Clay Young Republican's Roger Stone Meeting Draws National Scrutiny
Meeting Secretly Recorded By Former Stormy Daniels Campaign Manager
The Clay County Young Republicans hosted “A Night With Roger Stone” in August of this year. Little did they know that the meeting was the subject of a secret recording by a man who was once Stormy Daniels's campaign manager.
Stone is an infamous political consultant with ties to Donald Trump, and some of his remarks at the meeting are drawing national scrutiny.
During the event, Stone made several comments that have ruffled the feathers of news outlets, including suggesting using the National Guard to monitor voting at polling stations.
Stone’s comments are unsurprising for anyone familiar with him. What is surprising is just who managed to pull off the secret video. Brian Welsh is a political operative from New Orleans with a long history of work on political campaigns in Louisiana and abroad.
Welsh’s most famous campaign work was for the Senate Campaign of Stormy Daniels. Daniels is an adult film star who is alleged to have had an affair with former President Donald Trump and was later paid to keep quiet about it.
During the Daniels campaign, Welsh’s car burst into flames and exploded. Welsh believes it wasn’t an accident but rather an attempt to stop his political activism.
CBS News quoted Welsh as saying, “Clearly, if someone tried to blow up my car, it's cause for concern; it's not cause for me to stop doing my job, stop me from talking about the things that are important."
Clay News & Views confirmed that Welsh purchased two tickets to the event in his name. During the event, attendees were asked not to video the events or comments from Stone, and at least two attendees were threatened with removal for trying to take video on their phones.
At some point, Welsh’s clandestine video made it into the hands of Lauren Windsor, a left-leaning self-described “documentarian” who has a history of following Roger Stone around and trying to catch him saying things he ought not. Windsor released the video on the heels of her new film, ‘Gonzo For Democracy.’ The film dives into Trump and Stone's efforts to cast doubt on the result of the 2020 Presidential Election.
It is not clear how the videos of Stone were taken at the meeting, but County County Young Republicans Chairwoman Sam Wernet had this to say about the incident:
“Today, Kamala Harris’ DOJ filed their second lawsuit in Virginia because the state removed non-citizens from their voter rolls - the former being in Alabama. While political operatives sent Stormy Daniels’ political advisor across state lines under an alias to secretly obtain footage at a private event in violation Florida’s two party consent laws.
For being the party of democracy it is clear the Democrats will stop at nothing even short of selecting, not electing a candidate to try to get a win. While I do not condone violence, I do expect my country to protect its citizens and democracy. I find the timing of this political espionage suspect considering the recent filings by the DOJ and the event being 2 months ago.
This is a clear misinterpretation of Mr. Stones comments at a private event for the former chairman of the organization and infringement on the rights of the private citizens in attendance.”
Florida is a two-party consent state regarding recording private conversations, but it is unclear if an event like the one held by the Clay County Young Republicans would be considered private enough to prohibit secret recordings.
Roger Stone shared his thoughts about the recording on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying, “Coordinated distortion by demented leftists. Demanding clean voter lists in which only those legally qualified to vote are allowed to do so is hardly a. "Coup" Lauren the talentless cat lady fails again.”
Vote for the prosecutor, not the felon.