New York (CNN Business)Roger Stone, the political operative who avoided 40 months in prison after US President Donald Trump commuted his sentence earlier this month, denied on Sunday using the word Negro on air toward a Black radio host.
The exchange took place on Saturday during Stone's appearance on "The Mo'Kelly Show," a Los Angeles-based radio broadcast. Host Morris O'Kelly questioned Stone on his conviction for lying to Congress and tampering with evidence by threatening a witness involved with Trump's 2016 campaign. He then asserted that Stone's sentence was commuted because of his longtime friendship with Trump.
"There are thousands of people treated unfairly daily, how your number just happened to come up in the lottery, I am guessing it was more than just luck, Roger, right?" O'Kelly asked.
Stone's voice was faint over the phone following O'Kelly's question. A voice could be heard murmuring "arguing with this Negro." O'Kelly then asked Stone to repeat the comment, but there was silence from Stone's end of the line.
"I'm sorry you're arguing with whom? I thought we were having just a very spirited conversation," O'Kelly said. "What happened? ...You said something about 'Negro.'"
After a brief silence, Stone said he had not, adding, "You're out of your mind."
The word "Negro" was commonly used in the past to refer to Black Americans, according to Ferris State University — up until the 1960s. The term has since been considered as offensive toward Black Americans. In 2014, the US Army was slammed for its regulation allowing "black or African-American" personnel to be referred to as "Negro." It removed the word from the policy and apologized.
In a statement obtained by CNN Business, Stone denied using the term, stating he "despises racism." He also said the "word negro is far from a slur" according to his "many Black friends."
"Mr. O'Kelly needs a good peroxide cleaning of the wax in his ears because at no time did I call him a negro," Stone wrote.
Stone said it was a studio engineer who used the word "after he cut my sound feed off three times."
He also said the claim was a "smear designed to boost" O'Kelly's ratings, and that he had "retained a forensic sound technician and will publish a report shortly."
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