Roger Stone on Gary Johnson, Trump’s ‘Libertarian Positions’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmmVAIAZvCE

In this edition of Being Libertarian Presents, Michael Brokamp interviewed Roger Stone, who is a veteran of nine presidential campaigns, has been a senior campaign aid to three Republican presidents, and is a best-selling author.

On the issue of himself, Putin, and Pepe — a frog meme — Stone quipped about how ridiculous these accusations are, saying “this is an absurdity.” He said that archives and documents he was aware of state that she was possibly identified to have a degenerative disease three years ago, and that he was waiting for it to get worse. He dismissed the statement from the Clintons that he is a “conspiracy theorist,” and that what he has said is a logical analysis of the facts that we’ve all seen, when it comes to her health. Stone asserted that the Clintons have dodged many bullets that “should’ve put them in prison,” or at least in public disgrace. He stood “by all his claims” about Clinton’s health.

In discussing Hillary’s platform, he noted the hypocrisy of her support of Black Lives Matter, considering their profiteering millions of dollars from a charitable scam as a result of Haiti, and having bombed Libya. Not only that, he then noted that the crime bill put away a whole generation of blacks for the mere crime of possessing drugs. Stone asserted that she’s willing to abuse black people to get into power, and do whatever she needs to win the presidency, including using the IRS to audit people that criticize them.

On the Epstein issue, Stone noted that there is no actual evidence that “Trump (acted) improperly with any women or girls,” and that the names on the lawsuit were anonymous. Stone discussed all of the controversies around Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton in comparison to this.

When it comes to this election, Stone noted that it puts him in a bind. He stated that he’s in a “difficult position,” as he is a long time friend of Donald Trump, but is still a member of the Libertarian Party, and a good friend and admirer of Gary Johnson, and Bill Weld (though he asserted they have key disagreements). He asserted that Gary Johnson should be in the debates because he is on the ballot in all 50 states, and theoretically could win the election because of viability. He questioned the establishment, asking “why do we let the Republican and Democrat Party bosses, who dominate the Commission on Presidential Debates” control the issue.

On voting and elections, Stone said that voter fraud does, in fact, exist, though most likely not on the level it used to. He pointed to fraud in Texas paper ballots back during the Nixon vs. Kennedy election, where state law dictated that you had to strike out all of the candidates you didn’t want to vote for, leaving the ticket you were voting for. Stone said that some 90,000 ballots were thrown out, which would’ve given Nixon the state hypothetically, since he only lost to JFK by 50,000 in Texas. Stone expressed worry about technology in influencing voter fraud, in rigging voting machines. Stone did express that the idea that the Russians would hack our election is ridiculous.

Stone predicted that as more information about the Clintons comes out, Hillary will lose support and Trump will be closer to victory. Stone then smacked the Democratic Party and LBJ for their rampant use of the welfare state, and their use of minorities to win elections when it was economically disadvantageous to do so.

In moving finally to the Libertarian case for Trump, Stone said right of the bat that he is “not going to argue that Trump is a libertarian, because he’s not,” but that he does have some libertarian views. He listed some of the key issues where Libertarians and him coincide: non-interventionism, skeptic about the War on Drugs (also noting that prior to running for president he asserted that legalizing some drugs would be the best policy). Stone said that “some of these other issues are problematic from a libertarian point of view, which is why many of my friends will be voting for Gary Johnson, and I cannot argue with them, based on issue positions. But I think Trump is a departure from the two-party duopoly, both parties dominated by the neo-cons, who first and foremost are for war — war and the erosion of our civil liberties. I think Trump is solid on the war issue, he is anti-globalist. […] On tariffs […] he’s put forth a proposal that is much better: lower the corporate tax rate below that of China and Mexico. […] I would call him a populist conservative with some libertarian views.”

Stone said, in speaking of the time he and Alex Jones “crashed” the set of The Young Turks during the Republican National Convention, that it was a complete set up. He asserted that Cenk and Kasparian, as well as the show executives, set them up in inviting them to join the stage, only to be met by hostility and the accusation that they were crashing the set. Stone dismissed this as a “cheap stunt” for publicity.