Kelli Ward, Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, has urged President Donald Trump to "cross the Rubicon", in a reference to the historical act by Julius Caesar to cross the Rubicon river with his army, thereby starting a civil war in Rome.
Mr. President @realDonaldTrump - we are with you in #Arizona. We are working every avenue to stop this coup & to stop our Republic from crumbing. Patriots are united. Those who are against us are exposing themselves. #Liberty & #freedom are on the line. #CrossTheRubicon @GenFlynn pic.twitter.com/wbzjqkQJv7
— Dr. Kelli Ward 🇺🇸 (@kelliwardaz) December 20, 2020
As she tweeted that Arizona was “with” Trump, working to “stop this coup”, retired General Michael Flynn, who served as POTUS’ national security adviser at the outset of 2017, was quick to share Ward’s tweet on Sunday.
.@kelliwardaz has a great feel for the people of Arizona and America. She continues to #FightForTrump With courage and conviction. @realDonaldTrump@POTUS https://t.co/rj2UZJbQBi
— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) December 20, 2020
Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to charges that he had lied to the FBI regarding conversations he had with then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak prior to Trump’s January 2017 inauguration, was pardoned by the sitting President on 26 November.
Donald Trump had claimed that the investigation into the ex-aide was part of a “scam”, with a federal judge formally dismissing the three-year prosecutorial case against Flynn on 8 December.
Ever since, Flynn has echoed the Trump campaign’s allegations that the 2020 presidential election had been “rigged”.
As he urged the sitting POTUS to resort to the military to "rerun an election" in swing states that voted for Joe Biden, Flynn was quoted by Newsmax as saying on 17 December:
"People out there talk about martial law like it's something that we've never done. Martial law has been instituted 64 times… So, I’m not calling for that, we have a Constitutional process … that has to be followed.”
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
Nevertheless, Donald Trump lambasted media reports claiming that he was considering the use of martial law to change the results of the 3 November presidential election, calling the allegations "fake news".
Martial law = Fake News. Just more knowingly bad reporting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2020
In response, on Friday, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said in a joint statement that there “is no role for the US military in determining the outcome of an American election.”
Despite the Electoral College asserting on 14 December that having received a solid majority of 306 votes against Donald Trump’s 232 Joe Biden had officially won the race to the White House, the sitting president has refused to concede victory.
Donald Trump's campaign on 20 December filed a petition for a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court, seeking to challenge an earlier decision made by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court "which illegally changed Pennsylvania’s mail balloting law immediately before and after the 2020 presidential election".
Earlier in November, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had rejected a lawsuit filed by Republicans seeking to invalidate millions of mail-in ballots cast in the state.
Leading Republican lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have since acknowledged Biden's victory, yet some GOP lawmakers have suggested a final long-shot effort might be taken to overturn the results when Congress formally counts the electoral votes on 6 January.
