Roger Stone: We'll disclose the hotel room number for any delegate in Cleveland who tries to "steal" the nomination from Trump

Via CBS reporter Sopan Deb, the key bit starts at 45:19 of the clip below and runs through 48:21. Stone’s not a formal advisor to Trump at this point but he’s more than a random pro-Trump talking head on cable. He still speaks to Trump “from time to time” and was accused directly by Ted Cruz of planting the story about Cruz’s alleged affairs in the National Enquirer to benefit Trump. He was last heard promising demonstrations at the convention if Trump doesn’t win the nomination which he calls “days of rage,” a name he apparently borrowed from the 1969 protests organized by Bill Ayers’s old radical outfit, the Weathermen. Trump himself predicted “riots” in Cleveland if he loses a floor fight despite winning the most delegates in the primaries and he’s repeatedly winked at violence against protesters at his rallies. All of that being so, can we not pretend like Stone isn’t issuing a barely-veiled threat of harm to delegates here to try to intimidate them out of supporting their preferred candidate? (Especially since some Trump fans themselves are bound to respond, “Good! They deserve what’s coming to them!”) When you’re organizing mass demonstrations devoted to “rage” and encouraging participants to descend on people’s hotel rooms to “discuss” their vote, you’re not really into discussion. And if you doubt that, imagine Cruz’s spokesman encouraging mobs of angry Cruz fans to show up at Trump delegates’ doors for reciprocal “discussions” — which may be in the cards if Cruz delegates end up being hurt.

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Incidentally, Trump fans don’t need Stone to leak any delegate information. Per Stuart Stevens, one of Romney’s top strategists in 2012, that information is always easily obtained at a convention:

Usually they’re a big party. Not this year, which is why, I’m sure, the RNC will take extra security precautions inside hotels where delegates are staying. But that’s the beauty of Stone’s threat: It’ll carry over after the convention too, just like it’s carried over for Megyn Kelly and Michelle Fields long after their confrontations with Trump ended. Kelly can afford a bodyguard; the average delegate can’t.

That is to say, the significance of this clip isn’t that Stone’s going to spoonfeed personal information on delegates to angry Trump fans. (Although who knows? They don’t call him the Dirty Trickster for nothing.) The significance, a la Trump reminiscing at his rallies about how protesters were treated in the good old days, is the implicit permission being given by a Trump confidante for strong-arm tactics against the delegates. It’s all in service to the political end of delegitimizing the idea that anyone but Trump might be nominee. Never mind that the rules governing delegate selection were clear long before the primaries began; never mind the fact that Cruz is running rings around Trump so far in snapping up delegates even though Trump’s whole pitch to his fans is that he has the best people on his side and never gets outmaneuvered in competition. They can’t win a delegate fight so they’ll screech “stop, thief!” instead. Stone’s just putting some muscle behind that.

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David Strom 3:20 PM | November 15, 2024
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David Strom 12:40 PM | November 15, 2024
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