Trump political adviser holds book signing in Round Rock
How did the Trump campaign tap into the national mood to deliver a stunning victory almost no one saw coming? That is what Roger Stone, a long-time political adviser and friend to President Trump has written about in his new book and he was in Central Texas to promote.
The book is called: "The making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution."
Stone, a New York Times Best-Selling Author was at the “Barnes and Noble” in Round Rock, Thursday night to speak and sign his book. Stone said he's a veteran of nine national presidential campaigns and, has served as a senior campaign aide to three republican presidents. He said he has known Trump for nearly 40 years.
“I met him in 1979 when I was sent to New York to organize Gov. Ronald Reagan’s campaign for president. I read in the newspaper that George Bush, Howard Baker, Gov. John Connelly had all been courting Donald Trump to join their campaigns, but there was no mention of Gov. Reagan. So I finagled an appointment to see him, I made my pitch, (and) he joined my finance committee,” he said.
Stone who said he helped Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon get elected gives an in-depth view on Trump’s journey to president. “The “Making of the President 2016” is the definitive insider account of how Donald Trump pulled off the greatest political upset in American history. My book is kind of a combination of big picture trends in the country as well as down and dirty vignettes from the campaign trail,” he said.
A controversial topic right now is the investigation for the possibility of the Russians, being involved in Trump’s campaign. Stone has come under fire for a conversation he had on social media, “I never had any conversations or contacts whatsoever with anybody who represented the Russian state. I specifically deny that. Since I have no doubt that I have been under government surveillance since last June, they have therefore seen all my emails and monitored all my phone calls and my texts, and they now know that. I did have an exchange with a hacker named Gucifer 2.0 which came six weeks after the release of the DNC documents put forward by WikiLeaks. I specifically reject the idea he's a Russian asset, we don't know that. Our exchange, which we now made public is entirely benign, it's innocuous. Who would conduct espionage on twitter? Nobody," he said.
Stone has also been known to be a champion of you've been a champion of legalizing marijuana, which Attorney General Jeff Sessions has come out with much opposition.
Stone said he hopes President Trump sticks with his campaign promise regarding marijuana, “I hope to convince him because as you know in the campaign, the candidate Trump was very forthright about the fact that when it came to medicinal marijuana that he favored a state’s rights approach that while he himself would never not be a user, he thought it was up to the states. That's a position frankly that I urged him to take. You can't be for states’ right when it comes to transgender bathrooms, and states’ rights when it comes to abortion and states’ rights when it comes to medicinal marijuana and suddenly say when it comes to recreational marijuana which is what Sessions is saying now, ‘I am not for states’ rights.’ There's an internal inconsistency there. I am really hopeful that I can convince the president to reel in his attorney general, as you probably saw Attorney General Sessions said ‘Good people don't use marijuana’ No Mr. Attorney General sick people use marijuana and millions and millions of Americans have found relief from various illnesses from marijuana. I believe the attorney general is disserving the president. This is not consistent with the position he put out there in the election and I know lots of younger voters and lots of libertarian voters, voted for Donald Trump based on that promise, I think it's crucial the president keep his promise,” he said.