Michael Flynn: 2020 Election Is a ‘Crucible Moment’ in American History

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to President Donald Trump, said this week that he believes the 2020 general election was “an embarrassment” for the American people and a “crucible moment” for America. He added that to move forward, the government and the American people need to reconcile.

Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, made the comments to The Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders” during an interview before Christmas, in which he talked about threats the United States is facing, his prescription for a better America, and his yearslong political saga that ended with a pardon from the president.

Flynn said, “Going forward, as we get through this election, particularly this election, which is a crucible moment in our history, unprecedented, never happened before, and it’s an embarrassment to me as an American citizen, never mind somebody who served in our highest levels of our government—to the rest of the world, because of what we have done for others around the world, and we can’t even get our own damn elections correct.”

“But moving forward, we have to have a reconciliation between the government and ‘we the people,’ the people of this country,” he added.

The 2020 general election has garnered intense scrutiny over unconstitutional last-minute changes to mail-in voting rules made due to the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, a raft of allegations about election irregularities, and the subsequent legal battle launched by the Trump campaign.

In recent weeks, a slew of evidence from sworn witnesses and experts emerged raising questions about the integrity of the Nov. 3 election, including not verifying signatures on ballots, alleged backdating of ballots, and votes by dead or ineligible people.

For a reconciliation to occur, Flynn said, people in government need to recognize its institutions would not exist without the sacrifices made by every American citizen, including hardworking Americans, men and women in uniform, and others who have sacrificed their lives for the nation.

Flynn said he believes many “bureaucratic institutions” have forgotten who they work for.

“That goes down to state and to some local levels, cities, communities, where people are in government and they forget that they actually work for the people, who are paying their salaries. Again, that’s the system that we have,” the retired three-star general said.

He said that if the United States is unable to reconcile the government with Americans through ensuring that U.S. institutions are made more accountable, then significant changes in the system are necessary, starting with the education system.

He said that in the past young children were taught to recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day and although children may not fully grasp its significance right away, it taught them “what’s important about the nation.”

“I want children to be able to learn about our country,” he said.

Flynn also shared his view for a better America, saying that it starts from family and faith in God.

“If you read [about] the founding fathers and what was the principal document that they used to write the Constitution, it was the Bible. So that’s in our DNA. There are elements trying to rip it out, but that’s in our DNA,” he said.

During the interview, Flynn also reflected on the greatest misconception the public had about his battle with the justice system, that it was “a fair system or a fair process.”

“I think that’s a misconception by a lot of people that have watched it from afar instead of those who have paid great attention to detail from the beginning,” Flynn said.

Documents released early this year suggest that Flynn, while he was national security adviser in 2017, was set up by FBI senior officials to perjure himself during a meeting at the White House in early 2017. He was fired by Trump shortly after. He was then subjected to a protracted legal battle until the Department of Justice eventually dismissed his case in May. Trump pardoned Flynn the day before Thanksgiving.

When asked if he could envision himself working in the government again, Flynn explained that working for the government is not “a question of imagining or a question of doing, it’s a question of service” and if asked to serve he believes his values should align in some way with the people who are asking him to serve.

“Service to the nation is something that I firmly believe in. It doesn’t mean that everybody has to go serve in the Army or the Navy, or the Air Force and Marine Corps in our military. It doesn’t mean that people have to serve in government. We have people that serve in all sorts of capacities,” Flynn said.

“So my thing is that if I’m called to serve, I have to really faithfully think about it. And certainly, my family comes into that equation, probably paramount, but also my faith because I have to understand that, and I hope that, the values that I have and that I have in my DNA, I hope that those values are part of the people that are asking me to serve, in this case, let’s say the president of the United States. I have to believe that our values in some way align,” he added.

Janita Kan contributed to this report.