Mike Flynn Alleges Mike Pence and Paul Ryan Plotted Against Trump During First Term
Retired three-star Army General Mike Flynn, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and briefly President Donald Trump’s national security adviser during his first term, has leveled explosive claims against former Vice President Mike Pence and ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan. In a wide-ranging interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Flynn asserted that Pence and Ryan actively sought to undermine Trump and had plans to assume control of the presidency if he were removed from office.
Flynn, who served under President Barack Obama before joining the Trump administration, framed his remarks within a larger narrative of a political struggle between Trump’s “America First” agenda and what he described as a long-term socialist effort dating back to the Obama era.
“You’re saying Paul Ryan and Mike Pence at least were in on this?” Johnson asked during the interview segment.
Flynn’s response was unequivocal.
“Oh yeah, there’s no doubt about it,” he said. “Paul Ryan and Mike Pence wanted Trump out during the very famous, prior to the election in 2016, the ‘pu**y tapes.’ Okay, I’ll just say it like that, sorry. But those infamous tapes came out. I know at that time that there were discussions between Ryan, Reince Priebus, and Mike Pence about, well, if Trump steps down, then we’re gonna have a plan because they actually wanted… they were hopeful because that tape didn’t come out through Democrat operatives. So there was a plan for, you know, hopefully Trump’s going to step down and go, ‘screw this, you guys can have it.’ Those guys were ready to step right in.”
Flynn emphasized that the alleged plotting took place in 2016, highlighting what he described as a broader problem within the Republican establishment. “So all the people out there that think, you know, all these guys are great because they’re Republicans? Sorry, they’re not,” he said. “This is where the ‘Uniparty’ steps in, and the Uniparty is one of these big problems that we face in this country because they don’t want to accept that we are in the midst of a revolution and a Marxist takeover.”
He also criticized the Obama administration, questioning the legitimacy of Obama’s electoral victories and framing them as part of a deliberate effort to reshape the country. “Barack Obama… I mean, there’s no reason in the world why Barack Obama should have ever won the first time around, but he did. Because there was a push by a lot of people who knew this was the opportunity they had to start this turnover of our country, okay? Eight years of Barack, eight years of Hillary, we’d be done.”
Turning to the present, Flynn suggested that Trump now possesses broad authority to respond to these perceived threats. “Here’s where we are at today on your show, in America, with this bill that’s about to happen,” he said. “Trump has a lot of authority, right? A lot of leadership authority that he’s been given by the judgment of the American people, by the majority of the American people, the way our country is supposed to be run. And in that judgment, he’s going to have to make a decision. This is kind of where I keep saying, ‘enough is enough.’”
Flynn underscored the unique powers of the presidency, noting that the chief law enforcement role rests with the president, not the attorney general. “The chief law enforcement officer in the country is not the Attorney General, it’s the President of the United States. We always say, you know, he’s the President and the Commander in Chief. He’s also the chief law enforcement officer in the country. He’s the only one with pardon authority at that level, right?”
He further highlighted the president’s ability to act on national security and emergency grounds, framing Trump’s discretion as a reflection of the public mandate. “He can declare things based on national security and national emergency issues alone. So he can decide which direction the country goes, and he does it because the majority of the judgment of the American people were imbued into his ability to be able to do that. That’s where we are.”
Flynn’s claims add fuel to ongoing tensions within the Republican Party, revisiting questions about loyalty, intra-party rivalries, and the extent to which senior party figures may have acted against a sitting president from their own party. Whether these allegations will be substantiated or remain in the realm of political conjecture remains to be seen, but they contribute to an already charged political narrative surrounding Trump’s first term and the broader dynamics of contemporary American conservatism.
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