Virginia governor candidate calls for 'martial law' to steal election

A Republican state senator from Virginia on Tuesday urged Donald Trump to call in the military to block a peaceful transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden — the latest example of aggressive or violent rhetoric from GOP stragglers refusing to accept Trump’s loss.

“Not my President and never will be. The American people aren’t fools,” state Sen. Amanda Chase, who is running for governor of Virginia in 2021, wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday morning. “We know you cheated to win and we’ll never accept these results. Fair elections we can accept but cheating to win; never. It’s not over yet. So thankful President Trump has a backbone and refuses to concede. President Trump should declare martial law as recommended by General Flynn.”

Chase’s comment came the morning after the Electoral College sealed Biden’s victory, giving him 306 votes to Trump’s 232. That’s the same exact margin Trump won by in 2016 — although he lost the popular vote by millions.

Of course, there was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election, as Trump and his supporters have suggested. Judges at every level have tossed lawsuits from the Trump campaign and its allies because they have failed to provide any actual evidence of fraud or irregularities.

Chase is part of a vocal contingent of the Republican Party that is still pushing those lies, and urging violence to stop the peaceful transition of power that is a hallmark of U.S. democracy.

She was endorsing a call from Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn — the man Trump recently pardoned for lying to federal investigators about his communications with Russia — who in early December said Trump should suspend the Constitution and use martial law to hold a new election.

“When the legislators, courts and/or Congress fail to do their duty under the 12th Amendment, you must be ready Mr President to immediately declare a limited form of Martial Law, and temporarily suspend the Constitution and civilian control of these federal elections, for the sole purpose of having the military oversee a national re-vote,” read a manifesto published in the right-wing Washington Times that Flynn and other Trump allies signed.

Other Republicans have also used violent rhetoric, including the Arizona Republican Party, which urged Trump supporters to die for the cause of overturning the election.

This kind of rhetoric has already created dangerous situations across the country.

In Michigan, for instance, armed protesters demonstrated outside the home of Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson earlier this month. Violent rhetoric also caused the closure of the Michigan state Capitol to the public during Monday’s Electoral College vote over fears of violence.

“This is some scary stuff, man, and this is not what America is supposed to be like,” Wisconsin elector Khary Penebaker, a Democrat, told the New York Times this week, speaking to the escalating tensions.

Wisconsin’s state Capitol, was similar closed to the public on Monday, out of concerns about possible violence.

Other Republicans have condemned the rhetoric used by those like Chase and Flynn.

“Do you support facts and liberty? Or supporting martial law based on unhinged conspiracy ramblings — from [Sidney] Powell and Mike Flynn?” tweeted Rep. Denver Riggleman, a Virginia Republican, pointing to Chase’s Facebook post. “Conspiracy theories like QAnon or FACTS? Choose.”

Chase, for her part, has waged similarly extreme stunts in the past.

In August, she refused to wear a mask at a state legislative special session, forcing the Legislature to put her into a plexiglass box to avoid her possibly spreading the coronavirus.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.