Spotted at the media center, in a Tom Wolfe-like white suit, wearing two-tone brown and tie oxfords, is Roger Stone, a longtime adviser to Donald Trump and partner in 1981-90 to Paul Manafort, Trump’s current campaign manager. They first met at the Connecticut state Republican convention in 1970, and Stone notes that Connecticut is one of the last states to nominate candidates for statewide office (though non-winners at the convention can sometimes challenge the winner in a primary). I first met Stone in the 1970s, and remember standing with him at the back of the floor at the 1976 Democratic national convention where he was (I presume) doing oppo work. “Paul Manafort is the best delegate counter there is. He’s the best convention politician since Bill Timmons.”
Stone dismisses concerns about the platform, noting that the 1972 Republican platform promised that the United States would never recognize Red China and the 1976 platform committed to the gold standard. He dismisses the stories that Trump was going back and forth on his vice presidential succession as horse excrement.
