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Former national security advisor Michael Flynn said this week that President Donald Trump should impose martial law to force new elections in battleground states that he lost.
Speaking with the pro-Trump network Newsmax on Thursday night, Flynn said the president should deploy the military and “seize” voting machines to hold a new election.
“There is no way in the world we are going to be able to move forward as a nation,” said Flynn, who was recently pardoned by Trump after pleading guilty to a felony count of lying to the FBI. “He could immediately, on his order, seize every single one of these machines, on his order.”
Here's Michael Flynn on Newsmax saying that Trump could order "military capabilities" to swing states and "rerun an election in each of those states."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 18, 2020
"People out there talk about martial law like it's something that we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times." pic.twitter.com/KNmiAGGiPF
“He could order the, within the swing states, if he wanted to, he could take military capabilities, and he could place those in states and basically rerun an election in each of those states,” Flynn told Newsmax. “I mean, it’s not unprecedented. These people are out there talking about martial law like it’s something that we’ve never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times.”
The president does not have the power to unilaterally cancel, delay, postpone, or change the date of an election, even if he declares martial law. That power lies with Congress.
Declaring martial law also does not suspend the Constitution, and the military has no role in administering elections.
On December 1, Flynn shared a message on Twitter from a right-wing Ohio activist group calling for Trump to “suspend the Constitution,” declare martial law, and have the military hold a “national re-vote.”
