It’s never a good sign when a president publicly insists he’s not considering declaring martial law in an attempt to reverse the election results.
It’s never a good sign when a president publicly insists he’s not considering declaring martial law in an attempt to reverse the election results, or when high-level military officials feel the need to declare, “There is no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
For what it is worth, the president tweeted Sunday, “Martial law = Fake News. Just more knowingly bad reporting!”
What we know is that Trump has met with retired General Michael Flynn, who has publicly advocated the president declare martial law and have the military organize a re-vote of the presidential election. Appearing on Greg Kelly’s program on NewsmaxTV December 17, Flynn said, “He could immediately, on his order, seize every single one of these [voting] machines around the country. . . . He could 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. I mean, it’s not unprecedented. I mean, these people out there talking about martial law it’s like it’s something that we’ve never done, we’ve done the — martial law has been instituted 64, 64 times, Greg.”
Governments in the U.S. have indeed declared martial law more than 60 times, although it has mostly been state and local governments making the declaration, and just about all were declared during or in the aftermath of riots, mass violence, or natural disasters. The last time the federal government declared martial law was in Hawaii after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Most constitutional scholars do not believe that the president can declare martial law without the consent of Congress.
Our old friend Byron York — about as far from a knee-jerk critic of the president as you can find — declares, “It is clear that his former national security adviser, retired General Michael Flynn, is expressing views about a possible military role in the election that are reckless and alarming” and “Despite real concerns about some localized irregularities, there is no aspect of the current election — Joe Biden’s victory has been certified in the states and formalized in the Electoral College — that would justify any such action. For the president to follow Flynn’s counsel would be disastrous, both for the country and for Trump himself.”
According to the New York Times, Trump asked his advisers about Flynn’s idea of declaring martial law and having the military rerun the election:
Mr. Cipollone told Mr. Trump there was no constitutional authority for what was being discussed, one of the people briefed on the meeting said. Other advisers from the White House and the Trump campaign delivered the same message throughout the meeting, which stretched on for a long period of time.
Perhaps this is just a meaningless White House bull session, where a depressed president meets with anyone willing to float any fantasy scenario of him staying in office, and nothing will come of it. The fact that Trump is insisting he never discussed martial law is an indicator he recognizes the risks and consequences and will not take that step.
But American presidents aren’t supposed to even discuss invoking martial law and redoing a presidential election because they’re upset that they lost, after losing dozens of court cases challenging the election results. Even a discussion of martial law by elected officials normalizes it and wears away at the taboo about invoking it. A lunatic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia is already calling for it. Presidents take oaths to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” If you’re contemplating martial law as a response to losing an election, you are not preserving, protecting, or defending the Constitution.
Finally, Sidney Powell’s presence at the White House meeting, Trump’s desire for her to be a special counsel, and reported declaration that she called everyone else there were “quitters” all indicate that she’s not as far from the Trump legal team as Rudy Giuliani and Jenna Ellis wanted the world to believe. The president is apparently choosing to surround himself with conspiracy theorists and loons who are urging him to take steps that violate the Constitution.
Throughout the weekend and this morning, the president is continuing to tweet claims that the election was rigged and retweet account after account contending the election was stolen and Trump is the rightful winner, that votes were changed using USBs, and so on. He barely mentions issues like the pandemic, the relief bill, or other pressing matters. Trump will remain in office until January 20, but his presidency has effectively ended.