"I'm a simple Marine. I want to know why what happened in Myanmar can't happen here," a rally attendee asked of General Michael Flynn.
Over claims of election fraud, Myanmar's military detained winner Aung San Suu Kyi and other National League for Democracy politicians prior to entering office.
General Flynn put out a strongly worded response disputing how legacy media have characterized his comments, which by and large have interpreted his response as advocating for a violent military "coup."
Reporting that has magnified the incident to extremes includes Huffington Post's characterization of Flynn as an "avowed Qanon disciple and confessed felon" that has "present[ed] a dark vision... of dictatorship," at the Memorial Day Weekend 'For God and Country Patriot Roundup' event.
Slate called the event a "QAnon conference" and said the crowd was "ecstatic" at what it called a "suggestion of the military taking control of the U.S. government."
Colonel Yevgeny Vindman called the remarks "seditious" and said "Comrade Flynn may have crossed the line for recall to active duty and court-martial," while offering to prosecute the case.
Yahoo said Flynn is "now firmly entrenched in the lunatic fringe" and said that his remarks are properly interpreted to mean "he supports a violent military coup in the U.S."
General Flynn’s statement, taken from his Telegram room reads:
"For all the fake news reporting:
Let me be VERY CLEAR – There is NO reason whatsoever for any coup in America, and I do not and have not at any time called for any action of that sort. Any reporting of any other belief by me is a boldface fabrication based on twisted reporting at a lively panel at a conference of Patriotic Americans who love this country, just as I do. I am no stranger to media manipulating my words and therefore let me repeat my response to a question asked at the conference: There is no reason it (a coup) should happen here (in America).
God Bless our military and our veterans on this somber day of celebration of Memorial Day."
