Trump Bestie Roger Stone Called a Black Radio Host a Racist Slur Live on Air

I somehow thought that senators Marco Rubio and Dan Sullivan memorializing the late John Lewis on social media with pictures of the late Elijah Cummings was going to be the most racist thing a top-level Republican did on Saturday.

Enter Roger Stone, who called a Black radio host a racist slur—while they were live on air, to boot.

The steampunk supervillian slash longtime friend and collaborator of Donald Trump’s called in to Los Angeles radio commentator Morris W. O’Kelly’s weekend program, The Mo’Kelly Show, presumably to discuss the President’s recent commutation of Stone’s federal prison sentence, The New York Times reports. This marked only the 11th time that Trump has commuted or pardoned someone since taking office three years ago. For comparison, his predecessor, Barack Obama, pardoned or commuted 1,175 sentences during his eight years in office.

Stone’s 40-month sentence came as a result of him obstructing Congress’ investigation into the President’s 2016 campaign and his potential Russian ties, so it’s not crazy to think that Trump commuted his ole pal’s sentence as a way of saying thanks. O’Kelly zeroed in on that obvious favoritism, asking Stone whether he thought his close relationship with the President influenced the decision.

“There are thousands of people treated unfairly daily,” asked O’Kelly, per the Times. “How your number just happened to come up in the lottery, I am guessing it was more than just luck, Roger, right?”

Stone responded by muttering, perhaps to himself or someone else in the room with him, something half-inaudible about “arguing with this Negro.”

O’Kelly asked his guest to repeat what he’d just said. Stone sighed then went totally silent for about 40 seconds, then he pretended like he had a bad connection, and then he just straight-up lied.

“I did not [say a racist slur],” Stone lied. “You’re out of your mind.”

O’Kelly continued the interview. After Stone left the program, O’Kelly explained to his listeners why.

“[I wanted] to keep him talking for your benefit, as the audience, and my benefit to have that conversation,” said O’Kelly. “The only thing that I felt was true, honest, and sincere that Roger Stone said was in that moment that he thought I was not listening.”

“All of my professional accolades, all my professional bona fides went out the window because as far as he was concerned, he was talking and arguing with a Negro,” the host continued. “It’s the diet version of the N-word, but as an African-American man, it’s something I deal with pretty frequently.”

“If there’s a takeaway from the conversation, it is that Roger Stone gave an unvarnished look into what is in the heart of many Americans today,” he concluded.