Does everyone remember when CNN banned Roger Stone from their airwaves for tweeting hate at Ana Navarro? That was so 2016. Now it's 2018, Roger's got a new book he's pimping, and Chris Cuomo was happy to grant Roger over ten minutes to toss out some conspiracy theories, bash the competition, lie and deflect about his role in ratfcking on behalf of Donald Trump, and more.
Ten minutes! It felt like an eternity, but I feel like we need to keep these clips as a record of Roger Stone's lies and equivocations for that day when Robert Mueller finally does summon Roger to account.
With regard to Mueller, Stone admits he has not been contacted. He also claims that is because MSNBC and CNBC are reporting things that just aren't true about Rick Gates and his relationship to Roger Stone. You know, Rick Gates, the young man Paul Manafort took under his wing so many years ago as his protégé. Despite Stone's denial, the record is pretty clear:
Mr. Gates was an intern at Black, Manafort, Stone, Kelly, a high-powered Washington consulting firm.
Of course, Roger Stone carefully dodged his earlier associations with Gates by claiming he was an intern at a successor firm to Black, Manafort and Stone, which may be technically true but doesn't actually separate Roger Stone from Rick Gates. At all.
As far as the hacking of the DNC goes, Stone is perfectly willing to deny there was a hack altogether before huffily denying he had any advance knowledge. He then worms his way into the rabbit hole of denials about everything before Cuomo nails him on his tweet about "Podesta's time in the barrel."
The explanation for this is so rich I must quote him.
"Assange says he has a treasure trove of devastating documents. He says it in numerous interviews. as far as podesta is concerned, my tweet says the Podestas, not apostrophe-s," he said.
BUT WAIT. WE HAVE THE TWEET. AND THERE IS AN APOSTROPHE. Ooops.
And Stone would like us to ignore that tweet because he was not foreshadowing anything like knowledge of a Russian hack but was instead just randomly commenting on information in the Panama Papers about both Podestas, which was published in Aprii, 2016 but which Stone was simply offering a random comment on in August 2016. Of course that tweet had nothing to do with anything, you sillies.
For an extra added bonus, Stone gave Cuomo a little tiny taste of the Big Conspiracy Drink he gives Infowars viewers whenever he has time. Here's the second video where he bashes Ari Melber, again denies Russia hacked the DNC, fear mongers about the unanimous agreement by our intelligence agencies that Russia did indeed interfere (they're "politicized" -- WHO DID THAT, ROGER?), before getting to the part where he is being persecuted by the mysterious "Tech Left" for his conspiracy-laden Infowars videos.
Watch. It's pathetic. But if you can't bear it, here's the transcript.
CUOMO: What do you say is the best reason to read Roger Stone's book?
STONE: What's interesting to me when I post the link to buy this book on Google within hours they call it spam. when I post an ad to buy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, they call it -- they reject the ad. This kind of internet censorship is very dangerous.
CUOMO: Who is they?
STONE: The tech left.
CUOMO: The tech left?
STONE: Yes, indeed. I do a show as you do five days a week. It's a lot of work. I can't get my show loaded on Youtube - my Infowars show -- because it's controversial.
CUOMO: You know that the problem is with Infowars. You know what Alex Jones has done in the interest of publicity.
STONE: And you're familiar with the first amendment, I believe.
CUOMO: Yeah.
STONE: On that basis --
CUOMO: --Just because you have the right to say something doesn't mean you have the right to say it. He is smearing the Newtown people. Come on.
STONE: I disagree with some of the things he has said but he has backed off that. The point is censorship. And we're struggling to stay alive because we can be arbitrarily censored and that is dangerous.
