Roger Stone, a longtime associate of President Donald Trump, blasted frequent Trump critic Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) during an interview Tuesday on “The Laura Ingraham Show,” saying McCain has become a “cheerleader for the Obamas and the Clintons” and has rejected the populist movement in the Republican Party.

Stone, who advised Trump during his presidential campaign, responded to the most recent remarks McCain delivered Monday night at the U.S. Naval Academy. During the course of his speech, McCain accused the nation of being “asleep to the necessity of our leadership, and to the opportunities and real dangers of this world.”

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“We are asleep in our echo chambers, where our views are always affirmed and information that contradicts them is always fake,” McCain said in what appeared to be a veiled jab at the president. “We have to fight against propaganda and crackpot conspiracy theories. We have to fight isolationism, protectionism and nativism. We have to defeat those who would worsen our divisions. We have to remind our sons and daughters that we became the most powerful nation on earth by tearing down walls, not building them.”

Saying that it is “time to wake up,” McCain said that the nation’s “failure to remain engaged in Europe and enforce the hard-won peace of 1918” has made it clear that “there could be no more isolationism, no more tired resignation — no more ‘America First.'”

Stone was not impressed with McCain’s words.

“He’s just drowning in bitterness, personal jealousy,” Stone said. “Look, I supported this guy for president, not once, but twice. But it’s really pathetic what he has become now.”

Saying that McCain’s “temper tantrums and outbursts and public meltdowns are legendary in Washington, D.C.,” Stone added that the Arizona senator’s fuss has “only gotten progressively worse” in the Trump era.

“He’s gotten extraordinarily abusive. And he’s just got to get over the fact that Donald Trump became president and he didn’t, which is what I really think is at the root of his problems,” Stone said. “He’s become a cheerleader for the Obamas and the Clintons. This is a guy who actually said the Russian collusion scandal is worse than Watergate. No it isn’t, senator. There is no Russian collusion scandal. It’s a delusion, a myth, a fairy tale. Wake up!”

Lamenting that McCain has “really become a pathetic figure” in his view, Stone said his stance against Trump and the wave of populist conservatism that resulted in his election is “very sad.”

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“I’m not angry about it — I’m just very sad about what he has become,” he said of McCain.

Stone and LifeZette Editor-in-Chief Laura Ingraham also discussed special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his associate, Richard Gates. The two men were indicted on 12 charges, including that they conspired against the United States, conspired to launder money, made false statements, and failed to file their reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

In addition, George Papadopoulos, an unofficial campaign adviser, pleaded guilty earlier in the month to issuing false statements to the FBI regarding his interactions with Russian officials. That news broke Monday.

Stone said he’d never heard of Papadopoulos prior to Monday’s news, noting that “this fellow had no authority, he wasn’t on the payroll, he wasn’t a full-time staff member, he wasn’t even a staff member.”

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“He was a member of some voluntary advisory group on foreign policy just like, by the way, Carter Page,” he said. “So, you know, he can write any email he wants, but he never had any authority, never set up any meetings with anybody.”

Stone argued that the indictments of Manafort and Gates do not fit the liberals’ media-driven narrative that Trump colluded with Russians. Calling it all a “politically motivated bogus indictment,” Stone said Monday’s news doesn’t threaten Trump as much as many would have liked it to.

“Maybe I’m confused — I thought Mueller’s probe was regarding potential Russian [collusion] in the 2016 presidential election? Yet, everything that Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were indicted for yesterday — none of it related to Russia,” Stone said. “They charged these guys with everything but the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, but none of it pertains to Russia.”

“I think the American people can see through this. [Mueller’s] treating Manafort like some kind of Mafia drug dealer seeking, I guess, to get a bigger fish,” he added. “But I’ve known Paul Manafort over 50 years … He is not going to bear false witness against the president of the United States. He’s not going to lie, make up things just to please Mr. Mueller.”

Saying that the president “needs to remain focused first of all on his tax reform proposal and revitalizing the American economy,” Stone said Trump has “got plenty on his plate here” beside the ongoing Russia probe.

In addition, Stone urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Uranium One deal carried out during the Obama administration when 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state. The deal allowed Russia to control 20 percent of the United States’ uranium supply.

“Why is the focus not on Uranium One, where you have a real crime?” he said. “I think we need a special prosecutor for that matter.”

“So the president’s right — why isn’t the focus on ‘Crooked Hillary’? Why isn’t the focus on the $145 million the Clintons collected in connection with Uranium One, or the half-million dollars that Bill [Clinton] pocketed as a speaking fee?” Stone added. “That is really the single most important thing the president could do right now, would be to tell his attorney general — order his attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor in the matter of Uranium One.”

(photo credit, homepage images: …John McCain, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore; photo credit, article images: John McCain, CC BY-SA 2.0, by Gage Skidmore)