Episode 11: Michael Flynn’s New War
How “America’s General” joined a movement that’s fired up about COVID, conspiracies, and Christ — and just might be headed to a town near you.
Please note: Our show is produced for the ear and made to be heard. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors. Please check the audio before quoting in print.
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Last time on the show, you heard about the strange case of Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. A daring Army officer who rose to run intelligence for Joint Special Operations Command during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars… helping elite units like Seal Team Six and Delta Force. It was a spectacular rise that seemed to continue when Flynn took the helm of the Defense Intelligence Agency, overseeing intel for the entire American military.
Ioannis Koskinas: Look, DIA for a U.S. military officer that's in the intelligence career field, I mean, there's the apex.
That’s my old friend Gianni Koskinas, you heard from him in Part One of this story. He’s the former U.S. Air Force Colonel who crossed paths with Flynn while they both worked in Special Ops.
So Flynn. Widely admired. Rising star. Until suddenly, he wasn’t. He got pushed out of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was convicted of lying to the FBI — although he was later pardoned by President Trump — and he became a vocal election denier, who whipped up protestors the night before rioters burst into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6th, 2021.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: We the people are gonna be here and we want you to know that we will not stand for a lie.
It was quite a turn for a once-revered officer who had sworn to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution from enemies both foreign and domestic.
During the Jan 6th investigation, Flynn repeatedly pleaded the 5th.
ARCHIVAL Liz Cheney: Do you believe the violence on January 6th was justified morally?
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: Take the fifth.
Flynn may have kept his mouth shut in front of the January 6th committee. But since then, he’'s gotten pretty vocal.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: The worst war that I, I am involved in is in my own country.
And plenty of people are listening.
[SOUND OF APPLAUSE]
ARCHIVAL Reawaken America Speaker: Let's hear it one more time for America's General, General Flynn.
Including a former well-known resident of the White House who’s trying to get back in there.
ARCHIVAL Donald Trump: I will say General Flynn, you just have to stay healthy because we're bringing you back. We're gonna bring you back. [SOUND OF APPLAUSE]
Coming up… you’ll hear about Jesus, conspiracy theories, and how the stuff Mike Flynn’s doing now could affect you, right where you live.
I’m Peter Bergen and this is In The Room.
[THEME MUSIC SURGES, THEN FADES]
Michael Flynn’s prosecution by the U.S. Justice Department and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election may have made him a pariah among some Washington D.C. establishment types. But he’s found some new friends — far outside the Beltway, who wouldn’t be caught dead with an NPR tote bag. These new friends think he’s a hero. And Flynn’s been speaking to them, all over the country about politics and God. And he's been drawing big crowds.
At pro-Trump gatherings…
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: The Democratic Party, their game plan is to take over this country, eliminate the Constitution, seriously.
…political rallies…
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: Many people don't know that our Constitution is derived from the Bible ...
…prayer meetings…
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: The evil that we are facing will not give in until we take over.
And he's been making headline appearances at a traveling evangelical event called the Reawaken America tour. It’s a barnstorming political road show that's equal parts tent revival and conspiratorial hot house.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: There is a global alliance that's forming against the United States of America.
That's Flynn speaking at a recent event on the tour.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: This isn't a conspiracy theory. This is real. This is real, and it's about our lives, and this is why we're up here fighting.
The ReAwaken America events have touched down in a dozen states since 2021.
ARCHIVAL Clay Clark (in Reawaken America promotional video): The Reawaken tour’s coming to our place. Hallelujah.
Crowds in the thousands show up at each stop to absorb evangelical sermons, bogus medical advice, and conspiracy theories by the non-metric ton.
ARCHIVAL Clay Clark: It's going to be lit. It's going to be lit. Yeah.
Many pay hundreds of dollars a piece for tickets.
ARCHIVAL Clay Clark: And now ladies and gentlemen, on May 12th and 13th, the Reawaken America Tour is coming to Miami, Florida. And then we're taking the God-fearing, revival-starting Reawaken America tour into Sin City. Yes, ladies, gentlemen, General Flynn and Team America will be taking the Reawaken America tour to Las Vegas, Nevada.
That voice you heard just now is a guy named Clay Clark. He's the founder, organizer, and onstage MC for the ReAwaken America tour. He's also an evangelical Christian and a Mike Flynn super fan.
Clay Clark: General Flynn — the relationship that he and I have is I would consider him to be kind of like a father figure to me.
Peter Bergen: In a Trump term two, if it happened, Mike Flynn would probably play an important role in your view?
Clay Clark: I would love it if he was the vice presidential candidate.
Clark got his start as a wedding DJ and serial entrepreneur running several businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma. One of them is a business-coaching podcast called Thrivetime.
ARCHIVAL Clay Clark: Yes, yes, yes and yes. Thrive Nation, we are in the air everywhere. And if you want to follow along on…
I called Clark up recently to learn how the ReAwaken America tour got started and how Flynn got involved. Clark says the story began when the focus of his podcast shifted — drastically — during the COVID pandemic. When everything shut down, it led Clark to question a government he saw hurting people who needed their work to live.
Clay Clark: I didn't ever talk about religion or politics on my business show. and then COVID showed up in my life and I went one way, certain people went another way. And businesses were being decided upon Oh, this is essential, but this isn't – when that was happening. There's a lot of people that I've met that did lose everything. So, during the lockdowns, some people acted as though it was just gonna go away. some people socially distanced, some people did their own research…
And Clark says he was one of those researchers. His research led him to a set of ideas that — to him at least — explain COVID and the bad effects of all the lockdowns. And I'm going to take a minute to explain these ideas because they've become a focal point of his podcast. And later on, they became a focal point of the Reawaken America tour.
These ideas are a big-picture theory of recent history that Clark and others call the Great Reset. Now, this phrase comes from a German economist named Klaus Schwab who put out a book and some articles and videos about something he called the Great Reset. Klaus Schwab is probably best known for running the yearly meetings of the World Economic Forum… where heads of governments and big companies gather for a glitzy gabfest in Davos, Switzerland every year. Unfortunately — and maybe importantly — Schwab's got a voice that makes him sound like a bad guy from an Indiana Jones movie.
ARCHIVAL Klaus Schwab: The COVID 19 crisis has shown us that our old systems are not fit anymore for the 21st century. It has laid bare the fundamental lack of social cohesion, fairness, inclusion, and equality. In short, we need a great reset.
Now Schwab's book and his recent articles and speeches about the Great Reset are mostly just observations about how the pandemic has caused havoc around the world — along with some various and vague suggestions about how corporate and government leaders should make use of the crisis to reset or rebuild social institutions to make them a little more equitable or more environmentally friendly. It's all pretty benign and even a little boring.
So then, here's where things get kind of weird. Clark and other commentators on the outer fringes of the online right-wing seem to have taken these descriptions of the state of the world as proof of a conspiracy to take over the world. And in this narrative, global elites imposed COVID lockdowns to deliberately wreck the world economy. And they did this… as part of a plan… to bring about a socialist world government. In some versions of the theory, the virus itself was deliberately released, maybe even deliberately engineered — and the vaccines are being used to survey and control the population to further this plan, orchestrated apparently by a quite boring German academic named Klaus Schwab.
Clay Clark: And he does conferences and he runs around talking about how we can't go back to normal until, unless everyone has been vaccinated.
Peter Bergen: When you talk about the great reset, and people like Klaus Schwab and Schwab runs this organization that meets once a year in Davos. They're talking about ideas, which you either agree or disagree with, but it's not like they have some ability to operationalize some reset of the world.
Clay Clark: I think that you can say that, but I think that Klaus Schwab is much more involved in shaping the world than most people know.
Peter Bergen: And how does he do it?
Clay Clark: I don't know that because I'm, I'm not, uh, thankfully hanging out with Klaus Schwab. I think why my listeners, our listeners either really like me or really don't, is when asked a difficult question, I tend to play an audio clip where the person in question is stating what their intentions are.so, let me just play a clip. This is what Klaus Schwab says here:
ARCHIVAL Klaus Schwab: Global energy systems, food systems and supply chains will be deeply affected. In times of crisis… [CLIP FADES DOWN]
Throughout our conversation, Clark didn't really answer any questions I asked about how Schwab's bad guy cabal might be pulling off a world takeover. Instead, he’d just play a clip of Klaus Schwab describing changes we're seeing in the global economy or a clip of Schwab observing that technology changing the world quickly can be disturbing to some people.
Clay Clark: I'll put myself in that category. When he says that the fourth industrial revolution is very disturbing for many people, I would say, ah, it's not a conspiracy if he says it out loud, I mean, it's a thing.
Peter Bergen: Where does General Flynn come down on all this?
Clay Clark: You'd have to interview him, but I can just tell you. We are both aware of the great reset plan of Klaus Schwab. We're, we're aware of this, we're seeing it unfold, and, uh, hope it can be stopped.
Clark says he first met General Flynn at a political event where they struck up a conversation
Clay Clark: We started talking and then I just felt a calling. I didn't see a burning bush, although that would've been great. God didn't speak to me audibly, although that would've been helpful.
Clark says the calling he felt was to dust off his skills from doing his wedding-event business and put them to work for a new, higher purpose.
Clay Clark: I hadn't done events in years, I mean years. And I just felt like we were supposed to, uh, hold a mass scale event to share with people the truth about what was going on with the Great Reset.
It seemed that Mike Flynn agreed. And he and Clark held the first installment of the tour — initially branded as the Health and Freedom conference — at an Oklahoma bible college in April, 2021.
ARCHIVAL Newscaster: A conservative conference this weekend is attracting thousands of people from across the country. Their goal to highlight what they feel has been government overreach in the COVID-19 pandemic and the loss of freedoms.
Clay Clark: We had about 5,500 people in attendance. And then we had over 50,000 people request tickets before I was like, we cannot even process these. You know, there's no sponsors, there's no scripts, there's no teleprompters, a lot of energy. And, uh, it reached, uh, I think the final streaming number was 7.1 million people that streamed the first event.
And, I thought we were done because that's all I wanted to do is one event. I mean, general Flynn does a lot of things. He's always speaking, volunteering, traveling. He called me and he said, ‘Hey, you know, Clay, I've been to a lot of events and feel like there's something different about these. Could you do one more?’
So they did another at a church in Tampa, Florida. And then another at a megachurch spread across a three-building complex in Anaheim, California.
Clay Clark: We packed out every inch of that campus. And then again, I thought we were done. And this has happened, I think, and I don't wanna exaggerate, but I think it's happened 20 times that I thought we were done. And so here, here we are now, I'm 42 years old. I've been doing this for I think two and a half years now. And if you guys ever wanna come to an event, I'm saying this on air, so you have proof. I don't mind if you guys, we had the Rolling Stone reporter, he rode with me in my van to the event, you know?
Peter Bergen: Well, great. I think we'll, if it's okay, I'd love to take you up on that.
Clay Clark: Yeah.
I didn't end up riding along with Clark in the van. But I did fly down to Miami, Florida for the next stop on the ReAwaken America tour. It was held in May 2023 at a sprawling, palm-shaded golf resort owned by — you guessed it — Donald Trump. I got there the night before and picked up the media credentials Clark had promised me.
I hoped to run into General Flynn. And maybe learn what made him the headliner of this show. And what it was that drew people to the show — and to Flynn. What was the connection they felt with this guy? So first thing in the morning, my field producer grabbed a recorder …
Peter Haden: It is 8:02 AM and…
and a handheld microphone.
Peter Haden: … we are rolling.
And we pinned a second microphone, a little one, to the lapel of my jacket.
Peter Bergen: Make sure I've got my, got my badge. Got my key phone. Yep, yep.
Peter Hader: Leaving the hotel room.
And so we headed out at 8:02 to meet some freshly reawakened Americans. We passed through a high-ceilinged hall with ornate carpeting. One wall was entirely windows that looked onto a veranda lined with palm trees. It was full of vendors selling stuff like… children's books about the stolen election… portraits of Trump in a Revolutionary war costume…. baby pajamas printed with the slogan “naturally immune”… And there were a whole bunch of baseball caps that said “Fight like Flynn” on them.
Peter Bergen: Can I get one of these?
Vendor: Absolutely.
Later on, we ran into Lisa Young, who traveled here with her husband all the way from Indiana.
Lisa Young: I came here to the Reawaken America tour because I just love the people here, the enthusiasm, to try to get President Trump in here, try to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Young was blending in with the crowd in a camouflage-patterned summer dress. She said she first got into all this stuff back in the fall of 2020.
Lisa Young: I was going down a lot of rabbit holes and I've never been one to look at news or anything. But my husband, he'd be looking at the news and then I'd see that it was a bunch of lies after going on the internet. I pretty much cried out to the Lord and said, ‘Dear heavenly Father, we've gone mad. This country has gone mad.’
And coming to the event isn't a one-time deal for her.
Lisa Young: I've been probably to five or six of 'em now and my husband this is his second.
She wasn't the only repeat visitor we met. We also talked to David Johnson. A middle-aged pharmaceutical salesman. He was beating the Florida heat in shorts and a salmon colored polo shirt. He'd come from Long Island, New York.
David Johnson: This is my third Reawaken tour. We are all awake here. I agree with virtually all the stuff they're saying from the factual levels to the spiritual levels, so many inspirational, good speakers. It's hard to list them all. We've got the truthers, then we have the doctors, then we have the clergymen.
Johnson said that a lot of Reawaken America's messaging resonates with his own skeptical take on the mask and vaccine mandates that he ran up against in his own field.
David Johnson: A lot of people in my industry bought it hook, line, and sinker. And even though I might have had gut feelings and intuitions that I knew the shot was no good, the Reawaken Tour resonates with me because they help me expand my knowledge in a lot of areas that I don't know.
He said that his knowledge expanded by listening to speakers at events like this. By searching online and by listening to podcasts in the Reawaken America orbit. And this led him — much like Clay Clark — to conclude that there are powerful agents pulling strings to bring about terrible world events. And for Johnson, this isn't just about COVID. It's also about an earlier loss that still makes him choke up when discussing it with a stranger.
David Johnson: I now believe through what I've learned that 9/11 was an inside job. And my best friend was very happy back in the summer of 2001 when Cantor Fitzgerald hired him to be a broker. And he got killed 9/11, but he was up there that day. And he either jumped out the window or he collapsed with the building.
Whether or not there's a connection for him between 9/11 and the COVID conspiracy, he has definitely tuned in to Reawaken America's message about the Great Reset.
David Johnson: Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum. The Davos crew, when they get together and they talk about their 2030 plan, their depopulation agenda, if that's a conspiracy to people, it's because they don't look at it.
This conference is a big tent with lots of performers in it. But for Johnson, the two guys in the center ring are Clay Clark, the organizer who invited me here, and General Flynn.
David Johnson: Clay's P.T. Barnum, and General Flynn is like the leader of the band. The messaging that he has is one that we all follow.
As my producer and I stepped into the main event room, rolling tape, the leader of the band was up on stage warming up the crowd. Flynn stood beside a podium that was flanked by two Jumbotron TVs that were draped with red Trump flags. And he was giving the crowd a little preamble about the Great Reset and the World Economic Forum.
Michael Flynn: [ADDRESSING THE CROWD] There are two basic philosophies out there right now in the world, in the history that we are living. Two competing ideas. It's about freedom and it's about globalism. The World Economic Forum. I know some of these people. And you can listen to what they say, and watch what they do. There's going to be forces, I mean, big, big forces. They're gonna try to pull this country towards the darkness.
Flynn was scheduled to lead this crowd of a few hundred early birds in saying the Pledge of Allegiance. But in addition to this primer on the Reset conspiracy, he was also taking a minute to talk about his own personal journey.
Michael Flynn: [ADDRESSING THE CROWD] We have to find this sort of new purpose in our lives. Each of us has a new purpose. I never knew what my real purpose was. I always thought I was gonna go into the military. I wanted to go into the military since I was a kid. It's as far back as I can remember. And I loved it. I would go back and serve in a heartbeat. But I found a new purpose.
[SOUND OF THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE, FADING DOWN]
About half an hour later, we were staking out a table for ourselves in a big room reserved for visiting media when I spotted America's General. So I walked up to Flynn just as he was shaking hands with a really excited fan.
Michael Flynn: What's happening?
Fan: Oh my goodness.
Michael Flynn: What you got?
Fan: I'm never gonna wash my hand again.
Peter Bergen: General Flynn. Hey, Peter Bergen, how are you? Do you remember me?
Michael Flynn: Yeah, I do.
Peter Bergen: Is it possible to have a few words?
Michael Flynn: No. No.
Peter Bergen: Okay. I'm doing a show for Audible.
Michael Flynn: Uh, good. Um, good. Not today. Or maybe later today. but how you been?
Peter Bergen: I’ve been good. How about you sir?
Michael Flynn: What do you think about what's happening in the country?
Peter Bergen: What do I think?
Michael Flynn: You, you typically interview, let me interview you. What's the theme?
Peter Bergen: What's the theme?
Michael Flynn: Your show? What's the theme of what it's,
Peter Bergen: Oh, well my, my show is about basically foreign policy and national security.
Michael Flynn: Yeah. Yeah. I think we're in deep, deep trouble.
Peter Bergen: Why do you think that's so?
Michael Flynn: Look around. It's undeniable. Undeniable. So Peter, great to see you. It’s been awhile.
Peter Bergen: Okay. Thank you, sir. It has been awhile. Thank you, sir.
As interactions go, it was a little weird… but fast forward about 20 minutes, and things got much, much weirder. My producer and I were looking to talk to Flynn again. We slipped back inside the main event room — it’s called the Donald J. Trump Ballroom — and found a spot towards the back. There was a preacher up on the stage leading a session of morning worship.
Preacher: You gotta say that [unintelligible] faith is the confidence that God's gonna do what he says he’s gonna do…
And we noticed this long line of people…
Attendee: This is a line to take a selfie.
Peter Bergen: Oh, okay. Selfie line.
All, waiting to take selfies with the headliner — General Flynn — who at some point ditched the selfie line to come over. I wasn't aware of any of this until I suddenly heard Flynn’s voice right behind me.
Michael Flynn: I'll tell you. Yeah, just step away for a second.
These two big bearded guys who were Flynn's security team suddenly pushed my producer and his microphone away from me. And they physically boxed him in, out of earshot from me.
Michael Flynn: You probably have a mic on. You do.
Flynn yanked the microphone off my jacket and left it dangling someplace down by my waist.
Michael Flynn: [INDISTINCT AS MIC IS JOSTLED AROUND] So you know I'm gonna tell you. One of the things I'm gonna check is, is, I dunno if you're even allowed in here.
I told him we have permission to be here. I gestured at the media pass hanging around my neck.
Michael Flynn: [INDISTINCT] Yeah. I know, I know. I found out about it.
It was a little hard to figure out what the hell was happening. Flynn was really angry, seething. And his glasses were just inches away from my face and I could see his eyes wide and glaring. All I could really pick up from him was that he was super pissed that we might portray his conspiracy theory event… as a conspiracy theory event.
Michael Flynn: [INDISTINCT] Okay, well, I'm gonna find out about cause [unintelligible]if you’re in here for some bullshit Q-Anon conspiracy fucking convention or something. This is, that's, it's such bullshit and it irritates me that you’re even here doing that.
My dangling microphone only picked up a few snippets here and there of Flynn’s diatribe. People around us started to notice.
[INDISTINCT SOUNDS OF CONVERSATION]
And then it got really bizarre. Flynn started talking about how I had somehow let him down. Personally. I guess, I hadn't reached out to him, when things had gone badly in his career. “I heard nothing from you, And that says alot about you.” he said.
Michael Flynn: [INDISTINCT] Nothing. I heard nothing from you. And that says a lot about you.
I mean, we'd cross paths occasionally, professionally. Just like you’d cross paths with hundreds of people in the course of your professional life. And it was certainly news to me that this famous military badass was expecting that I would be one of the people reaching out to him and helping him in his time of trouble.
[MUSIC SHIFTS]
It's a little hard to know what to take away from these two odd encounters with General Flynn. And it doesn't seem particularly likely that we're going to speak again. So, I guess my takeaway is this. He's really concerned — frightened, even — about changes he's seeing in the country and the world. I suspect he's nursing a fair amount of pain about what's gone on in his career. He seemed to allude to it in his speech earlier in the day when he mentioned Psalm 23 from the Bible. That's the one about walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
Michael Flynn: [ADDRESSING THE CROWD] You know, I lived, I lived Psalm 23, I lived it, I lived Psalm 23, I get emotional about it. And like I said, don't ever think that a, a tear outta me, or anybody is a sign of weakness. It is a sign of determination.
And in those two very brief conversations with General Flynn… it sure seemed to me that his fear and personal pain was finding its way out into the open. As rage. And in that sense, maybe the connection that people at this event feel with this guy — this new Michael Flynn — isn't all that mysterious.
[MUSIC SHIFTS]
I could probably fill this whole episode with bonkers and unsettling stuff that people said on the stage at this event. I mean, there was a lot to choose from.
ReAwaken America Speaker 1: [ADDRESSING THE CROWD] These people are drinking the blood of children.
Reawaken America Speaker 2: [ADDRESSING THE CROWD]This is a word to leadership. Purge your ranks. If you want to win this battle, purge them. Purge your council. You've got serpents in your council, our nation is at stake.
But I don’t think the craziest voices are the most important ones to listen to here. They’re not the reason why I think what’s happening at these events could have consequences for many Americans. Everyone here, just like everyone else in the world, lived through COVID… and all the fear and anguish and confusion of that crisis. And they also lived through their own government's messy responses — that sometimes hurt, rather than helped. And it's about all that stuff…the COVID stuff… That's where you can hear the clearest rage.
ARCHIVAL Greg Locke: We kept our church open when the police kept showing up, when the lawsuits were being filed, and I'm like, wait a minute. Waffle House is open, Walmart’s open, weed dispensaries are open, liquor stores are open, and you're mad at me for keeping my church open. Get outta here with that.
That’s a evangelical pastor from Nashville named Greg Locke who’s made controversial stands against masks, vaccines and the so-called “fake pandemic.” And he says defying lockdowns swelled the ranks of his congregation.
ARCHIVAL Greg Locke: So we kept our church open and guess what? We already had a big social media platform, but I had no idea that we were gonna go from a 300 seat redneck wedding chapel. To a 3,000 seat tent. We've baptized 8,500 people in a horse trough since the whole pandemic thing started. And you're gonna tell me that people will leave the church. People are looking for bold leadership. They're looking for anointed leadership. They’re looking for Holy Spirit leadership. They're looking for a man of God that'll stand up and say, enough's enough!! Enough's enough!! And I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough! [SOUND OF APPLAUSE]
The most important thing you should listen for here is what the people are being asked to do with all this rage. Because it's actually pretty specific. This is Floyd Brown, the founder of a conservative news site with millions of Facebook followers, speaking to people from the stage in Miami:
ARCHIVAL Floyd Brown: How can we change things? How can we make a difference? It's something that, General Flynn says a lot. You have more power right around where you live than you can even imagine.
And this is Mike Flynn again, recorded on a cell phone at a prayer meeting that kicked off the Miami event:
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn:: Local action has a national impact, local action has a national impact. You get involved in your school board, your county, somewhere, county commissioners or elections or all these different activities that you can do, and you get in there and you mix it up and you fight.
[MUSIC SHIFTS]
Christian Nationalism is an ideology that fuses American identity — stuff like who counts as a real American, whose perspective should be represented in public life, who should vote — and melds it with an ultra-conservative strain of Christianity. Several recent national surveys suggest that about 20 percent of the U.S, population embraces Christian Nationalist ideas. That is, they agree or strongly agree with statements like “the federal government should declare the United States a Christian nation.”
The ReAwaken America crowd looks to be a highly-energized subset — or vanguard — within this population. And Michael Flynn is placing himself right at the center of this vanguard. At events like these, Flynn and others are calling publicly for people willing to wave the flag about mask mandates… or hot-button issues on race and gender… and get them to run for office. To take over county level Republican organizations, boards of elections, and school boards. Flynn acolytes tried this in the last election cycle and they saw mixed results. But the general hasn't given up on what looks to be an effort to rebuild the Republican party from the bottom up. And the people being told to go run in these elections are being told that the stakes couldn't possibly be higher.
ARCHIVAL Speaker [ADDRESSING THE CROWD]: Okay, we are locked in a struggle, not just for America. This is a struggle for the entire globe. Listen to me very carefully…
It takes a fair amount of careful listening to cut through all the noise, to hear this signal about local action. But Reawaken America's goals on the national stage are loud and clear. And Flynn demonstrated it best on the second day of the Miami event when he took a phone call while he was speaking on stage.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: Hey, Mr. President, can you hear us?
ARCHIVAL Donald Trump: I can. I can.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: This place is going crazy .
ARCHIVAL Donald Trump: I will say General Flynn, he's some general, he's some man. He took abuse like nobody could have handled.
This is Trump, saying he’s headed back to the White House, and saying he’s going to be taking Flynn back with him.
ARCHIVAL Donald Trump: You just have to stay healthy because we're bringing you back. We're gonna bring you back.
As you listen to just how huge the cheers are for Donald Trump's disembodied voice …. it's worth recalling for a moment my friend Colonel Gianni Koskinas, who crossed paths with Flynn in Afghanistan. He said something that really stuck with me about Flynn, and the job he’d had in the Army.
Ioannis Koskinas: An intelligence officer, in the Army, you may be a brigade commander, but you're working for somebody, you're a support guy, you know, so in essence, you always look for that operations guy that's gonna be the lead. And maybe Trump became his, his lead.
ARCHIVAL Donald Trump: We're leading the Republican opponent by 30 points in Florida, which is pretty good. It's less than a year and a half now, and we will make America great again. We'll turn around our country. We’ll put America first. We're gonna have strong borders, we’re gonna have cheap energy, we're gonna have everything….
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: Beautiful, Donald.
[SOUND OF APPLAUSE]
In this moment, for this crowd, Michael Flynn is a shining light. For sure. But it's a reflected light, like moonlight. And Trump is still the star. And Flynn is Trump’s soldier. His support guy - carrying out the same mission he assigned himself when he marched into the White House on December 18th, 2020… and tried to keep Trump in the presidency by any means possible. The man who screamed at members of Trump's White House team for being quitters during that historically unhinged meeting you heard about in Part 1 of the show. This man hasn't quit. Flynn is still carrying on the struggle. And he describes this struggle as a war.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: [ADDRESSING THE CROWD] I have fought these bastards around the world, Ok? And, the worst battles I have — sadly, sadly — the worst battles, the worst war that I, I am involved in, is in my own country.
Flynn says he's at war in his own country. And at events like these he's inspiring people who are — like him — nursing their own hurts and fears and wild beliefs about a changing world… and looking for a place to put their rage.
[THE SOUND OF THE CROWD SWELLS, INDISTINCT CHANTS]
And Flynn… Flynn sounds like a man who is mustering an army.
ARCHIVAL Michael Flynn: [ADDRESSING THE CROWD] One, two, three!
[CROWD CHEERS]
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If you’d like to know more about some of the issues and stories discussed in this episode we recommend: Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry. It’s available on Audible.
CREDITS:
IN THE ROOM WITH PETER BERGEN is an Audible Original.
Produced by Audible Studios and FRESH PRODUCE MEDIA
This episode was produced by Erik German, with help from Holly DeMuth.
Our field producer was Peter Haden.
It was sound designed by Steven Jackson.
Our executive producer is Alison Craiglow.
Katie McMurran is our technical director.
And our staff also includes Alexandra Salomon, Laura Tillman, Luke Cregan, Jamila
Huxtable, and Sandy Melara.
Our theme music is by Joel Pickard.
Our Executive Producers for Fresh Produce Media are Colin Moore, Jason Ross and Joe Killian.
Our Head of Development is Julian Ambler.
Our Head of Production is Elena Bawiec.
Eliza Lambert is our Supervising Producer.
Maureen Traynor is our Head of Operations.
Our Production Manager is Herminio Ochoa.
Our Production Coordinator is Henry Koch.
And our Delivery Coordinator is Ana Paula-Martinez.
Head of Audible Studios: Zola Mashariki
Executive Vice President, Head of US Content: Rachel Ghiazza
Head of Content Acquisition & Development and Partnerships: Pat Shah
Special thanks to Marlon Calbi, Allison Weber, and Vanessa Harris
Copyright 2023 by Audible Originals, LLC
Sound recording copyright 2023 by Audible Originals, LLC
