File image: Michael Flynn served as Mr Trump’s national security adviser briefly in 2017
Former national security adviser and ardent Trump supporter Michael Flynn has said that he still believes with absolute certainty that the Republican will remain in the White House come 20 January.
Talking to Fox News on Sunday, Mr Flynn said Donald Trump still has multiple routes to a second term, citing various pending lawsuits by the Trump team. The Trump campaign’s legal efforts to overturn the election, which Democrat Joe Biden won by 306 to 232 electoral college votes, have met with no success so far.
“First of all, there’s a whole number of paths that the president has, and like I say, asked on a scale of one to 10 who’ll be the next president, I’d say 10, Donald Trump!” Mr Flynn said.
Mr Flynn, who served as Mr Trump’s national security adviser briefly in 2017, is a retired three-star lieutenant-general of the US army. He was granted a presidential pardon by Mr Trump on 27 November after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI twice during the Russia probe.
Mr Flynn, who was open for his support of Mr Trump in the 2016 election as well, spoke for the first time about his hopes of Mr Trump’s presidency repeating in the “stop the steal” rally held by Trump supporters in Washington DC after the Supreme Court rejected a Texas suit seeking to subvert Mr Biden's victory.
"The courts do not decide who the next president of the United States will be," Mr Flynn told a crowd of protesters. "We the people decide."
"I will say, there are paths that are still in play ... there's a lot of activity that's still playing out."
Mr Flynn also told the pro-Trump crowd on Saturday that he was certain that the president will hold onto power. "I will tell you one more time—because I've been asked—on a scale of one to 10, who will be the next president of the United States, and I say Donald Trump. Ten. A 10," he said.
