In an appearance on CNN on Wednesday, former Donald Trump advisor and longtime Republican operative Roger Stone said the Republican National Committee (RNC) has a war room to take out the Republican presidential candidate.



"You suggest the RNC has a secret war room now making plans to take out Donald Trump. Do you really believe that?" CNN's John Berman asked Stone.



"I really do," Stone said. "They want a candidate in the form of Jeb Bush, who's running behind Trump and much more behind Hillary Clinton or Chris Christie or John Kasich. Yes, that's what they would prefer."



"Give us another loser like John McCain," he added.



"Look, I talk to a lot of reporters, sometimes off the record," Stone explained. "Sometimes, when I say to them, where did you get this hit piece of information, they'll tell me, oh, the sources was the Republican National Committee. Come on. This is the game. It's the way it works."





JOHN BERMAN, CNN: Well, when it comes to support for Donald Trump do you think the details matter?



STONE: I think a lot of voters have certain cognitive dissidence. He's getting social conservatives, economic conservatives, some Libertarian, some supply side conservatives, debt hawks. The conservative and Republican base is not monolithic. It has subsets that he seems to be appealing to all of them.



BERMAN: Ever crossed "T" and dotted "I" doesn't matter as much for him as perhaps for every other candidate.



STONE: I don't think this is about 14-point plans and getting down in the weeds about specific types of applications. It never worked for Ronald Reagan. It's about big, sweeping ideas. Secure our borders. There's an idea for you.



Let me ask you this. Would we even be talking about sanctuary cities in the Congress if Donald Trump had purposely almost singlehandedly acting this way?



BERMAN: You say the ruling class is pissing its pants right now.



STONE: Oh, yeah.



BERMAN: What do you mean?



STONE: Donald Trump can't be bought. You see, all these other candidates have been gorging on special interest campaign contributions all their lives, with the exception of Dr. Carson and Carly Fiorina. Isn't it interesting? Those two are moving up, although Trump is a lot more, and they're not in politics. The lobbyists, the special interests, the special pleaders, if you will, the super PACs the billionaires, these people are apoplectic about the rise of Trump. He can't be bought. He can bring sweeping conservative reform.



BERMAN: You suggest the RNC has a secret war room now making plans to take out Donald Trump. Do you really believe that?



STONE: I really do. They want a candidate in the form of Jeb Bush, who's running behind Trump and much more behind Hillary Clinton or Chris Christie or John Kasich. Yes, that's what they would prefer.



(CROSSTALK)



STONE: Give us another loser like John McCain.



BERMAN: That's different than being in a dark room with guys figuring out ways to take him out.



STONE: Look, I talk to a lot of reporters, sometimes off the record. Sometimes, when I say to them, where did you get this hit piece of information, they'll tell me, oh, the sources was the Republican National Committee. Come on. This is the game. It's the way it works.



BERMAN: They're taking him down.



STONE: They're trying. But look how successful they have been. Look. I'm sure the chairman will deny this if anybody even bothers to ask him about this. The political establishment, they don't know what to do about Trump because they said, oh, the immigration thing will kill him. First, they said he'll never run, and then he ran. Then they said he'll never file his financial disclosures. He filed and on time. It was Jeb who kept asking for extensions. Then they said, he's going to fall flat on his face. And he goes up in the polls. Immigration happens, he soars, they say, he going to crash. Now he takes on John McCain whose records on veterans and POWs is terrible and he is not beloved in the base of our party, and he goes even further than the polls.

