Former Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone told Bill Maher tonight that he has not colluded with Russia, that Guccifer 2.0 is “a hero” and warned against judging the Trump presidency on the first two months.
“I know you’re favorite musician must be Muddy Waters,” responded the host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, at one point during the top-of-show interview, “because that’s what you do – muddy the waters.”
Real Time‘s booking of Stone – who’s plugging a new book and is the subject of a Netflix doc in May – was its most fortuitous since February’s appearance by the about-to-implode Milo Yiannopoulos. Former FBI agent Clinton Watts, who this week outlined the ways Russians have been hacking into American affairs, has called out Stone for bragging about tweet-conversing with alleged Russian hacker Guccifer, while House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff has noted that Stone suspiciously predicted the hacking of Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta.
Stone told Maher tonight that he did not, in fact, predict the Podesta hack, and did not believe Guccifer was, in fact, Russian. “I think he is a hero,” Stone said of the DNC hacker (full name: Guccifer 2.0, of course).
HBO via Twitter
“I’m opposed to the Deep State,” Stone said about the supposed Obama loyalists still working in the government. “I think it should be exposed.”
Stone insisted his Twitter conversations with Guccifer were “benign” and “innocuous.” Besides, he added, “If you’re going to engage in espionage, would you really do it on Twitter?”
“I’m not on their side,” Stone said, finally, of Russia. “I’m a patriotic American.”
On the YouTube post-show Overtime, Stone said Julian Assange is not an “asset” of the Russians, but rather an opponent of the Deep State. (Watch the Overtime segment below – with the volume down if the kids are around).
Maher ended the show tonight with a New Rules segment lambasting Donald Trump’s “enablers,” with a Brady Bunch-style screen shot of Sean Spicer, Jeff Sessions, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pence and others. (See it below).
“And that word is not a compliment,” Maher said. “Elvis had his Memphis Mafia, Michael Jackson never had a doctor who said, ‘Gee, Mike, your nose just fell off again.” He also referenced the underlings who supplied Bill Cosby with women and horse tranquilizers.
Comparing Trump to Sunset Boulevard‘s Norma Desmond and his “enablers” to the sycophantic butler Max, Maher noted that Sunset was “about an aging, unstable drama queen,” and imagined Trump intoning, “I’m still bigly. It’s Congress that got small.”
Here’s Overtime:
