48]  Don't go away because we'll be right back with more hot politics.
[00:12:53]  This is the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
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=== Stone's Take on Iran Strike (16:14) ===

[00:14:12]  The United States and its allies are expanding their military operations to defeat the Iranian threat as Operation Epic Fury heats up.
[00:14:21]  The Trump administration is intent upon destroying Iran's missile forces, dismantling its military infrastructure, and ensuring the radically Islamic regime in Tehran never obtains nuclear weapons.
[00:14:33]  We were shocked to find last week that the negotiators at the table who were talking to those designated to represent the United States bragged about having enough enriched uranium to build 11 nuclear bombs.
[00:14:55]  A source at the Pentagon confirmed to me that technology used by that body confirmed that that was a real number and that they had both enriched and unenriched uranium.
[00:15:07]  Again, enough to make 11 devices.
[00:15:10]  The president has defended the initial success of the operation this week, warning that failing to act would have allowed Iran to threaten the region with nuclear war.
[00:15:20]  So far, U.S. and Israeli forces have struck military command centers, state media facilities, and leadership compounds across Iran.
[00:15:29]  Hundreds of Iranian casualties have been reported as the regime's air defenses and naval capabilities both suffered major damage.
[00:15:36]  Iran has responded with waves of drone and missile attacks across the region, which shows you that while the regime may be wounded, may be crippled, it is far from dead.
[00:15:48]  A suspected Iranian drone strike hit the U.S. embassy in Rayad, damaging the roof, while American bases and energy facilities in Gulf states have also been targeted.
[00:15:59]  The administration is now evacuating American citizens from parts of the Middle East to protect them from potential backlash.
[00:16:07]  At the same time, intelligence sources say the CIA is exploring support for Kurdish forces and other opposition groups inside Iran, part of a broader strategy to pressure the regime from within rather than committing U.S. ground troops.
[00:16:23]  You see, that is the fundamental difference.
[00:16:25]  I think this is once again Donald Trump using American power in a limited, controlled, but extraordinarily lethal way, but no boots on the ground, no hundreds of thousands of American casualties, and no substantial ramp up in our military costs.
[00:16:47]  Not the kind of profiteering you saw, for example, in the Iraq war, where President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney lied us into war, telling us that Iraq, pardon me, that Iraq had been involved in the attacks on America in 9-11, that they had weapons of mass destruction, in fact, that they had yellow cake uranium.
[00:17:13]  I never understood how Dick Cheney went from being the head of Halliburton, a major defense contractor, putting his Halliburton stock into a blind trust while he was vice president and lied us into war.
[00:17:28]  Halliburton literally made billions of dollars in profit after that war.
[00:17:34]  But how could Vice President Dick Cheney's blind trust be blind if he knew that the Halliburton stock was in the blind trust?
[00:17:44]  Kind of strange the way that worked out.
[00:17:46]  It is also the ongoing threat, of course, the regime that they would close the Straits of Hormuz through most of, I think, over half the world's oil flows.
[00:17:59]  The problem with that, of course, is that we virtually decimated the Iranian Navy with our initial attacks.
[00:18:06]  And now General Michael Flynn told us on this very show last week that the U.S. Navy could easily clear a safe lane through the Straits of Hormuz.
[00:18:19]  Again, we could have some turbulence along the way, but ultimately the world would be better off and the global markets will be more stable with the Iranian terrorist regime dispatched without any need for a Bush-style, forever, endless war.
[00:18:31]  I'm Roger Stone.
[00:18:32]  to listen to the stone zone and we'll be right back is the stone zone the Now, get him a zone.
[00:19:01]  It's the Stone Zone.
[00:19:03]  A man who's gone through hell, but he's kept going and he's smart and he's strong and people love him.
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[00:19:18]  Can't tell you how much I appreciate those kind words from earlier on, Vice President JD Vance.
[00:19:24]  But now from President Trump, I was with the President Saturday night for dinner.
[00:19:28]  I must tell you it was a somber rather than a celebratory night.
[00:19:32]  Saturday night was, of course, when he made the decision to attack the assets, the nuclear assets, in Iran.
[00:19:40]  The president seemed confident, looked fit.
[00:19:44]  Surprisingly, for a weekend, not tired, given the incredible hours that he put in.
[00:19:50]  I think the president has struck a balance between the neocons in our party, those who like to go to war, endless foreign war, and those who realize that we have to use American power in a very strategic and limited basis and do so effectively.
[00:20:06]  And thus he holds both wings of his party together.
[00:20:09]  I saw a polling today that was featured on CNN that showed that among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, President Trump is far more popular than any previous Republican president.
[00:20:22]  Even the great Ronald Reagan, for whom I worked in three presidential campaigns and who was an extraordinarily popular figure within our party and movement, did not have the kind of approval ratings that Donald Trump continues to have.
[00:20:37]  For those who are ready to concede the 2026 elections, I say not so fast.
[00:20:43]  In politics, a week is a lifetime.
[00:20:46]  Our politics is exceedingly volatile.
[00:20:49]  And it is true that the electorate is very almost evenly divided.
[00:20:55]  That was the case going into the last presidential election as well.
[00:21:00]  Meantime, I was glad to see Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania actually wearing a suit and tie on the floor of the U.S. Congress during the State of the Union address.
[00:21:11]  It was a great upgrade from the hoodie and sweatshirt and cargo pants the senator from Pennsylvania wears often on the floor of the U.S. Senate, which I think is inappropriate and kind of an assault to the decorum of the U.S. Senate.
[00:21:28]  But in a break from his own party, Senator Fetterman is actually defending President Trump and the recent U.S. military strikes against Iran while accusing fellow Democrats of putting politics ahead of national security.
[00:21:42]  This is where I agree with Fetterman.
[00:21:44]  Appearing on Jesse Waters' primetime, Fetterman argued that many Democrats privately tell him that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon, but refuse to publicly support Trump, even when they know that his policies are right for America.
[00:21:58]  According to Fetterman, the strikes significantly weakened Iran's nuclear capabilities and dealt a major blow to the regime's military leadership.
[00:22:07]  We know the supreme leader was liquidated, along with 40 of his top henchmen.
[00:22:14]  I would remind you that the Iranians have a long history of killing Americans at the Marine Barracks in Beirut, at the World Trade Center, on the USS Cole.
[00:22:27]  And of course, they took 264 of our fellow Americans hostage back in 1979 after the fall of the Shah.
[00:22:38]  So this is not a benign regime.
[00:22:42]  According to Fetterman, He questioned why we cannot celebrate the fall of the Iranian theocracy and they're being defanged, pointing to footage of Iranian military assets being destroyed.
[00:22:55]  Federman said the reality inside Congress is that lawmakers from both parties actually privately agree that Iran can never be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.
[00:23:08]  The difference, he argued, is that Democrats are reluctant to acknowledge any success if it came under the Trump administration.
[00:23:16]  I'm reminded of the First Step Act and the Second Chance Act, the two most significant pieces of criminal justice reform legislation in my lifetime.
[00:23:28]  These are reforms in which the corrections were made to the 1994 crime bill, which took the war on drugs and for the first time focused it on the end user.
[00:23:41]  In other words, harsh mandatory penalties were provided for first-time non-violent crimes, including the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use.
[00:23:52]  Now, in my view, people who have a drug addiction problem believe in belonging to drug treatment facilities, not in mandatory incarceration.
[00:24:02]  But judges have to have some discretion in sentencing to take a family situation into consideration.
[00:24:11]  If a husbandless mother of three is caught with a small amount of marijuana in her purse, should she be relegated to a mandatory 15-year sentence?
[00:24:23]  I think not.
[00:24:24]  President Trump is the first president in my lifetime to bring significant criminal justice reform legislation, but the Congressional Black Caucus, which has long championed the very reforms that Trump was pushing to a person, refused to vote for the Trump package simply because it was put forward by Donald Trump.
[00:24:47]  Federman is talking about the same criteria when he says he's always going to pick his country over his party, stating that the world is safer with Iran's nuclear ambitions are stopped.
[00:24:58]  He also criticized the broader direction of the Democratic Party on Middle East policy since the October 7th terrorist attacks on Israel.
[00:25:06]  Federman argues calls for many Democrats for immediate ceasefires would have allowed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to remain powerful threats while Iran continued to pursue nuclear weapons.
[00:25:19]  Instead, he actually credited the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. action for weakening those terror networks and damaging Iran's military and nuclear infrastructure.
[00:25:32]  Federman concluded the results show that decisive leadership, not political posturing, is what ultimately protects American interests and allies in the region.
[00:25:42]  Fetterman should just take the plunge, in my opinion, because the left of the Democrat Party is out to get him.
[00:25:48]  Progressives are already making noises about challenging for renomination.
[00:25:51]  I have a feeling, since he probably got the votes of many Republicans in the last Senate election, he could probably win the Republican nomination.
[00:25:59]  That would be interesting to see somebody serve as a member of both parties.
[00:26:03]  I don't think it's happened since, well, J. Strom Thurman, who served South Carolina first as a Democrat and then as a Republican, would be most interesting.
[00:26:12]  What is clear is that Federman does not have anything in common with the radicalized base of today's Democrat Party.
[00:26:19]  Fetterman is evolving, and frankly, the Republican Party would be smart to take him in, as they did Telsey Gabbard and RFK Jr.
[00:26:29]  Well, because I'm a political junkie, of course, I was carefully watching the Texas primaries this week.
[00:26:35]  It was a great Tuesday in Texas, as America First Republicans made a great showing against their rhino counterparts.
[00:26:42]  As I predicted, three days earlier, Representative Dan Crenshaw, dubbed IPatch McCain for his pro-war, neocon, and anti-Trump perspective, was soundly defeated in the Republican primary for Texas's second congressional district, ending the four-term congressman's tenure in Washington.
[00:27:02]  With roughly three-quarters of the votes counted last time I looked, businessman and state representative Steve Toth led decisively with about 58% to Crenshaw's 40%.
[00:27:13]  Now, incumbents are very rarely defeated in American politics, but this race was called shortly after midnight local time.
[00:27:20]  Crenshaw is, of course, a former Navy SEAL who was first elected in 2018, was the only incumbent Republican House member in Texas seeking re-election without an endorsement from President Donald Trump.
[00:27:33]  Toth, who was lesser known, framed the campaign as a referendum on ideological commitment, portraying Crenshaw as out of shape with the district's increasingly conservative base following recent congressional redistricting.
[00:27:46]  It also didn't help that Crenshaw was one of the elected congressmen who sufficiently did extraordinarily well in his stock portfolio, suggested he was guilty of unethical insider trading.
[00:28:00]  Big disappointment this week, however, as the House rejected a bill by my good friends Tim Burchett from Tennessee and Anna Paulina Luna from Florida that would have ended insider trading by of stocks and bonds by members of Congress.
[00:28:16]  This seems very simple to me and why they can't get it done.
[00:28:19]  Well, a lot of people are getting very rich.
[00:28:20]  I noticed that the Pachanga Indian tribe honored Nancy Pelosi last week.
[00:28:28]  Nancy Pelosi, now worth $168 million on a yearly salary of $175,000.
[00:28:35]  It was actually $125,000 when she first became Speaker.
[00:28:40]  Extraordinary.
[00:28:41]  Meanwhile, the Republican primary for U.S. Senate appears to be headed to a runoff between incumbent John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton after neither candidate surpassed the 50% threshold.
[00:28:53]  Cornyn, who is a pretty famous rhino, finished with about 43% of the vote, while Paxton, a longtime Trump supporter, closely followed with a rough about 40%.
[00:29:03]  Congressman Wesley Hunt, who I'm very impressed with, placed third with about 13% of the vote.
[00:29:09]  Now today, I saw something you very rarely see in American politics, and that is Attorney General Ken Paxton, rather than put his party through a runoff, says that if the U.S. Senate will blow off the filibuster rules, where there are today 50 votes for the SAVE Act, which would bring that act to the floor where Vice President JD Vance could break the tie, making the SAVE Act law.
[00:29:37]  The SAVE Act, if you're not familiar with it, President Donald Trump calls it the Save America Act.
[00:29:42]  He may well be right, requires that only U.S. citizens be allowed to vote in federal elections.
[00:29:48]  Also requires you to have a photo ID.
[00:29:51]  Now those should not seem controversial to you and I, but under the filibuster rules of the Senate, 50 votes is not enough to bring that to a vote.
[00:30:03]  So Ken Paxton says that he'll drop from the race if the Senate will agree, the Senate leaders will agree to bring that to a vote, in which case I think JD Vance would very quickly break the tie.
[00:30:17]  We'll see what happens, but it's very rare when you see a politician put the national interest, put the country's interest ahead of their personal political ambitions.

=== Ken Paxton's Dilemma (03:38) ===

[00:30:27]  That's what Ken Paxton has done in this piece, in this case, and it is an act of heroism, in my opinion.
[00:30:34]  Additionally, in the race between Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez, who was embroiled in a scandal after his former staffer killed herself after an illicit affair with her former boss, and a pro-Second Amendment activist Brandon Herrera, also seems to be headed to a runoff.
[00:30:52]  Both Paxton and Herrera were given great chances of winning these races if Paxton stays in the race.
[00:30:59]  This bodes well for primary races nationwide, in my opinion, where America first challengers are rising up to defeat establishment candidates.
[00:31:07]  This should embolden every Trump supporter to get involved in shaping the party going forward.
[00:31:15]  In the meantime, the Democrats, I think, also made the right move.
[00:31:20]  Jasmine Crockett was soundly defeated in the Texas U.S. Senate race.
[00:31:26]  So in addition to primary victories for America first Republicans, one of the most belligerent, low IQ, ratchet, Trump-hating Democrats also suffered an embarrassing loss in Monday's primary.
[00:31:38]  Texas Democrats chose State Representative James Tallarico in Tuesday's primary over the better known Representative Jasmine Crockett.
[00:31:47]  Crockett entered that contest with massive name recognition, a national media platform, a huge amount of fundraising cash, and strong backing from the Democrat base, but her campaign was weighed down by a long string of inflammatory remarks and headline-grabbing controversies that ultimately, I guess, just repelled the voters.
[00:32:08]  The Dallas congresswoman has suggested that Latinos who voted for President Trump had a slave mentality, claiming Americans who welcome illegal, shouldn't welcome illegal immigrants because we are done picking cotton, she said.
[00:32:23]  And her outspoken opposition to the ICE enforcement to round up and deport illegals make her a frequent target of attacks by Republicans.
[00:32:35]  But last night's or last week's election results showed they were not in a good way.
[00:32:41]  Now, some think Tallarico is a stronger candidate.
[00:32:45]  I tend to think that that is true.
[00:32:47]  And it is a mistake to think of Texas as a deep-red state like Florida.
[00:32:51]  Florida now has a 1 million Republican registration edge, Republicans over Democrats, whereas Texas is becoming a slightly pink state, one in which I think the Senate race could be much, much closer.
[00:33:08]  So the Democrats probably nominated the stronger of the candidates, not to say a strong candidate.
[00:33:14]  And Crockett's leaning heavily into identity politics, accusing all of her critics of racism and claiming attacks without providing a shred of evidence on her campaign, were motivated mostly by discrimination.
[00:33:26]  The primary quickly devolved into bitter accusations over race, social media attacks, and outside political spending.
[00:33:33]  And despite her high profile, Democrat voters ultimately turned to Tallarico, an Austin lawmaker who ran on a more populist message and campaigned heavily across the state.
[00:33:45]  Tallarico is going to have money problems.
[00:33:49]  It's a massive and incredibly expensive state to run for the U.S. Senate.
[00:33:55]  But we'll see whether Ken Paxton stays in this race or whether the Senate leadership throws in the towel on the filibuster and brings the Save America Act to the floor.

=== Yosef's Medicaid Scam (05:22) ===

[00:34:06]  I'm Roger Stone.
[00:34:07]  We'll be right back.
[00:34:10]  This is the Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
[00:34:13]  That is a great, great person, Roger Stone.
[00:34:18]  The Stone Zone.
[00:34:29]  This is The Stone Zone with Roger Stone.
[00:34:33]  He likes politics and he's a professional at the highest level.
[00:34:38]  Roger Stone.
[00:34:45]  Welcome back to the Stone Zone.
[00:34:48]  We're diving right into the deep end for our final segment.
[00:34:51]  Major American tech companies are committing to pay their own way as the artificial intelligence boom drives massive new energy demands.
[00:35:00]  At the White House this week, leaders from companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Oracle, XAL, OpenAI, and Amazon signed a pledge agreeing to fund the electricity generation and grid upgrades needed to power their rapidly expanding data centers.
[00:35:18]  This agreement comes as demands for artificial intelligence computing explodes across the country, raising concerns that ordinary Americans could end up footing the bill through higher electricity rates.
[00:35:31]  President Donald Trump says the plan protects consumers while still allowing the United States to dominate the global AI race.
[00:35:40]  The company agreed to build or purchase the power needed for their facilities and even sell excess electricity back to the grid, which would help reduce the costs for average households.
[00:35:51]  White House AI advisor David Sachs, I'm very impressed with him, called the plan a common sense alternative to far-left proposals that would just halt new data centers altogether.
[00:36:03]  He argued that banning AI infrastructure would kill jobs and slow economic growth, particularly for blue-collar workers benefiting from the construction boom.
[00:36:16]  The sure sign here is the administration's approach is making sure these tech giants, not everyday Americans, pray for the infrastructure that their projects require.
[00:36:29]  The policy is already influencing state governments nationwide as lawmakers look for ways to prevent residential customers from subsidizing massive tech expansion.
[00:36:40]  The bottom line, America keeps leading the AI revolution without sticking working families with the bill.
[00:36:47]  Bravo, President Trump.
[00:36:49]  Meanwhile, a Somali man pled guilty to $6 million in autism-related fraud.
[00:36:56]  Abzeneb Joseph, a Somali man operating in St. Claude, Minnesota, St. Cloud, Minnesota, pled guilty Monday to $6 million in wire fraud after admitting he ran a fake autism therapy business that billed U.S. taxpayers for services that were never legitimately provided.
[00:37:17]  Federal prosecutors say that Yosef opened the Star Autism Center in 2020, claiming it offered specialized therapy for children diagnosed with autism.
[00:37:27]  But instead, investigators said the operation was largely a front to siphon money from Medicaid.
[00:37:33]  According to court documents, Yosef targeted families in the local Somali community, encouraging parents to enroll their children in the program.
[00:37:43]  In some cases, children did not even have an autism diagnosis.
[00:37:47]  Prosecutors say Yosef worked with service providers to secure diagnoses so the children could qualify for taxpayer-funded treatment.
[00:37:56]  Once enrolled, Yosef then billed Medicaid for millions of services.
[00:38:02]  Here's a man who took advantage of his own community.
[00:38:05]  Records show that Yosef received more than $6 million in reimburses from Minnesota's Department of Human Services and the health care provider YouCare.
[00:38:15]  Authorities say he then paid kickbacks to parents as an incentive for enrolling their children, turning the scheme into a cash for sign-ups operation.
[00:38:25]  Prosecutors say he also used stolen funds to buy a $100,000 semi-truck and wired about $200,000 to radical groups back in Somalia.
[00:38:37]  The case is part of a wider investigation into fraud in Minnesota's welfare programs, including a $250 million Feeding Our Futures scandal.
[00:38:47]  The White House has since halted $259 million in federal Medicare funding to state and local governments over growing concerns about the widespread fraud.
[00:38:58]  Folks, this is just the beginning.
[00:39:00]  Before it is over, this scandal will pour into Ohio, into Michigan, into Pennsylvania, into New York, into virtually every state.
[00:39:09]  So those who say the 2026 election is over may not be paying attention to this issue.
[00:39:15]  I'm Roger Stone, here talking about politics right in the stone zone.
[00:39:19]  God bless you until tomorrow.
[00:39:20]  God bless you, and Godspeed.

=== God Bless & Watch the Elections (00:15) ===

[00:39:29]  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.
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