In the ‘90s, Oliver Stone’s yen for conspiracy theories seemed mostly harmless. There weren’t many like him, so when he made an entire, epic, star-studded blockbuster positing that nearly everyone on earth was in on the JFK assassination, it didn’t seem like a big deal. (And nonsensical and all, it’s still a great film.) Jump three decades to the age of QAnon and Stone is one of the least bananas conspiracists. But he still has some kooky ideas!
Per Mediaite, the legendary filmmaker and fan of Donald Trump (at least as an actor playing himself) went on Bill Maher’s podcast Club Random, where they inevitably talked nonsense. Maher, of course, was the relative voice of reason. At one point he brought up the 2020 election, marveling that Trump “still hasn’t conceded.” That, alas, teed up Stone to go off.
“Do you know for a fact that he lost?” Stone asked. As Maher’s eyes audibly rolled into the back of his head, Stone added, “I’m just curious and I just don’t know all the facts.”
“Well I do,” Maher retorted. “Is there a conspiracy theory you don’t believe?”
An offended Stone replied, “Oh, come on, Bill!”
Eventually they reached all the way back to the 2000 election, which was also hotly contested but which ended with Al Gore, who won the popular vote, conceding amidst epic recounts in Florida, handing George W. Bush the presidency.
STONE: That was horrifying to me. What happened when the Supreme Court closed that down? You know, what happened there. I mean, you know, the popular vote was won.
MAHER: So, what? Should we just keep counting votes forever, or should we still be counting —
STONE: Count them correctly.
MAHER: They did count them correctly!
STONE: Let’s just get rid of the Electoral College. Let’s do a popular vote.
MAHER: The people who have testified that this was a fair and well-run election. It’s a who’s who of people like Bill Barr, Mitch McConnell. You’re talking about Liz Cheney. You’re talking about dyed-in-the-wool, serious conservative Republicans who went with Trump really further out than a lot of us thought they would go with a guy like “McCain’s not a war hero.” “Okay, We forgive you.” Lots of sh*t that he did agreeing with Putin at Helsinki against our intelligence agencies. But I know we don’t want to talk about Putin. But it’s like, we found the thing that was their safe word, the thing that made them go, “no, that’s too far.” And it was we have elections in this country. If we don’t transfer power peacefully. If somebody doesn’t just be an adult and say, “Okay, you can’t win them all. We lost that one. Good luck, sir.” When Obama became president, George Bush stood with him and he said we want you to succeed. They don’t do that anymore. Not that I love George Bush, but what a great moment.
STONE: So what do you think happened in 2000, in Florida.
Well, at least Stone’s no Mike Lindell. You can watch the entire Club Random episode in the video above.
(Via Mediaite)