Univision aired an interview with Roger Stone, a discredited Donald Trump ally whose offensive racist and misogynistic remarks have already gotten him banned from appearing on two different cable networks.
On the August 8 edition of Noticiero Univisión, correspondent Lourdes Del Río interviewed Roger Stone, identifying him as a former campaign advisor and personal friend of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Stone discussed -- in English, with Del Río’s dubbing in Spanish -- Trump’s electoral appeal and his immigration stance. He also shared his thoughts on Jeb Bush’s son George P. Bush’s recent endorsement of the Republican candidate.
Translated transcript:
JORGE RAMOS (HOST): Today Univision spoke with Roger Stone, a known Republican consultant who until very recently was one of Trump's closest advisors. He said he had conflicting views with the candidate regarding his campaign's communications strategy, but he continues to support him. He's the author of a controversial book against Bill and Hillary Clinton titled Clinton's War on Women. Lourdes del Rio talked to him:
LOURDES DEL RIO (CORRESPONDENT): Roger Stone is a politics veteran who's participated in nine presidential campaigns, advising Republican candidates including Richard Nixon. A personal friend of Donald Trump, he started out as one of his principal advisers,but he abandoned the campaign due to what he says are friendly differences. His vision regarding the current electoral process is that this country is undergoing a revolution against traditional candidates, which makes Trump the only candidate people are willing to believe in. Despite Donald Trump being branded as anti-immigrant for his rhetoric, Stone says his candidate has been misinterpreted systematically: he's not anti-immigrant, but anti-undocumented immigrants. He believes no president will help Latinos as much as Trump.
[Stone says that Trump] will revitalize the economy for everyone, giving Hispanics the opportunities the current president has denied them. He admits Trump's wall and his mass deportations plan is something really hard to achieve.
[Stone said:] Whether you could get every “illegal” out of the country, I'm not so sure, but I think you can get the most dangerous illegals out. We have data that tells us where are those who have criminal records whose visas have expired, and that would be a good start.
As an experienced political adviser, he's not surprised that George P. Bush has decided to support the candidacy of Donald Trump despite the attacks Trump has launched against his family. [He says it's] because George P. Bush aspires to be governor of Texas and president of the United States and the story of those who don't support the candidacy of their party's nominee is not good and he knows it. That's why he did it.
Stone minimized the importance of the amount of Republicans that have turned their backs on Trump saying they won't vote for him or who have even pledged to vote for Hillary Clinton. According to him this won't hurt the mogul's campaign as the majority of his followers are people who are tired of traditional politicians and this only confirms their opinion that Trump is not one of them.
Stone is a longtime friend and ally of Trump whose rhetoric has featured racist and misogynistic remarks. He has attacked CNN commentator Ana Navarro’s ethnicity, tweeting that “Black beans and rice didn't miss her.” Stone later doubled down on his attack by claiming Navarro’s ethnicity is the only reason she appears on air.
His offensive tweets -- some of which he scrubbed -- got him banned from appearing on CNN and MSNBC, and his reputation for using violent rhetoric, producing plagiarized and false research, and pushing conspiracy theories (about topics ranging from JFK’s assassination to the 9/11 terrorist attacks) disqualify him from appearing on any credible news program as an opinion source. Why would Univision bother giving him a platform?