MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, one of President Donald Trump's most ardent supporters both vocally and financially, escalated his "four more years" chants Saturday to include a new demand.
Lindell, whose MyPillow commercials have for years been advertised on Fox News, tweeted and later deleted a call for "martial law" in seven states. His now-deleted Saturday tweet echoed the president's own ridicule of Republican governors Doug Ducey in Arizona and Brian Kemp in Georgia, making unfounded claims that they sold out Trump by refusing to overturn their state election results. The CEO has launched into a series of rants over the past month, even calling for some Georgia voters to "go to prison" because Trump lost the election to President-elect Joe Biden.
Lindell claimed that if Trump declares martial law in the seven states, his campaign allies could take control of the state's ballots and, apparently, overturn the results of the U.S. presidential election in Trump's favor.
"Look @dougducey you made the list and your crooked buddy @BrianKempGA! @realDonaldTrump please impose martial law in these 7 states and get the machines/ballots!" Lindell tweeted Saturday morning, before removing the post an hour or so later.
Although it's unclear exactly which seven states Lindell is referring to in his "martial law" tweet, it appears his post was in response to attorney Lin Wood's calls for a military and government-led crackdown in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, Minnesota and Pennsylvania. Biden won all seven of these states, pushing him far beyond the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the November election.
Lindell's increasingly fanatical support of Trump prompted him to say he's the "greatest president" in U.S. history at a rally earlier this year, as well as demanding Trump "put people in prison" over his election loss. Lindell has joined Trump in badgering Republican lawmakers in several states where the two baselessly said there was voter fraud.
"We have to get this governor ... Brian Kemp has to give an order to have a Congress meeting, whatever they do, their legislators, and pull Georgia down and don't give it to Biden," Lindell said at the Trump rally last month. "It doesn't matter who they give it to; don't give it to Biden and find out all your corruption."
Martial law = Fake News. Just more knowingly bad reporting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2020
"If you pull down Georgia, Pennsylvania and crooked Nevada, now nobody has 270 [electoral] votes, and on December 14 it goes to the [Electoral College] vote and Donald Trump wins the election!" Lindell continued.
Newsweek reached out to MyPillow as well as the Trump campaign for additional remarks or any reaction to the now-deleted Saturday tweet.
Early Sunday morning, the president tweeted "Martial law = Fake News. Just more knowingly bad reporting!" — appearing to refute media reports claiming he suggested to his advisers on instituting martial law.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Benjamin Fearnow is a reporter based out of Newsweek's New York City offices. He was previously at CBS and Mediaite ... Read more
