Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
‘THIS WILL NOT BE AN EASY RACE’
Stone praises Trump, scorns Democrats at Lobsterfest
Lobster was the featured entrée, political red meat was also served — praise for President Donald Trump, ominous warnings about the Democrats, scorn for a former supporter who’s defected.
The message for 450 Republicans who gathered at the Polo Club of Boca Raton on Thursday night was strikingly similar to the one delivered at the same time 1,500 miles away at a Manchester, New Hampshire, rally by the president: reelect him to preserve the nation’s security and economic strength and prevent one of the socialist Democrats from taking over.
It wasn’t all positive, however, in South Florida.
Roger Stone, the longtime Trump confidant who is awaiting trial on charges related to the Robert Mueller investigation into attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election, sought to put some fear into the South Florida Republicans with a warning that the president might not win reelection.
“I’m concerned. This is not a cakewalk. This is not a landslide in the making. This will not be an easy race, and anyone who thinks so does not understand the dynamic of American politics,” Stone said. “The greatest single obstacle to the president’s reelection is overconfidence.”
Stone said a key to Trump’s 2016 victory was his ability to use the internet to bypass major national cable networks and newspapers “to do what he does best and counterpunch.”
He asserted that won’t be as easy in 2020, echoing complaints of many on the political right, who assert that their messages are somehow blocked by big social media companies. “I’m calling out Google and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all the others,” he said.
“I’m concerned. This is not a cakewalk. This is not a landslide in the making.” Roger Stone, longtime Trump confidant
Florida Republicans cannot rest, Stone said. “The president cannot be reelected without a victory in our home state.” Florida awards 29 electoral votes, more than a tenth of the 270 needed to win the presidency.
Criticizing Biden: Both Stone and U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, who represents northern Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties, emphasized presidential candidate Joe Biden’s reputation for invading women’s personal space, through gestures, proximity or comments, suggesting that’s a potential line of Republican attack.
“This guy cannot keep his hands off of other people’s wives and children. No, that’s not a conspiracy theory. No, that’s not a smear. There are hours and hours of tapes and mountains of photographs in which people can see this,” Stone said.
Mast, an Army sergeant who lost both legs and a finger when a bomb exploded under him in Kandahar, Afghanistan, said he had been recovering at a military hospital when he and his wife were invited to 2010 Thanksgiving dinner at the official residence of Biden, then the vice president.
“True story. This is exactly what happened,” Mast said, describing himself as “Sgt. Nobody.”
The vice president was talking to Mast’s wife “very closely and joking with her — and to this moment my wife and I cannot remember exactly what was said to her — but whatever was said to her, staff Sgt. Nobody said to the vice president of the United States of America, ‘Sir, you’d better stop hitting on my wife or I’m going to start hitting on Jill.’”
Jill Biden is Joe Biden’s wife. “He looked at me very seriously and says, ‘Go ahead, you’re probably going to have more luck than I do.’”
Biden said this year he’s changing the way he interacts with women and would be more respectful of their personal space. Trump has been accused by multiple women of sexual assault and on the 2016 Access Hollywood tape was heard boasting that he’d grab women by the genitals with impunity; he’s denied doing anything inappropriate.
On the policy front, Stone criticized Biden for his role in crime legislation decades ago that led to long prison sentences for possession of small amounts of marijuana, something he said ruined lives, disproportionately affected minorities and wasted billions of dollars.
Democrats labeled socialists: Stone said it didn’t matter much who the Democrats end up nominating for president. “They will nominate a socialist,” he said. “The socialist wing is in the ascendancy in the Democratic Party.”
In last month’s presidential debates candidate Pete Buttigieg predicted Republicans would do exactly what Stone did — label the Democrats “crazy socialists” no matter what they do or say.
Scorning the Mooch: Last month, Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Michael Barnett dropped one of the keynote speakers, former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, from the dinner. Scaramucci had condemned Trump’s language as racist; since then, he’s completely broken with the president and the two have openly feuded.
At the dinner, Republicans mocked Scaramucci, known as “The Mooch.”
Joe Budd, Palm Beach County state Republican committeeman and Lobsterfest emcee, said Barnett has something in common with former White House chief of staff John Kelly, who got rid of Scaramucci after he was in the job for just 10 days. “They both fired Anthony Scaramucci.”
Stone said that the last time he saw Scaramucci, he complimented him on his nice suit, then added the kicker mocking his manhood, saying he asked him what the suit would cost “in a man’s size.”
Barnett said Scaramucci-generated publicity helped make Lobsterfest a sellout. “Nothing is more important than getting our president reelected next year,” he said. He estimated net profit of about $40,000, to fund 2020 election efforts.
Support for Stone: Stone, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, is awaiting trial on charges of witness tampering, obstruction of justice and making false statements in a case originally brought by Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating issues connected with Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
The federal judge presiding in the case has banned Stone from social media and ordered him not to discuss the case. He didn’t.
“I’m under no such gag order,” Budd said, who berated Mueller for the massive predawn January raid in which dozens of agents arrived at Stone’s house to arrest him “as if he was a drug kingpin or a mass murderer.” Budd urged attendees to contribute to Stone’s legal defense fund. On the way out, people could also buy “Roger Stone did nothing wrong!” Tshirts.
Barnett told the audience that Stone is “the man who did absolutely nothing wrong.”
“This guy cannot keep his hands off of other people’s wives and children. No, that’s not a conspiracy theory. No, that’s not a smear. There are hours and hours of tapes and mountains of photographs in which people can see this.” Roger Stone, on presidential candidate Joe Biden