Roger Stone Admits ‘Secure Conversations Shouldn’t Be Had Over Any App’ as He Tries Defending WH War Plan Leaks
Roger Stone admitted “secure conversations shouldn’t be had over any app” after members of President Donald Trump’s administration leaked war plans in a Signal chat that included a reporter.
The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg reported on Monday that he was accidentally looped into a Signal group chat earlier this month where Trump administration officials were discussing plans to bomb Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Stone, who has been an adviser to Trump, tried mounting a defense for the administration on NewsNation’s CUOMO, arguing the controversy will be forgotten about in a week.
Stone, however, admitted that relying on an app to have such “internal debates” is not a good idea.
“How would you suggest the administration play this Atlantic story about the reporter being put on a Signal thread? Thank God you’re not in there right now. Can you imagine if this had been tossed on your lap?” NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo asked Stone in a Monday interview.
“Internal debate is really not surprising. I understand the need of the news media to blow this into a tempest. But a week from now, nobody will be talking about it,” Stone said.
Check out the entire exchange below:
CHRIS CUOMO: How would you suggest the administration play this Atlantic story about the reporter being put on a signal thread? Thank God you’re not in there right now. Can you imagine if this had been tossed on your lap? But what do you think they should be doing with it as opposed to what they are doing with it?
ROGER STONE: Look, the bottom line of it is, what policy did Donald Trump, the president, decide on? Every administration has internal discussions, internal debates. In the end, the President made a decision to attack the Houthis. They had been provocatively attacking us for a number of years. This also supported our European allies. At the end there’s only one guy who makes the call, and that’s the president. And the vice president ultimately supported him. Internal debate is really not surprising. I understand the need of the news media to blow this into a tempest, but a week from now, nobody will be talking about it.
CUOMO: I don’t disagree with that. I’m saying putting the reporter on the thread, doing that kind of business on Signal, that’s not the standard that you’ve ever heard of before in that capacity. Do you think they should use this as an opportunity to own it? I’m not talking internal debate. You’re right about that. But that “we shouldn’t have done this this way. I’m going to trash the reporter. We made a mistake putting them on this thread. we’re not going to do it again.” Isn’t that what they should be saying?
STONE: Well, look, secure conversations shouldn’t be had over any app that is available. I don’t think they’re any secure [apps]. I think all Americans, unfortunately, should assume that everything that you look at, everything you write, everything you say, can ultimately be accessed. So I’m not going to criticize members of my own party, but in retrospect, they probably should have used a more secure chain. I don’t know how this reporter got attached to it. Frankly, I haven’t even had a chance to read all of it. I’ve more read the media stories about it than actually looking at the exchange myself.
CUOMO: I got you. Look, part of the problem is that people don’t criticize their own party, but I can’t blame you for that. That’s the nature of the game.
Watch above via NewsNation.
