On Saturday, Lin Wood, a conservative attorney from Georgia who has vocally supported the president in his fight against the election outcome, called on President Donald Trump to impose martial law in seven states. Likely unsurprisingly, President-elect Joe Biden won all of the states that Wood named, including Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania, all of which Trump and his allies have challenged in court in the aftermath of Election Day. Trump and his allies — including Wood — have presented a slew of bombastic fraud claims involving the election outcomes in each of these states, but judges around the country have repeatedly rejected the systematic fraud allegations.
Now, Trump and his allies’ rhetoric is getting more extreme. Trump has noticed Wood’s Twitter account in the past — on one recent occasion, the president retweeted a message in which Wood called for the jailing of top Georgia officials. On Twitter over the weekend, Wood commented as follows:
‘Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota & Pennsylvania are states in which martial law should be imposed & machines/ballots seized. 7 states under martial law. 43 states not under martial law. I like those numbers. Do it [Donald Trump]! Nation supports you.’
Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Minnesota & Pennsylvania are states in which martial law should be imposed & machines/ballots seized.
7 states under martial law.
43 states not under martial law.I like those numbers.
Do it @realDonaldTrump!
Nation supports you.
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 20, 2020
Wood is not the first prominent Trump ally to present these ideas. Michael Flynn, the disgraced ex-national security adviser who recently received a pardon from the president, has also raised the prospect of a Trump declaration of martial law, suggesting that the military could orchestrate a new presidential election. During a meeting at the White House late last week, Trump reportedly raised the prospect of deploying the military, as Flynn and now Wood have suggested, although meeting participants pushed back against the proposal. Nevertheless, the outgoing president of the United States was apparently at least partially open to using the force of the military to essentially attack the nation’s democratic process.
That’s what these efforts from the president and his allies unequivocally amount to — an attack on democracy in the United States. There is no legitimacy to the president’s desperate claims of widespread election fraud. The obvious net result of the president’s efforts is a serious undercut to democracy in the United States. Reportedly, top Trump ally Rudy Giuliani has pushed for the seizure of election management machines across the country — and no matter the fact that he was reportedly informed that the Department of Homeland Security doesn’t even have the necessary authority for this effort, these are the kinds of unhinged plans that Trump and his allies have been considering.
