Randy Credico on Fred Dicker (11/17/2017)

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

Transcript of relevant portion of "Focus on the State Capitol" with host Fred Dicker, broadcast date: November 17, 2017. Excerpt goes from 26:07 to 37:22.

File link: http://www.mediafire.com/file/1i64zdbj2tqk11n/FSC1117172.mp3

FRED DICKER
Let's go to the phone right now, where the one and only Randy Credico, just back from England, where I suspect he was in contact with, or may even have met with Julian Assange, was on some other political related missions, is joining us right now. Good morning, Randy, good to have you with us.

RANDY CREDICO
Fred, it's always a pleasure to be on the show. And thank you for having me on.

DICKER
Great to have you. What a time to be around. Whether it's, you know, what's going on with the Republican vote, on tax reform, or Al Franken, those are two gigantic events going on in Washington, but before I ask you about those, before I ask you about your trip to Britain, or England, I want to ask you about this: you got me in trouble with some guy named Tony Bates at WBAI in New York City, he's after me, claiming that I oughta put him on the radio to respond to you. Who is Tony Bates and what is he complaining about?

CREDICO
Tony Bates is the interim uuh what you call-

DICKER
Programming director?

CREDICO
He's not the program director, no. To be a program director at WBAI, takes the vote from the local station board, and nobody from the local station board wants him to be the program director. He's kindof foisted in on us, by the general manager, who is a friend of his, who was appointed too, on an interim basis. So, he's an interim- He was there to give out premiums whenever we have a fundraising drive, which is like 90% of the time these days, it seems like, and uh you know, we're way behind in the premiums, getting them out, because of him, he's very slow, uh and he doesn't like me, he took a long time to finally get rid of me, but, you know, he doesn't have much favor at the station, from the producers, and I suspect he'll be gone. Whether I go back or not is...is uh you know, another question. I don't know. I'm on your station right now, I can tell you this, Fred: is that you have a big, big listenership, when that group, Anonymous Scandinavia puts it out that I'm on, trust me, your listenership goes way up. Because-

DICKER
I see that.

CREDICO
-they went from WBAI, on Tuesday, listening to me, on Friday, which a lot of them did anyway, before, including Julian Assange, he would be listening right now. And who I spent a couple of days seeing in London the other day. Uh, yesterday, in fact. And the day before. But I'll get to that in a minute.

DICKER
Yeah.

CREDICO
But your listenership has gone way up, because everyone that listens, no longer anymore, on Tuesday at five o'clock, they've gone over here. And this is Bates, who did, what he's doing is, did you ever see "The Producers"?

DICKER
Sure.

CREDICO
He's like, trying to get rid of shows, and uh thinking that success will work, bring in a crazy stupid show, would expand the base. But he's losing the base. He's doing just the opposite [DICKER: Well-] of what "The Producers" did.

DICKER
Randy, I'm a big fan of yours, and I have no doubt that you're giving an honest and accurate assessment, of what's going on there, but what should I do with Tony Bates's request? He wants to come on the show to rebut you. Should I let him on?

CREDICO
Listen, it's free speech, whatever you want to do, just, you know, uh let him go on. That's fine. Not while I'm on. I really don't [DICKER: Nonono] want to hear his voice anymore. You know? Uuuh-

DICKER
I'll give him a chance to respond.

CREDICO
Give him a- Let him go on. And give him- Let him go on, and uh what he has done, is libeled me, what happened was, that he- he really angered a fellow by the name of John Pilger, who's won a hundred and fifty awards, he's done seventy five documentaries, internationally renowned, I think I sent you the letter that John Pilger sent to him, and to uuuh to him, and to the general manager. You've gotta see that, you cannot anger a guy like John Pilger. He is an icon, he is a legend, he's eighty years old, and he's still doing great work. But this guy is...incredibly upset with the uh disinformation that Mr. Bates has put out. I'll send you all of this stuff, he barred my dog from coming in [DICKER laughs], he angered Pamela Anderson, even though I have a certificate from uh a therapist to bring the dog in, so...got a lot of people not listening during the show, but I don't want to talk about him.

DICKER
Alright, Randy, let's move on from there. And I want to ask you a question that I think the CIA would like an answer to. What the heck were you doing in England, and were you in contact with Julian Assange at all?

CREDICO
Yes! [laughs] Yes. Listen, Fred, I'll tell you something: I just got back, and the first thing I saw was a letter from a congressional committee, so I haven't opened it-

DICKER
Reaaaally.

CREDICO
Huh? I'm sending-

DICKER
Is it a subpoena?

CREDICO
I'm not going to get into it. I don't want to talk about it right now, you'll be the first to know, it's sealed and I'm sending it over to a lawyer today. Uh, what was I doing to see uh- I saw Mr. Assange. I saw him on [pause] Monday, was it Monday? Cuz you know I was going to Catalan, and you know, he's like now in the middle of this whole Catalan thing, cuz he's been reporting from the embassy, stuff that you don't get in the Washington Post, or the New York Times-

DICKER
This has to do with Catalonia, Spain, seeking to secede and become an independent nation.

CREDICO
Well, it was a vote. It was- It was a vote there. Okay? It was a refer-

DICKER
It was an illegal referendum, in the view of the Spanish government.

CREDICO
Well, according to the very corrupt- This guy, Rajoy [Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy], who's the Spanish government, he's involved, big time in the Panama Papers, and the Paradise Papers, this guy Rajoy, and this- What this is right now is, is a diversion from that. He really doesn't care, that's what I've extrapolated, and others, is that he needed a crisis, like many politicians, to get you into a war, he needed this kindof a soft war situation, where he sends in the troops, into Catalan. In the meantime, he's knee deep in the corruption scandal rocking the PP party, in uh Catalan. I mean, not Catalan, in Spain. In the seat of Spain. So you really have all these elements of Franco, that still control the institutions of Spain, and this guy is so knee deep in the corruption scandal right now, is that this is a convenient diversion for him.

DICKER
So, what were you doing with Julian Assange? Or were you in the Ecuadorian embassy?

CREDICO
Yes.

DICKER
Or were you talking with him on Facebook? Or something like that?

CREDICO
No no no, I was in the embassy. Of course, I can't deny it. Because they got cameras trained in on the place-

DICKER
Sure.

CREDICO
They have photos of two guys from Catalan, coming into the station, as if it were paparazzi, when in fact it was the government taking pictures, of people, entering the embassy, on uh over the last couple of weeks. Two people came in, they're from Catalan, supposedly, and they used that, in the newspaper, in El Pais, charging him [Assange] with colluding or whatever, with these two Catalan guys, two people came in. And so- What the pictures show is that they were not from paparazzi, because they're from the same angles. You've gotta take a look at it. And so, of course, they they the place is surrounded with government agents, and- whoever. And I was in there, yesterday, before I went to the airport, I spend two hours- I got this great embassy cat, I brought some food from Harrods, very expensive, Fred, don't go to Harrods, [when] you shop. And I spent four hours with him on uh Monday night [sound of child in the background]. Four hours on Monday night, and you know, yesterday, in the daytime, and then Monday, four hours on Monday night. That's what I did. Yes. Yes.

DICKER
Mainly speaking about Spain situation, or-

CREDICO
Nononono, just about a lot of stuff. Just you know, just stuff in general. You know? About what's going on in the U.S., what about tiffs we have- Look, I've developed a very good friendship with him, great uh uh intellectual, very articulate, uh he's-

DICKER
Very interesting-

CREDICO
He understands-

DICKER
-historical figure.

CREDICO
-U.S. history, better than, almost as well as you do, I mean knowing, you're very good, Fred, you could be a history professor, uh, be nice if you did that, couple days a week, but he historically, he knows the U.S. very well, even going back to antebellum South, he can talk about _that_. And the comparison between publishers back then, like, people like [William Lloyd] Garrison or Elijah Lovejoy, these great people that were under attack, people that the govern- or the slave power didn't like, were people that don't like what he puts out there, but he puts out there stuff that is irrefutable.

DICKER
[obviously less enthused than Credico] Yeah. What does he make of President Trump? And the whole Russia situation. I mean, you've talked about it in the past, he poopoos it, and of course he's denied that Russia was the source of information that he's released, although he certainly could have gotten it from people who got it from Russia. But, what's your sense of, talking to him in the last few days, of what his view now of- is of the government in Washington, President Trump, and the Congress?

CREDICO
Well, I think that it's a complete witch hunt. And I think that he believes that too. A witch hunt, that- this- Democrats, basically, they want to go after Trump, and they're using this whole Russia thing, which is on fumes, I suppose [sound of someone, most likely a child, playing random piano keys in the background] what this letter is all about, is the fumes that [piano keys get louder and louder] are still um- [sound as if Credico is moving out of range of piano]

DICKER
What- [obviously reacting to piano keys]

CREDICO
-out there, trying to keep this thing uh-

DICKER
Hey, open it up, open the letter up, Randy. And read it to us.

CREDICO
[piano is still in background] Nah, I'm not going to, Fred. That just- I'm going to take it to a lawyer. Before I do anything. And then, you'll be the first to know.

DICKER
[deflated, a little] Alright.

CREDICO
Alright? I'll talk to you after I get off the phone, uh about it. But let me just get back to this- this Russia stuff. The Russia stuff- I'm not a Trump supporter, as you know.

DICKER
Of course not.

CREDICO
And I certainly was not a Clinton supporter, I was a Jill Stein supporter, and uh, you know, there are publishers out there, every paper has- every newspaper seems to have a favorite, that's running [Apple tri-tone sound] uh so the Washington Post liked Clinton, they all liked Clinton, they all want Trump to go. I'm not a Trump fan. Uh, and I think this is all some kind of way to extricate him from office, using- and keeping this Russia thing alive. The whole thing is a joke. I don't think that they had anything to do with the cl- I'm convinc- Not convinced, I know it was a leak, not a hack, by the Russians. Though the Russians may have influenced, just the way we're influencing elections right now, uh I believe in Romania, or Hungary, one of these two countries, we're actively involved, spent seven hundred thousand dollars, the U.S. government, the State Department, tried to influence _their_ elections. So, that's a lot more than the hundred thousand dollars that were spent on Facebook, you know-

DICKER
Yeahyeahyeah, I understand, Randy, did uh did Assange have any insights that you hadn't heard before? That you could share with listeners, that, you know, you found provocative?

CREDICO
Uh, you know, I'd really have to think about that. Cuz [DICKER: Alright.] we were talking, and, can I tell you, we were talking about uhhh let's say, uuuh China and and Russia, and Russia culture...and uuuuh we're talking about all sorts of things- Food! Uh just uh you uh listen, he's just a great guy to talk to, just like- [DICKER: I bet he's-] I spend hours of conversations with you, I mean- imagine, he's been inside this place for _six years_, now, he's [DICKER: Prison.] in incredible health, he's very inventive, stays productive, and uh you know, no matter what, he angers people on the left and right. Alright? Once- First the left likes him, and then the left doesn't like him. That's the- That's the job of a publisher, doing his job. By not caring what the response is going to be, by either side, of an issue.

DICKER
That's what good journalists should do as well.

CREDICO
Right. That's what- This is- This really does define quality journalism...and you're, Fred, look, I know you're partisan on one side, but you've said bad things about Republicans, you've said bad things about Democrats.

DICKER
Throughout my reporting history, I was described, even in print, as an equal opportunity, sort of S.O.B., if I had a- [CREDICO: Right.] If I had information on a Republican, or a Democrat, I'd run it. If I thought it was, you know, a good story, and the public should know about it.
I- I have my own views, but I kept them out of the reporting. Let me ask you this, Randy - Al Franken, did you ever work with him-

CREDICO
Yeah.

DICKER
Did you see the picture- That picture is unbelievable, in terms of its impact.

[discussion shifts off of Assange and Wikileaks]