Roger Stone said in an interview published Monday that the “rise of alternative media” should be credited for President-elect Donald Trump’s unforeseen election victory. The longtime Trump confidante specifically identified internet news mogul Matt Drudge and Infowars founder Alex Jones as pivotal forces throughout the campaign. “I think they both played crucial roles,” Stone said. Stone, who briefly advised Trump toward the start of the campaign, continued: “Drudge particularly, but Alex deserves a place only because particularly in the nomination phase when you have conservatives who view Trump as a populace conservative, not a dogmatic conservative, and they're looking for a verifier, they're looking for somebody, some third party to say, ‘Yeah, this guy's a good guy.’”