Former President Donald Trump called into an event hosted by his former national security adviser Michael Flynn over the weekend, telling his ex-adviser, “We’re going to bring you back.”
After scrubbing a rally in Iowa on Saturday night because of bad weather, Trump spoke via telephone at an event for Flynn’s “ReAwaken America Tour” held at the former president’s Miami resort. The retired lieutenant general, a top figure in the far-right movement, has been one of the leading proponents of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
During the call, which was captured on a video of the event posted online, Flynn is seen holding a cellphone up to a microphone as Trump, on the line, says to Flynn, “You just have to stay healthy because we’re bringing you back. We’re going to bring you back.”
It wasn’t clear from Trump’s remarks if he was specifically talking about bringing Flynn into his administration should he win the presidency in 2024 and, if so, for what role.
“We’re proud of you, general,” Trump said. “I knew it from day one — you’re really somebody very special.”
Trump’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung did not respond to questions about Trump’s remarks and instead sent a statement that said: “President Trump is running to drain the swamp and bring prosperity back to America. That’s why he’s dominating in the polls — both in the primary and general elections— and Americans are rallying around his campaign.”
Flynn, who resigned from the Trump administration less than a month after Trump’s inauguration in 2017, was charged later that year with lying to the FBI about conservations he had with the Russians on Trump’s behalf. He twice pleaded guilty, but Trump ultimately pardoned him in the final weeks of his presidency.
Since then, Flynn has been a leader in trumpeting Trump’s lies of a stolen 2020 election, despite the fact that numerous federal and local officials, a long list of courts, top former campaign staffers and even Trump’s own attorney general have all said there is no evidence of the fraud he alleges. Flynn suggested that Trump should seize voting machines and could order up the military in some states and rerun the election.
The former president has spoken warmly about Flynn over the years and has continued to align himself with Flynn at a time when some in the Republican Party see Trump’s alliance with controversial figures and focus on the past electionas political liabilities in the general election next year.
Flynn, as part of his efforts to try to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election, suggested Trump should seize voting machines and could order up the military in some states and rerun the election.
Flynn launched the ReAwaken America tour in 2021, a few months after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol failed to overturn the results of the election. It has been continuing ever since, with stops every month or two in a different city. Many of Trump’s close allies and family members such as his son, Eric Trump, have appeared at the event. Trump himself has been known to call in.
A joint investigation by The Associated Press and the PBS series “Frontline” found that the ReAwaken tour serves as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that’s wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party.. Flynn endorsed nearly 100 candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, and continues to urge supporters to get involved in politics –- especially at the local level –- ahead of the 2024 elections.
Trump and Flynn have maintained their ties to each other, periodically snapping photographs together. One of Flynn’s groups held an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in December, and the two men remain close, Flynn’s brother, Joseph Flynn, told the AP in March.
(AP)
14 Responses
And then we’re going to fire you again! And call you all kinds of names as an added bonus!
We are not bringing you back trump no, no! Shameless thief, racist, murderer, treasonist, a dangerous criminal, lock him up asap!
Zetruth you’re a fool!
Zetruth: Whom did Trump murder? Which acts of treason did he commit? And would you call the Biden family thieves as well?
Wants to rebuild his crime organization
This is disgusting. Michael Flynn is a antisemitic Christian nationalist. The fact that Trump is even ASSOCIATED with him is frightening!
Ari Knobler:
Why would anyone call the Biden family thieves?! They may have engaged in some nepotism by getting salaries from countries AFTER Biden wasn’t President anymore, but every politician and famous person gets paid to do things which they may not be qualified to do (like indorse products or speak). That’s not theft!
If your alluding to the laptop, it’s crazy that the Republicans had this laptop for over three years and still have found NOTHING implicating Biden in influence peddling besides some speculation about the “big guy” in an email. And you accuse an entire family of theft?!
Trump has literal Nazis speak at his conventions. Alan Dershowitz had to beg Eric Trump many times untilnhe agreed to take down a man who was even more extreme than the Nazis themselves (I wouldn’t say what he said but you can see for yourself).
Flynn lied to the fbi what a crime. How about the corrupt fbi lying to all Americans with a probe they knew was false
Not to defend Bidet, far from it, they are just two different styles. Like what? Check the lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani he’s involved in, the level of corruption is beyond anything you can imagine…
Flynn is a right wing nutcase who has gone off the deep end with his extreme racist and white supremacist tirades cloaked as “Christian nationalism”. He wants to restore the U.S. to its Christian roots, has floated the idea that all elected officials must be born-again Christians and has embraced the whole idea that yidden have to die in a fiery inferno of Armageddon so their X-tian moishiach can return. We definitely need guys like him surrounding Trump with his fingers on the nuclear codes.
No evidence of fraud??!! No one has yet to explain the shenanigans at the central vote counting in Georgia when it was ” evacuated for a leaky bathroom elsewhere in the building and the video caught probable fraud.
Dan: That is not the case with principled statesmen.
As for Biden, when he said neither he nor his family got rich from foreign payoffs, that was a baldfaced lie. The House Republicans have demonstrated that the Biden family tried to hide over $10 million in foreign payments.
As Harry Truman said, ““Show me a man that gets rich by being a politician, and I’ll show you a crook.”