Michael Flynn hasn’t wasted any time since receiving his presidential pardon to act a fool on Twitter. On Wednesday, the former Trump national security advisor shared a lengthy statement by a right-wing organization on Twitter that urged Trump to “declare a limited form of Martial Law” and “temporarily suspend the Constitution” if the 2020 presidential election results are not overturned.
Tom Zawistowski, the president of Ohio-based organization We The People Convention, drew up the press release, and to call it deranged is an understatement. WTPC insists that this lame-duck period is Trump’s time to regard President Lincoln’s Civil War-era decision-making as instructive: Lincoln’s decision to suspend Habeus Corpus, shut down newspapers, order the arrest of judges and politicians who defied him, and jail those suspected of treason should inspire Trump to do the same in order to preserve the integrity of the United States.
To justify the unjustifiable, WTPC erroneously insists that the United States is already under attack. From the press release:
We have well-funded, armed and trained marxists in ANTIFA and BLM strategically positioned in out major cities acting openly with violence to silence opposition to their anti-American agenda... Then, to advance their causes, these socialists are acting to “Defund the Police,” creating chaos and suspending the rule of law that protects millions of average, and particularly minority, Americans. The results being massive increases in violent crime and deaths in our cities and the destruction of small businesses orchestrated by those politicians and leftist groups, many funded by domestic and international communists. We are literally under attack from within!”
While this reads as right-wing fanfiction to anyone paying actually attention, it’s very real to the Flynns of the world.
“Freedom never kneels except for God 🙏🇺🇸” Flynn tweeted with a link to the statement. He took the time to tag a few fellow Trump-obsessed goons for good measure, including Fox Business’s resident nativist Lou Dobbs, Qanon queen Sidney Powell, and Trump advisor Dan Scavino.
But wait, there’s more (emphasis ours):
We the People must not and WILL NOT cede our exclusive Cosntituional right to elect our Representatives to judges, lawyers, courts, Governors, Secretary’s of State, Congress, corrupt election officials and local politicians, the corrupt media - or Leftist threats of violence! It is OUR EXCLUSIVE RIGHT to decide our Representitives, not theirs! Therefore, We the People MUST demand a NEW and fair national vote, a vote that all Americans can trust and live by regardles of the winner. Without a fair vote, we fear, with good reason, the threat of a shooting civil war is imminent.
When the legislators, courts and/or Congress fail to do their duty under the 12th Amendment [the procedure for choosing the president and vice president], you must be ready Mr. President to immediately declare a limited form of Martial Law, and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections, for the sole purpose of having military oversee a national re-vote.”
The statement also urges Trump to “act, like Lincoln did, to silence the destructive media’s one-sided propaganda.” In other words, shut down the New York Times, arrest every CNN employee, and make One America News the only media outlet available to the American people (Fox News is compromised, you see).
WTPC is what happens if you render a withered Don’t Tread On Me Flag from 2010 into a non-profit. Its audience is small, but having its propaganda endorsed by Flynn, a man who boasts over one million followers on Twitter alone, can only help them grow.
Flynn twice pled guilty to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with a Russian ambassador during Trump’s presidential transition in 2016. In a brazen move, Attorney General William Barr asked D.C. Federal District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn be dismissed. Though this request was rejected, President Trump decided to pardon Flynn on November 25, before a sentence against Flynn was ever ruled. Convenient.