Donald Trump ally Roger Stone tweeted in 2014 that Sen. Bernie Sanders is a “Soviet Agent” who “should be arrested for treason and shot.” Stone and decades-long friend Trump have recently been courting Sanders supporters to back the Republican front-runner in the general election.
Stone is a longtime adviser and confidant to Trump. He now heads a pro-Trump super PAC and has stirred controversy by promising to disclose the hotels and room numbers of Republican National Convention delegates who are purportedly trying to “steal” the nomination from Trump.
Stone has a history of violent rhetoric. He suggested he wants “to bash Bill O'Reilly's head in,” offered a bounty to anyone who “punches out Chris Matthews,” told journalist Jill Abramson to “DIE BITCH!,” fantasized about CNN commentator Ana Navarro “killing herself,” and said he’d “kick in” money to see Hillary Clinton kill herself.
He tweeted in April 2014: "Soviet Agent Bernie Saunders [sic], Should be arrested for treason and shot”:
@KennettDems @RTED2016 Soviet Agent Bernie Saunders, Should be arrested for treason and shot.
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) April 18, 2014
Stone also repeatedly tweeted that the Founding Fathers would have beaten up Sanders:
@JeffersonianAll the Founding Fathers would push this pushy blow-hard in the mouth #commie
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 16, 2015
@JeffersonianAll Ben Franklin would have cold cocked Bernie Sanders
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 16, 2015
@CurtisJBarry @JeffersonianAll Tommy Jefferson would have punched Bernie Sanders lights out
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) October 17, 2015
Trump recently tweeted that “Sanders has been treated terribly by the Democrats—both with delegates & otherwise. He should show them, and run as an Independent!” The Republican made similar remarks during his April 26 victory speech. (The Sanders campaign has rejected Trump’s suggestion.) Trump also said on MSNBC that "Sanders has a message that's interesting. I'm going to be taking a lot of the things that Bernie said and using them.”
During an April 27 appearance on The Alex Jones Show, Stone made a play for Sanders voters by claiming Trump has a “very strong appeal to more than a third of the Bernie Sanders voters” because they are “blue-collar folks who have been left out by the New World Order economy.” (Alex Jones previously suggested Sanders supporters “need to have" their "jaws broken.”)
Stone said in August 2015 that Sanders and Trump shared similarities, claiming: “I’m 100 percent for Trump, and I must tell you I like Bernie Sanders, even though his philosophy is different than mine. Both these candidates are outsiders, both these candidates are nonestablishment candidates.”