Speaker 1: Jis and New Yorker.
Speaker 2: Toxi. I'm around.
Speaker 3: This is the seventy seven WABC Mini Cast. Welcome back
Speaker 3: into the stone Zone right here on the Roger Stone Show.
Speaker 3: If you're a political junkie, you're in the right place.
Speaker 3: And we have a very heated primary for governor of
Speaker 3: Florida going on in a couple of weeks. Early voting
Speaker 3: started this weekend in some counties, started a little earlier
Speaker 3: in some other counties, and it's getting quite contentious.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 3: To talk about that and a number of other things
Speaker 3: is my colleague Troy Smith, the editor and publisher of
Speaker 3: Slingshot Dot News and a Sage political analyst of the
Speaker 3: national and state scene.
Speaker 2: Troy welcoming back into the Stone.
Speaker 1: Zone, Rodre. As always, it's an honor to join you,
Speaker 1: and I know that you are a political junkie as
Speaker 1: I am. So this Florida race heating up as we
Speaker 1: get to the finish line here, I'm paying attention, You're
Speaker 1: paying attention. Can't wait to get into this here. Wanted
Speaker 1: to get your thoughts on just a few days out here,
Speaker 1: where you think this thing is going to end up.
Speaker 3: Well, it's very important that some people release lose perspective
Speaker 3: between let's call it the twitter verse or the blogger
Speaker 3: sphere and the real world. Those are two different things.
Speaker 3: So political stuff going on on Twitter, while it's interesting
Speaker 3: and provocative and sometimes bunging, that doesn't mean that the
Speaker 3: average Republican primary voter, who by the way, is sixty,
Speaker 3: the average age is almost seventy. That's the average age.
Speaker 3: So when people keep talking about the young vote in
Speaker 3: the Republican primary, sure there are some we want more,
Speaker 3: but this is an older electric. They're not hanging on
Speaker 3: x or Instagram or any other popular social media platforms.
Speaker 3: You have three candidates here. Byron Donalds is in a
Speaker 3: commanding position. He has not only the endorsement of Donald Trump,
Speaker 3: but he has amassed an incredible campaign war chess, which
Speaker 3: he's going to need even in red Florida. And what
Speaker 3: will be could be I think will be a difficult
Speaker 3: deal for all Republicans because we are forced to stop
Speaker 3: the Iranians from afaghan nuclear weapon. If we cared more
Speaker 3: about elections and getting re elected and not caring about
Speaker 3: whether America will be the target of a nuclear attack,
Speaker 3: I guess we could not do that. We'll talk about
Speaker 3: that a little bit later. But the other two candidates
Speaker 3: and is Vice Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins seems like a
Speaker 3: very nice guy, served his country with honor, but has
Speaker 3: never gotten I think what was probably the promised endorsement
Speaker 3: and support of Ron DeSantis. De santis master plan, as
Speaker 3: you know, is to run his wife, Casey DeSantis for governor.
Speaker 3: This is very much like ler Lean Wallace.
Speaker 2: Ran for governor of Alabama. Was elected. By the way,
Speaker 2: it was considered a pretty good governor.
Speaker 3: But that's because George is really running things. After George Wallace,
Speaker 3: the Alabama governor and independent presidential candidate, couldn't under their
Speaker 3: state constitution run.
Speaker 2: For another term.
Speaker 3: But that plan was destroyed when Ron DeSantis and Casey
Speaker 3: DeSantis and our current Attorney General James Uthmeyer siphoned ten
Speaker 3: million dollars in money federal money earmarked for the poor,
Speaker 3: the elderly, and the handicapped out of Medicare and into
Speaker 3: a dark money committee, where they then funneled it into
Speaker 3: the campaigns against two statewide constitutional amendments that they opposed,
Speaker 3: one of them having to do with the legalization of cannabis,
Speaker 3: and that is, of course fraud. They avoided this is
Speaker 3: through something called the Hope Foundation. When the governors first
Speaker 3: asked about it, his first instinct was to say, well,
Speaker 3: that's my wife's deal, like he knew nothing about it
Speaker 3: through his own wife under the bus. I thought that
Speaker 3: was hysterical. But the state legislature investigated. The committee clearly
Speaker 3: proved that they had illegally taken ten million dollars. They
Speaker 3: avoided federal indictment because they replaced the money, but they
Speaker 3: didn't replace the money from their own funds or political funds.
Speaker 3: The replacement of the money came from state taxpayers. So
Speaker 3: this scandal prevented the possibility of Casey Santus running for governor.
Speaker 3: Plus and all honesty, Ron DeSantis has worn out his
Speaker 3: fundraising capability. He had a well funded run for president
Speaker 3: because he was able to escort money from the utilities
Speaker 3: and the casinos and the other agricultural interest to many
Speaker 3: and the insurance industry, particularly in Florida. He's worn out
Speaker 3: his welcome with the legislature, retired of being bullied, fairly
Speaker 3: popular despite his knife in the back to the man
Speaker 3: who made him governor. You've heard me say that Ron
Speaker 3: was an undistinguished congressman running in single digits against the
Speaker 3: favorite Adam Puttnam State Agriculture commissioner until Matt Gates, end
Speaker 3: of mine, talked to President Trump into endorsing the little
Speaker 3: known Congressman Ron DeSantis. Trump never knew that DeSantis in
Speaker 3: twenty sixteen, when they were both on the ticket together
Speaker 3: post convention, had refused to endorse Trump. Trump didn't know
Speaker 3: that Ron DeSantis was informed by the FEDS that mar
Speaker 3: Lago was going to be raided graded, but did not
Speaker 3: have his lawyers have give Trump's lawyers heads up, which
Speaker 3: there would be nothing inappropriate about. And then, of course
Speaker 3: he challenged the man who made him. But to get
Speaker 3: back to the race here, DeSantis has not endorsed any candidate,
Speaker 3: including his own lieutenant governor, who he appointed to a
Speaker 3: vacancy when when the lieutenant governor de pardon me, the
Speaker 3: attorney General resigned to take the US Senate seat, and
Speaker 3: DeSantis appointed his counsel, James Uthmeyer, a man deeply involved
Speaker 3: in the movement of those illegal funds. So this, I
Speaker 3: think explains why there is no Desantius candidate for governor.
Speaker 3: And then there's a former Speaker, Paul Renner, who has
Speaker 3: a very conservative record, seems like a very decent fellow
Speaker 3: has not been able to get any traction, has not
Speaker 3: really be He's raised substantial money, but not as much
Speaker 3: money as it takes to compete in the states as
Speaker 3: expensive as Florida, which is a huge state. In my opinion,
Speaker 3: Renner would be an excellent Renner would be an excellent
Speaker 3: appointment to the office of Secretary of State, which the
Speaker 3: governor is entitled do. If Byron Donalds is elected governor.
Speaker 3: But then there's an interesting candidate, let's call him, an
Speaker 3: eccentric and provocative candidate named James Fishback. Fishback seems to
Speaker 3: be an internet phenomena and polling of the real world.
Speaker 3: I must tell you he doesn't fare very well online polls.
Speaker 3: He's doing great, We're told the young people are for him.
Speaker 3: He has been a pretty aggressive critic of Israel and
Speaker 3: insists that Israel has a disproportionate amount of influence in
Speaker 3: our foreign policy. We'll talk about that in a few minutes.
Speaker 3: He made a wild accusation last week that Byron Donalds
Speaker 3: was currently under federal investigation for sex trafficking. He built
Speaker 3: it up with a big press conference and a lot
Speaker 3: of predictions about what the bombshell he was going to drop,
Speaker 3: but the US Justice Department immediately put out a statement
Speaker 3: saying that it was completely and totally false. So look,
Speaker 3: I think Byron Donald's cruises to this nomination, and he
Speaker 3: has got a solid record as a conservative, and I think, nonetheless,
Speaker 3: because of the year, I think he's in for an
Speaker 3: uphill fight. He will be extremely well funded, and he
Speaker 3: is a fighter. The Democrats are in tough shape. It's
Speaker 3: hard to believe that the party of Luton Childs, who
Speaker 3: was both governor and senator, the Party of Rubin Askew
Speaker 3: was governor and a presidential contender, the party of Leroy Collins,
Speaker 3: the legendary former Miami governor of Florida. They couldn't come
Speaker 3: up with anybody as a kid other than a former
Speaker 3: Republican Congressman David Jolly, who's now a Democrat and a
Speaker 3: lobbyist who seems to be running on transgenderism as his
Speaker 3: key issue. So, uh again, We're gonna follow this race
Speaker 3: very quickly. I guess what I'm saying Eutroy is that
Speaker 3: I don't believe that Fishback will perform on election day
Speaker 3: on primary day the way he's performing online. And I
Speaker 3: think these kind of gotcha politics are not healthy for
Speaker 3: the system.
Speaker 1: Well, I agree with you, Roger, and I think the
Speaker 1: actions of ron Cassandras in this race really points to
Speaker 1: who he really is. You've been talking about it for years,
Speaker 1: especially when you know any of these reports come out
Speaker 1: the usually launce himself that he's being considered for some
Speaker 1: position in Washington, d C. We talk about it every time,
Speaker 1: and the fact that this guy backstab President Donald Trump
Speaker 1: ran against him in twenty twenty four, told Americans one
Speaker 1: reason why President Trump couldn't be a great leader, and
Speaker 1: then refused to endorse him. And we've covered that for years,
Speaker 1: you and I. But just his actions a few days ago,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this, Roger. He came
Speaker 1: out and basically said that Paul Renner would be a
Speaker 1: great governor and gave a soft not a total endorsement,
Speaker 1: but like a soft endorsement of Paul Renner. And then
Speaker 1: Jake Collins, his own lieutenant governor, goes to the Internet
Speaker 1: and say this basically, what's going on here, This is
Speaker 1: my governor. I have volunteered to become lieutenant governor after
Speaker 1: he allowed his lieutenant governor to go out and become
Speaker 1: part of this university systemicsion questions about that as well.
Speaker 1: But you have Jay Collins, who is DeSantis's lieutenant governor,
Speaker 1: and then DeSantis comes in and praises Paul Renner. It
Speaker 1: just shows that lack of loyalty and why Ron DeSantis
Speaker 1: should never be considered for something at a high higher
Speaker 1: office or anything like that nature. This guy does not
Speaker 1: have loyalty in his DNA. As they say, Roger, he
Speaker 1: is a backstabber. He is somebody who has overseen utility
Speaker 1: rates to their highest levels. In Florida, we pay the
Speaker 1: highest of the nation, whether you're talking about people's you know,
Speaker 1: different fees and things like that with the state. And
Speaker 1: then not to mention when it comes to the mismanagement
Speaker 1: of many things on the state level. Of the ten
Speaker 1: million dollars that you talk about that was siphoned to
Speaker 1: Casey Desantles's charity, I mean, there's so many examples here, but.
Speaker 3: This istility utility rates, utility rates the highest in the
Speaker 3: country because Ron took nine million from Florida Power and
Speaker 3: Light and its subsidies. Insurance rates the highest in the country.
Speaker 3: He's signed a bill. So if your home is destroyed
Speaker 3: by a hurricane and you don't like what the governor
Speaker 3: got with the insurance payer company offers you you can't
Speaker 3: sue them. Round Santis signed that into law. Republicans, I think,
Speaker 3: are just as guilty. You know, it's always ansure on
Speaker 3: the Internet. People tell me he's the best governor in
Speaker 3: the country. I usually check and see that many of
Speaker 3: them don't live in Florida. He's been good on some issues,
Speaker 3: I would and he's certainly notably better than Andrew Gillim,
Speaker 3: who I read yesterday is now back in prison for
Speaker 3: his being caught and tested positive for meth amphetamine. We
Speaker 3: wish him the best in his recovery. The other thing
Speaker 3: I think is interesting, Troy, that I want to touch on,
Speaker 3: because you've been through a campaign. You go to your
Speaker 3: mailbox and you get seventeen individual big floppy mailings for
Speaker 3: candidates for the state Assembly, for a state representative, for Congress,
Speaker 3: for governor, and there are so many of them, and
Speaker 3: politicians use them, but and political consultants love them because
Speaker 3: the markup is very lucrative. But they're completely and totally ineffective.
Speaker 3: I mean, as someone who you know who got a
Speaker 3: degree or I should say studied marketing and went and
Speaker 3: started as a direct mail copywriter, I raised seven million
Speaker 3: dollars through the mail for Ronald Reagan. That is not
Speaker 3: direct mail. Those big floppy pieces, they're so oversaturated they
Speaker 3: have no impact, no matter how outrageous the headline is.
Speaker 3: To me, mail is a close face envelope that appears
Speaker 3: to be hand addressed. Your computer programming. Do that in
Speaker 3: the upper left hand corner is just your return address.
Speaker 3: It doesn't say Troy Smith for Congress. When you open
Speaker 3: it up. It's a three page letter folded in a
Speaker 3: Z fold that just says that Troy Smith, your name
Speaker 3: is the letter head, not Chroic Smith for Congress. Has
Speaker 3: the appropriate disclaimer at the very end of the letter,
Speaker 3: and it is a it's in a chatty conversational tone.
Speaker 3: But the more you tell, the more you sell. As
Speaker 3: they say in direct marketing, you have a chance to
Speaker 3: make your case. I often include a picture postcard of
Speaker 3: the candidate and his wife, or the kididate and her husband,
Speaker 3: or a family photo or a description on the back.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I will include a chart that compares my opponent
Speaker 3: in me on the five issues my Poland shows are
Speaker 3: most significant in the race. That is a that is
Speaker 3: direct mail, and you can even get a bulk stamp
Speaker 3: and put it on slightly crooked so that people open it. Now,
Speaker 3: think about it. When you go to mailbox, what's the
Speaker 3: first thing you do. You divide your mail into two piles.
Speaker 3: One is a pile of things you're going to throw away,
Speaker 3: the Sam's clud flyer, the car wash flyer, the political flyers.
Speaker 3: And those are things that you're going to open, bills
Speaker 3: or other things. You're not sure what they are, but
Speaker 3: they look like they were letters. That's the pile you're
Speaker 3: going to open. That is direct mail. It's expensive with
Speaker 3: the costs of postage, even at bulk rates, although if
Speaker 3: you pre sort it by ZIP code and bundle it,
Speaker 3: you can bring your costs down. And it is incredibly
Speaker 3: effective in Republican primaries where older voters will open an
Speaker 3: envelope and will read. But nobody does that anymore because
Speaker 3: you see the consultants don't make a big markup, and
Speaker 3: because it takes a great deal of preparation. But it
Speaker 3: is an extraordinarily effective tool.
Speaker 2: When we come back and talk.
Speaker 3: About cable and why it's changed the face of politics,
Speaker 3: talk about these text messages that no doubt, if you
Speaker 3: live in Florida, you get fifteen Umber Day telling you
Speaker 3: who to vote for. These are all the mechanics of
Speaker 3: politics that I have fifty years experience in, and I
Speaker 3: see him playing out right here in this Florida governor's race.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back with Troy Smith. Troy, welcome back
Speaker 3: into the Stone zone here on the Rogerstone Show. The
Speaker 3: US Senate confirmed Trump attorney and Acting Attorney General Todd
Speaker 3: Blanche as Attorney General on August eighth, twenty twenty six,
Speaker 3: by a vote of fifty to forty nine. This was
Speaker 3: only after Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski bailed out on him,
Speaker 3: which I think was a disgraceful. Blanche brings an unusual
Speaker 3: set of qualifications to job. He kind of knows federal
Speaker 3: prosecution from both sides of the courtroom. He spent many
Speaker 3: years as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of
Speaker 3: New York, one of the toughest districts, before entering private
Speaker 3: practice and a very successful criminal defense practice, specifically representing
Speaker 3: Donald Trump very ably in three criminal cases brought against
Speaker 3: him in twenty twenty three twenty twenty four, the so
Speaker 3: called law Fair cases. So he's seen firsthand how formidable
Speaker 3: the federal prosecutorial apparatus can be when it is biased
Speaker 3: and twisted, and where the system is manipulated for a
Speaker 3: politically targeted individual. In my view, Todd Watch is a
Speaker 3: tough guy. What he really needs to do is by
Speaker 3: confronting the institutional wreckage left by the Trump Russian investigation.
Speaker 3: Just this week, we learned even more about the abuses
Speaker 3: of the FBI opening an investigation of Donald Trump for
Speaker 3: being a Russian asset with no probable cause or evidence
Speaker 3: to justify, because they were angry that he had fired
Speaker 3: James call Me Me over his illegal handling of the
Speaker 3: Hillary Clinton server file a case yet so. Yet another
Speaker 3: piece of evidence that this was that this was a setup.
Speaker 3: Telsea Gabber, the crusading Director of National Intelligence. He classified
Speaker 3: all the documents that showed that he was a conspicitious conspiracist,
Speaker 3: included Donald Trump. A party of pardon me included Barack Obama,
Speaker 3: included FBI director James call Mey, CIA director John Brennan,
Speaker 3: truly one.
Speaker 2: Of the ring leaders of this conspiracy.
Speaker 3: National Director of Intelligence, Doctor General James Clapper, the White
Speaker 3: House National Security Advisor Susan Rice, John Podesta, Rod Rosenstein
Speaker 3: particularly the acting Attorney general Trump appointe. There's very definitely
Speaker 3: proven both in the Durham and investigation and in the
Speaker 3: Inspector General's report by Michael Horror, which both of which,
Speaker 3: by the way, I think are fairly sanitized because Durham
Speaker 3: never has subpoena power. How do you get to the
Speaker 3: bottom of a scandal without subpoena power. And we know
Speaker 3: to some extens that Horowitz whitewashed quite a bit. But
Speaker 3: this is the greatest single dirty trick in American political history,
Speaker 3: the greatest single abuse of power. But because it began
Speaker 3: in Washington, d c. In twenty sixteen and seventeen, takes
Speaker 3: you all the way through the two phony impeachments. Tolcy
Speaker 3: Gabbert documented that as well, all the way to the
Speaker 3: manipulation of the twenty twenty election. Then the set of
Speaker 3: warfare of lawfare and Trump against against Trump in New York,
Speaker 3: the evaluations case, the Egene Carol sexual assault case, the
Speaker 3: hush money case, all orchestrated by the Biden Justice Department.
Speaker 3: People have to be prosecuted for these crimes. This is
Speaker 3: a treason's crime. There was no evidence justifying the appointment
Speaker 3: of Robert Muller justifying the three year harassment of Donald
Speaker 3: Trump where his rights were violated, and people are either
Speaker 3: they invited the law and the constitution. They're going to
Speaker 3: go to jail when they're not. Now, if you're Trump
Speaker 3: supporter or a Trump critic, you say, well, this is
Speaker 3: revenge and retaliation. No, I say that it is accountability
Speaker 3: and justice. Otherwise we have a two year justice system.
Speaker 3: I was prosecuted for lying to Congress when no misstatement
Speaker 3: I meant to made to Congress was either wilful or material.
Speaker 3: There was no Russian collusion to hide. So how could
Speaker 3: the judge say, Roger Stone, you're convicted of hiding, covering
Speaker 3: up for Donald Trump, covering up what. No coordination or
Speaker 3: communications or shift of information from Wiki leaps and no
Speaker 3: Russian collusion. Those are the facts. So here's the question
Speaker 3: for Tom Bunch, and I think he's up to it,
Speaker 3: confident about this. Will people be brought to justice? This
Speaker 3: is being investigated in Southern District of Florida because it
Speaker 3: ends in the rate at Marlago. That's why the jurisdiction
Speaker 3: is there.
Speaker 2: And Joe D.
Speaker 3: Genova, an incredibly able former US attorney's been added to
Speaker 3: that Strikeforce. This is the single most important thing of
Speaker 3: many important things that Todd Branch has to do in
Speaker 3: my view. Troy, I'm sorry for the soliloquy, but I
Speaker 3: had to get all of that in. I want to
Speaker 3: thank you for joining us for the political round up
Speaker 3: here in the Stone Zone on the Roger Stone Show.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back for the shocking story of Chinese
Speaker 3: communist organ harvesting.
Speaker 2: It's gonna blow your mind, Joe.
Speaker 3: We'll be right back for the shocking story of Chinese
Speaker 3: communist organ harvesting.
Speaker 2: It's gonna blow your mind.