Former national security adviser Michael Flynn said Thursday evening that President Donald Trump should deploy the U.S. military to key battlegrounds and “rerun” the 2020 presidential contest.
In an interview with Newsmax , Flynn argued that Trump should exhaust all options before conceding the race. He advised the president to seize the voting machines that were used in the presidential race, claiming that the country will not be able to move forward unless he does so.
“‘I don’t know if he’s going to take any of these options. The president has to plan for every eventuality because we cannot allow this election and the integrity of our election to go the way it is,” he said.
“He could also order, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election in each of those states.”
Flynn argued that Trump declaring martial law would not be unprecedented, but noted that he is not actually advising the commander-in-chief to do so.
“These people out there talking about martial law like it’s something we’ve never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times,” he said.
Earlier this month, the Pentagon dismissed nine Defense Business Board members and appointed a number of Trump loyalists, including Corey Lewandowski, Scott O’Grady and David Bossie. O’Grady has endorsed Republicans’ claims about the 2020 race, describing Democrat Joe Biden’s victory as a “coup.”
Echoing claims made by other Trump supporters, Flynn — who was convicted of lying to the FBI and then pardoned by Trump — also told Newsmax that he is “concerned” about Chief Justice John Roberts.
As Newsweek reported, some prominent Trump supporters — including lawyer Lin Wood — have made baseless allegations about the conservative judge. This week, Wood linked Roberts to Jeffrey Epstein and suggested that he may be compromised.
The attacks on Roberts came after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Trump campaign by the state of Texas. Courts across the nation have dismissed the Trump campaign’s cases, with judges telling the commander-in-chief and his allies that they have no evidence of voter fraud.
In an open letter earlier this week, Stewart Rhodes , leader of the far-right group Oath Keepers, called on Trump to invoke the Insurrection Ac in order to stop “China puppets” Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from assuming office.
Rhodes posited that the U.S. government has been infiltrated by agents of the Chinese Communist Party, advising the commander-in-chief to mobilize military veterans and National Guard units.