Get Me Roger Stone

We must break free from the petty politics of the past.

America is a nation of believers

that is being led by a group of censors, critics and cynics.

All of the people telling you, "You can't have the country you want,"

are the same people that wouldn't stand...

I mean, they said, "Trump doesn't have a chance of being here tonight."

Oh, we love defeating those people, don't we?

Don't we love defeating them?

To all Americans tonight, I make this promise.

We will make America safe again.

We will make America strong again.

And we will make America great again!

God bless you and good night!

I love you.

My name is Roger Stone, and I'm an agent provocateur.

Stone's Rules are things that I have learned in life

that I seek to pass on to others

who may want to be in the same business that I'm in.

Or, actually, any business, 'cause they are fully applicable.

So, for example, a Stone's Rule:

"It is better to be infamous than never be famous at all."

Stone's Rule.

One man's dirty trick is another man's political, civic action.

Everything I do, everything I've done, has been legal.

But politics ain't beanbag and losers don't legislate.

The truth will be suppressed no longer.

Lock her up!

Lock her up!

Well, Roger has a really rough reputation.

They talk about "dirty trickster" and lots of other things,

but I've known him for a long time, and he's actually a quality guy.

He's a nice guy.

Just a few descriptions of you here:

"a state-of-the-art sleazeball," "a little rat,"

"an actor who likes to assume poses."

I believe in winning.

I believe in doing whatever is necessary to win, short of breaking the law.

In the world of political consulting, there are a number of rogues.

But there's...

There's really nobody quite like Roger Stone.

Roger is the sinister Forrest Gump of American politics.

He's not just this simpleminded guy, but this Machiavellian, almost crazy guy

who shows up at every key moment in recent American history.

Roger has a great understanding of the media.

He understands politics and he understands politicians.

And he always likes to take on somebody

that at least has a good chance of winning,

and sometimes it doesn't work out.

He's had some people that I said, "What are you doing with these people?"

But, you know... But he loves it and he loves the game.

He has fun with it, and he's very good at it.

In many respects,

Roger Stone created Donald Trump as a political figure.

There is no doubt that in tone, in affect, in profile,

the Trump candidacy was a pure Roger Stone production.

When Mexico sends its people...

They're bringing drugs,

they're bringing crime, they're rapists.

And some, I assume, are good people.

Whereas the rest of us looked at Trump

and saw someone who was impossibly vulgar and impolite,

Roger looked at him and said, "You know, this is someone who voters might like."

I mean, Roger actually gets democracy in a way,

I think most people who cover politics don't.

You know, democracy is the process of appealing to the majority.

My name's Donald Trump,

and I'm the largest real estate developer in New York.

I own buildings all over the place, model agencies, the Miss Universe pageant.

But it wasn't always so easy.

About 13 years ago, I was billions of dollars in debt.

But I fought back and I won, big league.

Now my company is bigger than it ever was and I'm having more fun than I ever had.

Hello, everybody.

Fifteen seasons of The Apprentice

not only makes him a smooth television performer,

but think of the way he looked.

High-backed chair, perfectly lit, great makeup, great hair, decisive,

making decisions, running the show. He looks presidential.

Do you think voters, non-sophisticates,

make a difference between entertainment and politics?

Politics is show business for ugly people.

Roger always wanted me to run for president.

And over the years, every time a presidential race came up,

he always wanted me to run.

And I just didn't have interest at that time.

And nor was the country in trouble like it is today.

The American Dream is dead.

Bring it back!

But if I get elected president, I will bring it back.

Bigger and better and stronger than ever before.

It's really great to be here in Cleveland, 2016.

A lot of beautiful people here.

1776!

I have never been more excited about a presidential campaign.

I have never seen a grassroots uprising.

This is not the Republicans versus the Democrats.

That's right.

This is the elites of the Republican and Democratic Party

who have driven this country into the ditch

versus Donald J. Trump and the rest of America.

I thank you for your support.

We are on the verge of making America great again. Thank you.

How are you doing? Good.

-Take a picture with my son? - Yes. How are ya?

And if you decide to run for president in, like, 2039, look me up.

-I will. -

I understand how fame works. You know, the four stages of fame.

It's like, "Who is Roger Stone?"

"Get me Roger Stone."

"Get me a Roger Stone type."

"Who is Roger Stone?"

A mock election was planned in my elementary school.

And I was for John F. Kennedy because my parents were Catholic,

and I thought, although they were Republicans,

they had a certain sympathy for Kennedy.

But also because Kennedy's hair was so much better than Nixon's hair.

And, therefore, I went to the cafeteria

and as each kid would go through the cafeteria line with their tray,

I would tell them, "You know, Nixon has proposed

having school on Saturdays."

Well, then the mock election was held,

and to the surprise of the local newspaper,

Democrat John Kennedy swept this mock election.

For the first time ever, I understood the value of disinformation.

Of course, I've never practiced it since then.

We Republicans seek

a government that attends to its inherent responsibilities,

encouraging a free and a competitive economy,

and enforcing law and order.

My first Republican National Convention was 1964.

I was 12 years old.

The woman who lived next door to me, she gave me a copy of a book,

The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater.

And I devoured this book in, you know, a day.

It was at that moment that I knew what I wanted to do.

I no longer wanted to be an actor. I now wanted to be in politics.

Little did I know how similar they are.

I became a zealot. I had a Goldwater sticker on my bicycle.

I wore Goldwater buttons.

I wore a Goldwater button two weeks after the election was over.

That's how defiant I was.

I met Roger in college.

He was really a total prodigy, in terms of his political ability.

He was talking grown men back home into running for office, electing them.

And then we would sit in our dorm room

and they would call Roger for political advice

as to how they should vote on key issues.

His mother once said, "You're not a Catholic.

Your religion is the Republican Party and your god is Richard Nixon."

Bart Porter asked him, you know, if he'd be interested

in coming to the Nixon campaign,

so Roger took time off of school to go join the campaign.

This is central headquarters for the Re-Elect Nixon Campaign.

The White House.

But for the sake of appearances,

the Re-Elect Nixon headquarters, in name, is one block up Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Committee to Re-Elect the President

was unlike any campaign that I'd been in.

It didn't look like your typical political headquarters.

It had a very hushed, corporate quality to it.

Porter called me into his office and said,

"We want you to go to New Hampshire,

and we want you to give this contribution to Pete McCloskey,

who's running for the Republican nomination,

challenging Nixon from the left,

in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance."

I got an enormous mason jar,

filled it with pennies and nickels and dimes and quarters.

I brought it to the McCloskey headquarters.

I said, "Hi, I'm from the Young Socialist Alliance.

I wanna donate this, and I need a receipt."

They were so dumb, they gave me one.

The idea was to give the receipt to the Manchester Union Leader,

the largest newspaper in New Hampshire, as a way of discrediting McCloskey.

A perfect example of a dirty trick that had no purpose and no effect,

but the Nixon people thought it was great.

I never heard another word about it...

until an investigator from the Senate Watergate Committee knocked on my door.

We have a mystery story out of Washington.

Five people have been arrested and charged

with breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee

in the middle of the night.

The Democratic National Committee is located

in the Watergate office building.

I welcome this kind of examination,

because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.

Well, I'm not a crook.

I've earned everything I've got.

I was the youngest person to go to the Watergate grand jury.

During the Senate Watergate Committee hearings,

this enormous chart was put up,

in which everyone who received money from this secret fund was put on the wall.

And it said, "Gordon Liddy, McCord, Segretti."

And then way down at the bottom, it said "Stone."

I paid $100 to Mr. Roger Stone on one occasion.

My parents called me on the phone. They were mortified.