Randy Credico on Flashpoints (12/21/2017)

Supplemental document for: "Theory that Roger Stone's back channel to Wikileaks was Randy Credico", link: https://wakelet.com/wake/2d352ae9-febe-44a1-a7bb-51674a2e4bf5

Randy Credico on Flashpoints. Broadcast date: December 21, 2017. Excerpt runs from 34:32 to 57:51.

File link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/j6umkkstdefsmpm/The%20Fight%20To%20Claim%20East%20Jerusalem.%20R.mp3

DENNIS BERNSTEIN
Glad to welcome back to "Flashpoints" Randy Credico, he is a longtime political contributor to the show, you've heard him reporting extensively on his work existing [sic] and making stop and frisk a real issue. He's taken on the prison industrial complex, he worked for the Kunstler Fund, to deal with the incredible racist attacks coming out of three strikes, and it goes on and on, and he's gone to jail, for this work and his support of Occupy. Now...he is, of course, the host of "Live on the Fly", as a part of that series, coming out of New York City, and WBAI, he did a multi-part series, fourteen, sixteen part series on Julian Assange, who's been in jail [sic], imposed in the Great Britain [sic], where he is forced to stay in an embassy there, because...who knows? Maybe the U.S. is going to grab him and assassinate him for treason. _Anyway_, out of that, our good friend, our contributor Randy Credico, has now been subpoenaed to testify right before Congress, and he has now been billed by MSNBC, and by all kinds of journalists, as _the_ middle man in Russia-gate, the guy that passed the documents, stood between Roger Stone, Reagan advisor, and Trump, in terms of getting rid of the perfectly stunning candidate Hillary Clinton [tone is of breathy irony - BERNSTEIN is always breathy. He is unable to get even this simple central point right, either out of dishonesty or negligence: Credico, as back channel, was alleged not to be passing documents to the Trump campaign, but of passing advance information to Stone on what was there and when they would drop]. Randy Credico, there is a bit of cynicism in my voice, how you doing today?

RANDY CREDICO
I'm doing fine. I've actually recovered quite well. I was in D.C. last week, I was supposed to testify Friday, but I invoked the Fifth Amendment, which we'll talk about in a minute. Leading up to that, I must say, I was- I had a lot of anxiety, you know, just having to go through the process. And so, at the very end, I'm doing much better, I must say, that it's a big relief. I don't know what's going to happen next, I don't like the attacks, the assumed attacks, it's nonsense- A back channel, I mean, you may as well have been a back channel since [laughs] you- you- the last time I interviewed Julian Assange, it was a co-production with "Flashpoints". That was the very last time. I think his mother, the following week. But uuuh, so. You know, I guess you could be a back channel as well. And be named. Because it could happen to anybody. I suppose.

BERNSTEIN
It was amazing. How- Just for a moment, characterize how, for instance, Chris Hayes, at MSNBC, characterized you, and the fantasy surrounding that.

CREDICO
It all began when I got this letter, without knowing what it was about, I got a letter from Adam Schiff's Intel Committee. He actually signed it, asking me to do a voluntary interview, and I said, "No", then I got a subpoena by David Nunes [sic - Devin Nunes] signed it, he's the head of that Intel Committee [sic - Nunes has recused himself from the committee, though he remains involved in the investigations by the Republicans on the committee, all of which strongly appear to be attempts to undermine any Democratic attempts to uncover Russian interference and collusion between Russia, Wikileaks, and the Trump campaign]. And the next thing you know, Manu Raju, from the uh from CNN, who gets all the inside information, he's the inside guy for the networks, went in, and got like information that had something to do with me being the back channel to Roger Stone [sic - this mixes up the order, CNN broke the story of Intel Committee members claiming that Stone had named Credico as back channel, and Hayes would later report on the story].

BERNSTEIN
I thought he reported on Randy Cre-t-ico.

CREDICO
Yes, Cre-t-ico.

BERNSTEIN
Some Eastern European.

CREDICO
Right, no, someone-

BERNSTEIN
He didn't have your name right. But go on.

CREDICO
Right. Yes, he did not have my name right, this guy Manu didn't. And then- I don't get his name right, because I can't remember his name. He's such a forgettable figure. So, that started it. And then...within a few days, you got Chris Hayes, the second story, and he's teasing it up front, it's- "We finally know who that courier was, that unnamed courier, it's Randy Credico!" It says "MISSING LINK", and a big picture of me, half the screen, one third of the screen had a picture of Trump, and then it had missing link between us, and then below, a picture of Roger Stone. And then he went on, and did like a ten minute story, with a couple of hack people, sitting around the table, a fellow by the name of Ackerman [reporter Spencer Ackerman, now with The Daily Beast, previously with the Guardian, and praised by Ray McGovern for his work on the Senate torture report: https://pastebin.com/HYyHMFTC ], another forgettable figure, and so, he concludes that I was the guy based on a picture, of me in front of the embassy, from last year, [laughs] from Sept- from October, or September, 2016 [Credico posted on Facebook September 30, 2016 a picture of him outside the embassy; on October 5th, he tweeted out the same picture when he was back home in the States]  not knowing what actually took place that day. And he'll have egg in his face real soon. So, he does that, and then I did another show [reference to the podcast "Intercepted" link to transcript of Credico's interview: https://theintercept.com/2017/12/06/intercepted-podcast-whos-afraid-of-the-alt-deep-state/ ], and he kindof apolog- He says I was a "sortof lefty", he's a- "he's a comedian and a sortof lefty". And here's a guy who works for a- a network, you know as you just laid out, for fifteen straight years, I worked for the William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, and we focused on the racist criminal justice system. Whether it be the Tulia Texas drug sting, in which we, along with Emily and Sarah Kunstler, Margaret Ratner Kunstler (respectively, daughters and widow of William Kunstler), we spearheaded a _huge_ movement down there, got a national press, that led to the freedom of forty six people, and I got an award from the Amarillo chapter of the NAACP for my work down there, and then one by uh uh uh Union Square, I mean- I got- and then I worked on the Rockefeller drug laws, working with f- going to prisons for years and years, and what does this guy do? He makes his salary, is subsidized by this odious, voyeuristic, sadistic, racist program called "Lock Up". It's the bedrock show at MSNBC.

BERNSTEIN
That's what pays Chris Hayes's salary.

CREDICO
And Rachel Maddow's. Those two, according to Howard Fineman, one of their talking heads along with David Corn, I pinned them down one day, where Bernie Sanders won that primary in New Hampshire, back in 2016, and I asked them about it. He says, "Well, it's a horrible show, and it's everything you just described, BUT it's a cash cow, doesn't cost much to make, and it pays for Rachel and Chris's salary." [Credico has repeated this story often; it should also be noted that Credico is a flagrant and frequent liar] That- that's a direct quote! And it's something that should- It would make Leni Riefenstahl blush, this [inaudible]-

BERNSTEIN
And I don't know what Chris Hayes makes, but Rachel Maddow reportedly makes seven million a year now.

CREDICO
I think he makes-

BERNSTEIN
So she's doing well.

CREDICO
-million. Yeah, he makes two or three million dollars, and it's the one-two punch that carries the water for the conservative wing of the Democratic Party, which is most of the- ninety percent of the Democratic Party these days. You know, so, they're just there as local courts [sic - most likely wants to say loyal courtiers], for the establishment Democratic Party leadership, the DNC. And that's- the MSDNC is what they should call themselves.

BERNSTEIN
And just to add, so that we give this context that it needs, and MSNBC - Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes - they're also getting rich. That network , according to its own executives, have gotten rich on covering Donald Trump. On giving him extra time, many times the amount of time the other candidates got, so...they have cashed in, on Ronald Trump [sic], on Donald Trump running for president, they've elected him president, and now they're making money on this phony Russia-gate, where you are now ensmeared [sic - sounds like an improvised portmonteau]. They want your records too, right? Do they- do they want to know every time you've been on "Flashpoints"?

CREDICO
Uh probably that will be coming up soon. That I've been on your show, I mean, listen, Jill Stein got swept into this.

BERNSTEIN
I know. We're going to talk to her, yes.

CREDICO
Did you hear what Mark- Mark Warner said in a tweet, that Jill Stein is culpable because she's been to Russia, and she has defended Julian Assange. Can you imagine that? That she has defended Julian Assange, and so that makes her culpable and part of the Russia probe. It's an outrage. And I have been an outspoken supporter of his [Assange], and for Wikileaks, and for the work that they do - not once have they been contradicted, been gainsayed, or proven uh erroneous. Everything they've done has been on the level, and as I've said, they piss off everybody. People in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. When the war logs came out, Republicans went crazy. And then when the Hillary Clinton email, that scandal, which they are the ones that did tamper with the election, by the way, it was the DNC that tampered with our democracy, they're always saying "They messed with our democracy-" Yes nonono, it was those people that tampered with it. The people involved. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and company. Those consultant class of individuals, that were connected with Hillary, they- they messed with our democracy, as fragile as it is. And so, that's where I think the investigation should be, not on Russia-gate. I mean, they helped promote - you're right, Dennis, you know, they helped promote, they and CNN gave him [Trump] so much time. If they had given Bernie Sanders that much time, these two uuuuh twenty four hour networks, he probably would have won.

BERNSTEIN
They were gleeful. The executives did not mince words. They were saying, "You might not like Donald Trump, but boy did we make money on him." This was their perspective.

CREDICO
Right. That was the guy, the head of the CNN, who's Jeff Zucker, actually said that. That they made a lot of money, put him out there, they created the Frankenstein [sic]. And now, they're trying to bring him down- [inaudible]

BERNSTEIN
Making even more money-

CREDICO
Making more money in the process. By keeping this thing up, it's like ninety balls in your- your- And you're a blind juggler. Because there's nothing to this Russia-gate story, and they're wasting time with it.

BERNSTEIN
Now, I want to ask you one thing- [CREDICO: Okay.] And it's not- It's a Roger Stone question, but it's a different question- You're supposed to be the middle man working with Roger Stone, but you did work with Roger Stone on three strikes, in other words, you helped to bring together a coalition from left to right, to end the Rockefeller laws? [the period of work refered to here involved Credico being paid $100K under the table by the Tom Golisano campaign, for which Stone was the campaign manager, to paint the rival George Pataki campaign as racist over the Rockefeller laws - this is Credico's explicit admission, and the audio of this can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYl4_9YHjC4 ]

CREDICO
Right right right. Those are the-

BERNSTEIN
Talk about that.

CREDICO
Those were even worse than three strikes and you're out, the Rockefeller drug laws. In 2002, when it was really building momentum, he was working on the campaign of an independent by the name of...a self-made millionaire, he paid for his campaign, by the name of Tom Golisano, and this was a big issue that year, but the governor wasn't moving forward with it. So this was, I got- I got a great opportunity, we made mill- we spent millions of dollars hammering the Rockefeller drug laws, and Pataki's protection of them. And it helped loosen them up, it was a key point, and then he got Golisano to put a bunch of money into the movement, to change the laws. So, that was- he is bad on most stuff, but on this issue, left and right, they worked together, to get rid of these laws.

BERNSTEIN
How rare is that? How rare is that? When you can bring together a coalition left to right, and end this kind of extraordinary repression in terms of those Rockefeller laws. And again- those are the people that got caught and strung up in those laws are the ones that MSNBC is making money, squeezing dry, doing these programs- this incredible sort of slave type program-

CREDICO
It is! It's like- it's like- it's like glorifying slavery. Because they got people that can't say no. The prisoners once they came in, they can block the eys, but you see people that are sitting in cells that are going crazy, because they only get one hour of exercise a day, and, you know, will drive you nuts [sic]. You know I had a father that did ten years in prison, he didn't have a- a jail cell like that, but it really was not good on his psyche. So, they are making money showing these poor people, it's like the Elephant Man, you know? It's such a- It's National Enquirer type of voyeurism on the most vulnerable human beings on the planet, and that is our prison population. And many of them do not deserve to be there. Remember, we have twenty five percent of the world's prison population, five percent of its population, something's really wrong here. And they're paying their salary. This is blood diamonds, I call it blood diamonds. The money that MSNBC uses to pay these guys. And they have not spoken out against it, because the fame and the glory and the hanging out at night at these yuppie restaurants is just too exciting for them. They could've been like you, Chris Hayes could've been like you, the guy worked for The Nation, he comes from working class background, his father, I think, was in the labor movement, he could've been like you or John Pilger, I mean, look, you've had Pilger on your show, many times, he's seventy eight years old, and _continues_ to put- He could've sold out. He could have like, a block of mansions in downtown London, but he never ever _sold out_. He continues to tell the truth at age seventy eight, and that's the reason why his work is on display right now, in the British Library. His wonderful sixty one films, he's won two hundred awards, never sold out. Chris Hayes could've taken that path, you could've taken that path, you could've sold out, but you didn't. You're there, I know you don't make much money, but you grind out five brilliant shows a week, and it's to your uuuuuuh testimony to your commitment, uuuuh to great journalism, that you do that, and it should be something that people like Chris Hayes should follow. Instead of selling out. And he sold out, and it happens a lot. David Corn, from Mother Jones, they get a big grant from somebody that's Russian- a Russiaphobe, over at Mother Jones, so, now he's using that as a platform to bash Russia [there is no basis I can find, whatsoever, for this claim - it is a blatant lie by Credico], and push this Democratic Russia-gate uuuuuh waste of time. And going after me! He was even worse, the writer of a story in Mother Jones, says "Randy-" He writes a story. A guy by the name of Dan Friedman, and says that Roger Stone claimed I was the guy, right? So, when I- [BERNSTEIN says something inaudible amidst laughter] I was the guy, right? The in-between guy that carried, you know, a tranche of material across the sea-

BERNSTEIN
I can see- covert Randy, never opens his mouth, particularly in front of the press. Mr. Covert Operator-

CREDICO
[laughing] I was the big baggage handler of all of this material. As if I know anything about technology. I know less than Alley Oop. Okay? So- so, he, David Corn, takes the guy's writing, the writer of the story, Dan Friedman, says "who Roger Stone claims-" What he [Corn] says is, "Stone's in-between person takes the Fifth", and he won't take it down [this is a scrambled incoherent expression of this thought, that Dan Friedman wrote a story in Mother Jones on Credico being the back channel, and Corn wrote the headline, "Roger Stone’s Go-Between With WikiLeaks Takes the Fifth", and would not change it despite Credico's protests]. That's what he put- And then he put- He tweets it out, and then it gets re-tweeted by Mother Jones, you get thousands of people that are followers of Mother Jones, not knowing that David Corn has sold out for money, uuuuuuh to some Russiaphobe, and so, liberals that basically would concur with most of my ideas, and my work, they would like, but now I'm getting- I'm getting hammered by them, thinking that I'm the link, I put Donald Trump in office, I'm the one that uuuuh- me and Julian Assange told Hillary Clinton to stay out of Wisconsin, and Michigan. That's what we did. Alright? We- we- we put some signs that put her in the wrong direction [no laughs at all to this joke].

BERNSTEIN
Well, no, let me jump in and say we're speaking with Randy Credico, he is a- the host of "Live on the Fly with Randy Credico", that emanated out of New York City, at WBAI. That's something we're gonna have to talk about another time [Credico has alleged that he resigned from the station, and also that he was fired because of his focus on Assange, and also that he was fired for exposing sexism and rampant corruption at the station], but we are delighted that Randy has _for years_ been a contributor to "Flashpoints", on issues having to do with criminal justice, close friend to William Kunstler, who we really respected and adored, I will say...for his courage, and the work that he did throughout his unwavering commitment to defending the people, and standing against police violence, police brutality, and government power. Randy, I don't mean this to be a "This is your Life, Randy Credico" but I want people to understand a little bit more about you. And so, you worked with Kunstler, but you also had very effective runs for the mayor of New York, for the governor of New York, and those runs were not only frivolous throwaways [sic - he wants to say "those runs were _not_ frivolous throwaways" instead of the opposite], but as a part of your candidacy, you got these candidates to deal with things like stop and frisk, and three strikes. You were absolutely committed to this change.

CREDICO
Well, there's a lot of- Both- First I ran for Senate, against Chuck Schumer in 2010, they got so nervous he spent more than a million dollars to get me knocked off the ballot, and it was supposed to uuh oppose him in the Democratic primary, bring up his reactionary record, whether it be his anti-Palestinian position, his support of the war against Iraq, his support of the war on drugs, his support of the open ended fiasco in Afghanistan, and you name it. He's a conservative Democrat, in the Bill Clinton 1990 mold. Alright? So, I ran against him - then in 2013, I ran for mayor. We did get everybody talking about stop and frisk, I got in six or seven of the debates, I got on the ballot, and uh, I actually ran- I ran- Three people, that I beat, that were politicians. So, I did pretty well, and I did sit down with De Blasio, and he did modify his stand, not good enough, certainly not good enough now, because they're busting people, it's called broken windows, they went from stop and frisk to broken windows, where they're arresting people for- and giving them misdemeanor charges, which they own the record, fare bea- so it's a Jean Valjean type of thing, where instead of stealing a loaf of bread, these poor people can't afford the exorbitant fee for subway rides, three dollars to go, you know, from the Bronx down to Manhattan, looking for a job, they either walk, gotta walk, or they panhandle to get the money. They don't have the money. So, they get punished for that, they go to jail, for fare beating, so they should just issue the people who are, who can't afford it, free cards to go. Now: I ran against Governor Cuomo and then I got somebody else to get into the race, because I was going to be the main outspoken critic of Cuomo's policies [this might be a reference to the 2011 campaign of the Anti Prohibition Party ticket, where Kristin Davis was in the governor's slot - the ticket was managed by Roger Stone, and was most likely intended to split the vote on the left so that reactionary right Republican Carl Paladino would win; Paladino's campaign was run by Stone associate Michael Caputo], he's been giving out some clemencies, because the man had not given out one clemency in his first four years in office. So, I jumped in to the race, made that an issue, I- while I was campaigning I was wearing a prison outfit, half the time. So that was a good campaign. I used the- And this is what I got from Kunstler, just the art- it was performance art- And- and using your platform, using the street theatre to promote, you know, promote progressive causes, and try to affect some change. And...I'm not doing it this year. He's running for re-election this year, I think I've run out of gas running for office - it's a lot of work, actually, running for office, and trying to beat yourself, because you can't keep the campaign funds, what little I make.

BERNSTEIN
Alright. Lemme jump in here, because we have a minute or two left, and I wanna ask you, this question: again, from the uuuuuuh Chris Hayes folks, there at MSNBC. It's- you're taking the Fifth because you're guilty, you're a coward - what's your response, because obviously- [CREDICO: My response-] you're not being quiet, so what's your response?

CREDICO
Well, I've been talking about it a lot. What I expect for them to do now, is to give me immunity, and then- this is protecting the First Amendment. I don't know what I was going to face. Now, that could have been a red herring, I think it is a red herring, htis whole thing about Roger Stone, this back channel thing, as if Assange would telegraph what he was going to put out, two days in advance [sic - there would be a week in between Credico posting his first pic of visiting the embassy on September 30, and Wikileaks starting the drop of the Podesta emails the next Friday], I mean, it's so ludicrous, I'm not even going to dignify those people who are charging me with that. Whatever it is. So...let them give me immunity, and then I will stand on the First Amendment, because as bad a person image-wise that Roger Stone has out there, that he was a source for my stories. I used him on my show, drove a lot of people crazy, but he was a good guest, gave me some insight, and- Assange was part of that, I had on four or five times. I ha- I met with him privately three times. Those conversations with either one of them, will not be yanked out of me. I have to protect those sources. So, right now, I gotta take the Fifth, and when I get immunity, which I expect, I will go before them, and it'll be a different day. But for those people to rush to judgment on this, and for me to validate this whole investigation, you know, I saw "The Hollywood Ten" [sic, link for Hollywood Ten: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172563/ ] twice, before I went down to D.C. last week, the one documentary that was narrated by the great John Huston [he doesn't mean The Hollywood Ten, he means Hollywood on Trial, which is narrated by Huston, link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074635/ ]. People should watch that, and then, get stimulated to take a stand against what really has become, I hate to say a witch hunt, but it's a waste- The bottom line is, they're wasting time. They could've stood up against this- this moving uuuuh embassy to Jerusalem, and they could've stood up, the Democrats against various wars. But they wanna have a war with Russia, for some reason. They could stand up against this tax bill- They spent their capital on _that_. Rather than wasting the gas, and the capital, on this bogus Russia-gate. I don't mind that Trump is removed from office, and then we get him with a bible and slick hair, in the name of Pence. Alright? And then you got-

BERNSTEIN
I know- You're not a fan of Donald-

CREDICO
Not a fan of Donald Trump, or his ambassador to the U.N., Elly May Clampett uh whatever her name is [Nikki Haley].

BERNSTEIN
Just a second- she just did a mafioso on the Palestinians- "I'll break anybody, any country's legs that supports the Palestinians." [CREDICO: Yeah.] Gotta leave it there. Gotta leave it there.

CREDICO
[does Don Corleone] I wanna thank [inaudible] She's gonna replace Luca Brasi now for Don Corleone. Alright? Thank you, Nikki, that was a nice job. Alright?

BERNSTEIN
Thanks Lou. We'll talk to you later.

CREDICO
Bye.