Get Me Roger Stone

Netflix
​Stone is the Machiavellian clown to Cohn’s monster. He’s the fixer with Nixon tattooed on his back. “Hate is a stronger motivator than love” is his mantra. Labeled a “political strategist,” he is more like the P.T. Barnum of dirty tricks. In the film, Jeffrey Toobin calls Stone “the sinister Forrest Gump of American politics.” For decades, he has been fixing and manipulating with a complete lack of moral or ethical integrity. Working as an “outsider,” Stone operates vicious, uninhibited campaigns. He is proud of his scandals and the vitriol he attracts. Not one to apologize, compromise, or mince words, he declares: “My attitude regarding those who criticize me is for being friends with Richard Nixon or Roy Cohn is (he leans in) . . . fuck ’em.”

For Stone, explains Toobin, morality is synonymous with weakness. He was dismissed from the Dole campaign for advertising with his wife, complete with pictures, in a sex swinger magazine (“Hot insatiable lady and her handsome bodybuilder husband, experienced swingers, seek similar couples or exceptional, hung single men”). He denied it until it was proven true, saying, “How I conduct myself in my private life is nobody’s business.” This from the man who wore T-shirts and devised posters with Bill Clinton’s face captioned with the word “rapist.” The film makes a plausible claim that Trump’s election may have been due to Stone’s manipulations. It is no surprise that he received a presidential pardon. The facts of his career are shocking and disheartening. This film offers ample evidence of how low the political game has degenerated.