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AP Photo Former Trump adviser predicts 'slugfest' with Clinton

The looming general election battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will be every bit as messy as anticipated, former Trump adviser Roger Stone said Monday.

“This will be a slugfest," the Trump ally told NPR's Steve Inskeep on "Morning Edition," suggesting that Bernie Sanders has not "particularly utilized the issues on which Hillary is most vulnerable."

Hitting Clinton on her Wall Street ties "is fine," Stone said, but the former secretary of state "merely emulates him even though she’s taken an enormous amount of money from Wall Street."

Stone then launched into a laundry list of "other vulnerabilities" that Trump could exploit in the general election: "her abuse of women, her husband’s sexual history, her tenure as secretary of state, the conflict of interest in the Clinton Foundation, Benghazi, there’s plenty of fodder there for a rough campaign."

The longtime political operative, whose book "The Clintons' War on Women" claimed to expose the numerous instances of the couple covering up past incidents of Bill Clinton's sexual misconduct, has written and spoken extensively on claims from Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Juanita Broaddrick. Trump promoted the book on Twitter upon its release last October. "The latest book on Hillary—Wow, a really tough one!" Trump tweeted on Oct. 14, 2015.

As a longtime friend of Trump, Stone was asked whether the Republican frontrunner really believed his incendiary rhetoric on immigration and other issues, like torture.

“Actually I think that’s the fundamental cornerstone of his appeal. You can tell that he is not speaking from a script, not speaking from some polling that tells him what to say to be popular or some focus group or reading some speech written by a 25-year-old speechwriter," Stone said, adding that Trump "obviously believes in tougher treatment for terrorists than we are currently employing."

In terms of Trump's position to deport the millions of people who are in the country illegally, Stone rejected the idea that it was merely a negotiating position, explaining that it was more nuanced but that ultimately, deportation is the goal.

“Well I think he’s made it clear he would start with those who have known criminal records based on the databases," he explained. "Then he would go to those who have overstayed their visa. Now you’ve lowered that number very substantially. I think it becomes problematic after that. But as a goal, yes, I think that is his goal.”

