West Virginia Gubernatorial Candidate Mac Warner: ‘The Election was Stolen, and it was Stolen by the CIA’
In a recent gubernatorial debate, West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner, a Republican, made the bold statement that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) played a role in stealing the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump.
As a 23-year veteran of the U.S. Army and the current Secretary of State of West Virginia, Warner positions himself as a “battle-tested leader” on his campaign website. His military and administrative experiences form a significant part of his gubernatorial campaign.
During a recent debate held by Metro News, Warner doubled down on his past allegations of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
This time, he implicated the CIA directly, stating, “The election was stolen, and it was stolen by the CIA.”
Warner referred to testimony by Mike Morrell, the former Deputy Director of the CIA, before Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee. He highlighted Morrell’s testimony regarding a conversation with Antony Blinken, a Biden campaign senior adviser who later became Secretary of State.
According to Warner, this conversation involved a report about Hunter Biden’s laptop and occurred just days before the release of an Oct. 19, 2020, statement from 51 former intelligence officials. The statement suggested that the story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was ‘influenced’ by a Russian disinformation campaign.
“When Mike Morell testified under oath to Jim Jordan that, yes, he colluded with Antony Blinken to sell a lie to the American people two weeks before the election for the very purpose of throwing the presidential election. How does it not get stolen if the FBI covers it up and Mark Zuckerberg pays $400 million to put his thumb on the scale? That’s not fair,” Warner said.
‘Stop the Steal’
For Warner, who has served as West Virginia’s Secretary of State since 2017, the claim was a variation on a consistent public position of casting doubt on the presidential election.
Warner is now vying to become West Virginia’s chief executive, touting his long record in the U.S. Army and his two terms as the state’s chief elections officer. Polls have shown him running behind some of the other candidates, but he has picked up a key endorsement from the former president’s orbit and hopes for more.
Following the 2020 election, Warner participated in a March for Trump rally and appeared in the backdrop of Right Side Broadcasting coverage holding up a “Stop the Steal” sign. At that point, he questioned voting methods in some states.
He continued into early 2022, questioning elections processes in swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan. On August 22, 2022, Warner argued in a spirited discussion on MetroNews’ “Talkline” that “votes came in outside the law.”
That was after former President Donald Trump and his allies lost 62 lawsuits contesting election processes, vote counting and the vote certification process in states that included Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Most were dismissed because of lack of evidence.
Michael Flynn endorsement
More recently, Warner has promoted an endorsement by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was among Trump’s most prominent allies in supporting election fraud claims.
Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, was Trump’s national security adviser for just 24 days. He was fired over his lies about discussions over U.S. sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak prior to the Trump administration’s taking office.
Flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. In late 2020, as Flynn was fighting to keep Trump in office, he received a pardon.
Flynn was among the high-level Trump supporters, including attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who gathered in the Oval Office on Dec. 18, 2020, for a now-notorious late-night brainstorming session about overturning the election. Flynn had been advocating for the imposition of martial law, saying Trump should “seize” voting machines to hold a new election.
In testimony before the select congressional committee investigating the events surrounding Jan. 6, Flynn asserted his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination in response to a series of questions, including whether he believes in the peaceful transition of power in the United States of America.
In announcing an endorsement from Flynn last month, Warner said Flynn “recognizes the link between free, fair, and secure elections and the legitimacy and effectiveness of government.”
Flynn endorsed Warner by saying, “Ultimately, our national security is directly related to how legitimate the government is viewed by our citizens. If elections are in question, then respect for government is diminished and our consequent ability to protect the country is degraded. Secretary Warner’s work on election integrity and security has set the example for what is needed right now across this entire country.”
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