Michael Flynn Predicts Potential Violence If Election Results Arent Known Immediately

Michael Flynn, a national security advisor under then-President Donald Trump, ominously predicted election-related violence in a recent interview and urged Trump to declare victory before the full results of the presidential election are  known. 

Republicans in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have blocked efforts to allow for the counting of mail-in ballots before Election Day. As a result, election officials in those states dont expect the final results to be available quickly. 

Nonetheless, during an appearance on the right-wing podcast American Truth Project earlier this month, Flynn said that if the victor of the election isnt known by Nov. 6, the day following Election Day, there could be violence. 

I actually think thatll be a really bad spot, and I feel like people are going to go to those locations where theres counting, and there could actually be violence, because people are so upset after 2020, and what is very clear, in terms of a fraudulent election in certain states, theyre just not going to put up with it anymore, he said . Flynn said earlier that he was speaking about hypothetical probabilities. 

The interview was flagged by USA Today Thursday. During the same interview, Flynn noted that Pennsylvania officials dont expect to have full results available on election night  something he called egregious behavior. He compared the state to Florida, which is known for counting its ballots quickly. 

Flynn who pleaded guilty  to making false statements to the FBI in 2017, before later attempting  to withdraw the plea, and who was eventually pardoned  by Trump in late 2020  has spent the last four years crisscrossing the country, spreading conspiracy theories about election administration and amplifying Trumps lie that the 2020 election was stolen.

Hes also frequently used violent rhetoric, such as when he told InfoWars host Alex Jones in December , Were moving towards the sound of the guns here, folks. And the sound of the guns is freedom. We are going to move towards freedom. Recently, he told a right-wing Christian audience that if Trump wins, the gates of hell, my hell, will be unleashed.

Separately, during the same interview, Flynn said he believed Trump will win a 50-state victory if the election is fair, but that he doesnt believe Democrats are going to allow a totally fair election to occur.

He advised Trump to declare victory even before he knows the full results. 

If I were Trump, and he was way up, and the polls havent closed in Pennsylvania, the polls havent closed in Arizona, polls havent closed in Wisconsin  I would claim victory that night, Flynn said. When I look back in 2020, he should have claimed victory last night. And let everybody go to bed. Whatever they were going to come up with, just say thats a bunch of B.S., those are all a bunch of lies. 

In fact, this is exactly what Trump did in 2020, announcing that hed won late on election night and demanding that ballot-counting stop immediately, which would have disenfranchised thousands of voters. Days before that election, Trump advisor Steve Bannon revealed that this strategy was pre-planned. 

What Trumps gonna do is just declare victory. Right? Hes gonna declare victory. But that doesnt mean hes a winner, Bannon said, according to a recording later obtained by Mother Jones . Hes just gonna say hes a winner.

Bannon recently advised Trump to do the same thing this year. 

I am urging President Trump: If the votes come in like it looks like theyre going to come in, he should step up and inform the American citizens of exactly whats going on and not keep people in the dark like was done in 2020, Bannon said at a press conference after being released from prison this week.

Flynn said that election officials in other states should be able to match Floridas speed because, he asserted, election officials are able to count mail-in ballots as theyre coming in. 

Thats not true, and its one of the main reasons election results in some states take longer to tally than others: In Pennsylvania, current law requires election workers to wait until Election Day to begin tabulating mail ballots, even if they arrive early. Wisconsin election officials are also barred from counting ballots before Election Day. In fact, election officials in both states arent even allowed to begin processing ballots  for example, verifying voters signatures and taking ballots out of their envelopes  until Election Day, let alone actually start tallying votes.

In both states, Republicans blocked efforts to change those rules. In Pennsylvania, state Senate Republicans insisted  that any future reforms also require voters to present ID whenever they vote, which Democrats have rejected on the grounds that ID rules make it harder for marginalized groups to vote. Also, in North Carolina last year, Republicans instituted a new law requiring that early ballots only be counted once polls close on Election Day.

The vast majority of states have much more liberal rules for the early processing and counting of ballots.

Also, while its true that news outlets  not election officials  predicted Trump would carry Florida overnight after Election Day 2020 , the margin in that state was nowhere near as close as in key swing states. Trump ultimately beat Biden by nearly 400,000 votes in the Sunshine State.

USA Today also flagged a recent comment from Ivan Raiklin, a Flynn associate known for saying he longs for retribution against a list of journalists and political figures in another Trump term. 

Raiklin said Americans should plan to descend on election workers if results are not announced by midnight on Election Day, and to livestream every movement and every breath of every single poll worker, in order to ensure they are motivated to guarantee a free fair and transparent election. 

Neither Flynn nor Raiklin immediately responded to HuffPosts request for comment Thursday.