Roger Stone, the political operative whose 40-month prison sentence was commuted by Donald Trump, his longtime friend, used a racial slur on air while verbally sparring with a black Los Angeles-based radio host.
The exchange occurred on yesterday’s Mo’Kelly Show, as host Morris O’Kelly grilled Stone on his conviction for lying to Congress, tampering with witnesses and obstructing the House investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election.
Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison, but Trump commuted that sentence on 10 July, days before Stone, 67, was to report for detention.
Amid widespread condemnation, Republican senator Mitt Romney lamented an instance of “unprecedented, historic corruption”.
As O’Kelly asserted that Stone was given his commutation because of his friendship with Trump, Stone’s voice went faint.
But he could be heard uttering that he was “arguing with this negro”.
O’Kelly asked Stone to repeat the comment.
Stone went momentarily silent.
Wait… Did Roger Stone just say “I don’t feel like arguing with this negro…”?
Man…2020 is the wildest! pic.twitter.com/ssWy8RYYWT
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) July 19, 2020
The radio program transcribed his complete sentence as: “I can’t believe I’m arguing with this negro.”
O’Kelly persisted.
“I’m sorry you’re arguing with whom? I thought we were just having a spirited conversation. What happened? You said something about ‘negro’.”
Stone said he had not, adding: “You’re out of your mind.”
O’Kelly later said “Stone could have reached for any pejorative, but unfortunately went there.”
The host added: “Stone offered an unfiltered, unvarnished one-sentence expression of how he saw the journalist interviewing him.”
O’Kelly characterized “negro”, the word Stone used, as the “low-calorie version of the n-word”.
In a statement sent by text message to The New York Times today, Stone at various points appeared to acknowledge the slur had been used, blamed technical difficulties on the show’s part, denied he said the word and then argued it was not offensive.
Stone has been accused of using this kind of language in the past, according to Media Matters for America, which noted in 2016 that Stone had scrubbed his Twitter account of inappropriate posts.
On July 10, days before Stone was set to report to prison, Trump commuted Stone’s sentence.
Stone had been sentenced to a 40-month term for seven felony crimes relating to obstruction of a congressional investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign and possible ties to Russia.