The former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who was driven from his job as President Donald Trump’s national security advisor by acting Attorney General Sally Yates and Vice President Mike Pence, launched his national screening tour of the documentary about his recovery from that ouster and his subsequent federal prosecution on Friday in Venice, Florida.
“You’re not alone out there,” said retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn to the sold-out audience of more than 800, who watched the film and stayed for discussion with the general moderated by Boone Cutler, the Iraq combat veteran and media personality joining the national tour.
“A lot of people come up to me and tell me things, and I can tell that they feel alone,” he said. “They ask: ‘What do I do?’ and I’m like: ‘I want you to know that I’m here, and I don’t want you to feel like you’re alone. There’s so many people out there that feel just like us, and they’re ready.’”
The general and members of the documentary team are traveling to more than 30 cities to promote the film.
The documentary, directed by Scott Wiper, also featured interviews with Tucker Carlson, former California Republican congressman Devin Nunes, journalist Lee Smith, and former senior Defense Department official Adam Lovinger.
Flynn said throughout his traumas, he found strength in how members of his family and others kept fighting.
“I always tell people that on the battlefield, the least likely person becomes the hero of the day,” the former Defense Intelligence Agency commanding general said.
“Some of you, you never imagined—and so we have so many heroes out there,” he said. “We have so many heroes out there just doing everyday things, and you’re never going to hear about them.”
I've been called many things over the years. Soldier. Defendant. Visionary. Traitor. Patriot.
— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) March 25, 2024
To those in the DC establishment and the left I am a Threat.
It's time I tell my story.
Introducing the official trailer for #FlynnMovie. We are so much more than the names they call… pic.twitter.com/8v0YmMtkWr
Flynn’s ouster
So much of the Flynn story is broken up into different chapters across many years, so one of the great benefits of the documentary is that it collects all the various storylines and puts them into one place.
The highlight was the laying out of the circumstances leading to Flynn’s ouster.
It started with President Barack Obama on Dec. 29, 2016, issuing sanctions against Russia three weeks before his term ended. Even though Obama closed two Russian diplomatic residences and expelled 35 personnel, the Russian government did not flinch.
One of the reasons the Russians did not flinch was a series of phone calls between Flynn, the incoming national security advisor, and the Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, during Flynn’s vacation to the Dominican Republic.
Although the FBI had a transcript of the phone calls, which showed Flynn never specifically discussed the sanctions, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe told White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus the transcript showed otherwise.
When the phone calls between Flynn and Kislyak were leaked, Vice President Mike Pence told “Face the Nation” that Flynn did not discuss sanctions on the calls based on what Flynn told him.
Yates further told the White House that Pence’s false statement put the country in danger and exposed Flynn to extortion, so in response, Pence pushed Trump to fire Flynn.
The general, whom Obama told Trump not to hire, was out before he served a month in the new administration, but it was not until years later that the FBI produced the transcript vindicating him.
Roger Stone: Flynn needed to set the record straight
Roger Stone, who attended the tour’s kickoff, told RedState he was thrilled that Flynn’s movie was telling his side of the story.
“Here’s what we know about the left. It doesn’t matter how debunked, discredited, or disproved any of their fake narratives are—they will always circle back and try to recycle them,” said Stone, who was also targeted by the Russian Collusion Hoax.
“If Mike Flynn does not memorialize the fact that he’s not a Russian traitor, he’s an American patriot the left six months from now, we will be trying to sell the same garbage,” he said.
“The first time I met General Flynn, I said, the most important thing for you to do is memorialize everything that really happened from your point of view in a book and a documentary,” he said.
“The left will always come back and try to rewrite history, and they have tried,” Stone said. “Go online. You’ll see it: ‘Flynn’s a traitor.’ No, Flynn is not a traitor. Flynn is a hero.”
Adam Lovinger
Lovinger, who for many years was a strategist at the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, was an interesting choice because he was a member of Flynn’s staff as the deputy assistant to the president for regional affairs.
A Flynn ally, Lovinger was set on cleaning up ONA and its lucrative contracts given to retired Defense Department officials–much like Flynn was set to clean up corruption in the intelligence community.
After Flynn’s forced resignation on Feb. 13, 2017, Flynn’s replacement, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, sent Lovinger back to the Pentagon, where his troubles had just begun. The strategist eventually got himself pushed out of the Defense Department and had his security clearance pulled.
One of the reasons the Pentagon leadership went after the Georgetown-trained attorney was that he exposed the machinations of the FBI asset and Cambridge don Stefan Halper, a longtime recipient of ONA contracts.
My RedState colleague Bonchie wrote about Halper in his article: “Declassified: Stefan Halper Tried to Entrap George Papadopoulos, Bragged About Contacts with Russian Spies.”
In the film, Lovinger offers his eyewitness accounts and insights into Halper and the Deep State.
“What Stefan Halper did with the help of the leadership of the Office of Net Assessment between 2010 and 2016 was to create the institutional infrastructure for what became known as Russiagate,” he said.
Would Flynn work for Trump again?
During the post-screening discussion, Cutler asked Flynn if he would consider working for Trump in his second administration.
The reaction of the audience was electric, with cheers and applause.
The general seemed to ponder the question before answering: “I will say, let me ask my wife, Lori.”
Flynn reflected some more and referred to his being vetted for vice president before Trump chose Pence.
“I’ve been through that process, so I know what that feels like, and I’ve talked to Trump about this too,” he said.
“From my personal standpoint, I have probably lived five or six lifetimes in the last five or six years,” he said.
“If I can’t be stronger, and I mean in a collective sense, we can’t be stronger by what we’re learning and what we’re seeing—if it doesn’t make us stronger, then what else would? Why do what you do? Why do you get up every day,” he said.
(That sounded like: Yes.)
