Donald Trump ally and political strategist Roger Stone thinks Republicans should use their own "armed guards" to settle election disputes in 2024.
In a clip provided to Rolling Stone by journalist Lauren Windsor, Stone lamented Trump's inability to throw a wrench in the ballot-counting process in 2020. While speaking at an August event in his home state of Florida, Stone said that the Trump campaign’s legal fights to steal the 2020 election weren’t enough.
“We did nothing in 2020,” Stone said. “We have to fight it out on a state-by-state basis, but you have to be ready. When they throw us out of Detroit, you go get a court order, you come in with your own armed guards, and you, and you dispute it. Instead, our guys just left.”
Stone has become notorious in political circles for his ability to go lower than just about anyone in his pursuit of GOP wins. He participated in the Brooks Brothers riot to halt ballot-counting in Miami in the 2000 presidential election and was once a member of President Richard Nixon's infamous re-election committee.
As Rolling Stone notes, Stone’s comments from August are seemingly in reference to an attack on a ballot-counting operation at a Detroit convention center, which Trump supporters attempted to interrupt.
Stone addwed that he was unimpressed with the RNC's current plan to deploy over 100,000 poll watchers.
“I’m not running this campaign. If I was I’d be doing things differently,” Stone said.
In the video, Stone also alleged that Trump and allies “never really had control” of the federal government, noting that Trump-appointed Attorney General Bill Barr’s office indicted Stone in 2019 for lying to Congress, obstructing an official proceeding, and witness tampering. Stone was later found guilty by a jury on all counts.
