Michele Morrow said Trump should use military to stay in office in Jan. 6, 2021, video

A newly surfaced video shows Michele Morrow encouraging then President Donald Trump to invoke a federal law that she said “completely puts the Constitution to the side,” and would allow him to use the military to stay in power.

Morrow, the Republican nominee for state superintendent of public instruction, made the comments in a video she recorded on the night of Jan. 6, 2021, according to CNN, which published the video Friday evening. Morrow protested outside the U.S. Capitol earlier that day, but has said she didn’t enter the building.

In the video, Morrow said that Trump had the ability while he was president, in the final days of his term before it ended on Jan. 20, 2021, to take action to keep himself in power. Morrow said that Trump could have invoked an “executive order against voter fraud,” and says Trump also could have invoked the Insurrection Act, a law dating back more than two hundred years, to use the military to remain in office.

“President Trump is still president, until the 20th. So, he can still invoke the executive order against voter fraud. And now, he has every player that participated in his sights, and they can all be arrested for treason,” Morrow said in the video. “And if the police won’t do it, and the Department of Justice won’t do it, then he will have to enact the Insurrection Act, in which case, the Insurrection Act completely puts the Constitution to the side, and says, now, the military rules all.”

“And let me tell you, President Trump has the military on his side, because the military, and many leaders in the military, who love this nation, and who love our Constitution, and who have put their life on the line to protect the freedoms of people in the United States that they will never meet, they chose President Trump to be their candidate,” she continued. “So, as long as he invokes the Insurrection Act before the inauguration, then, he’s going to be re-inaugurated, he’s going to be put back in.”

In a statement to The News & Observer on Saturday, Morrow’s campaign said she was focused on the race to run North Carolina’s public schools. The campaign didn’t address the video, but slammed CNN for “gaslighting the public” about her.

“CNN has a long history of lying about President Donald Trump and continually gaslighting the public about Michele Morrow,” the campaign said. “Morrow is a patriot and a watchdog against liberal attacks on our country. CNN, liberal extremists, and her opponent spend more time on character assassination than on securing the border, ensuring a fair and free election, or school reform. Morrow is focused on empowering parents and driving woke indoctrination out of the classroom and not on embracing liberal lies and bias.”

Asked about Morrow’s video, NCGOP spokesman Matt Mercer declined to comment. The N&O also reached out to GOP leaders in the legislature, but their spokespeople did not immediately respond.

Morrow, a registered nurse, conservative activist, and homeschool parent, defeated incumbent Superintendent Catherine Truitt in the GOP primary in March. Morrow’s victory was a major upset, since managed to overcome Truitt’s major fundraising advantage and endorsements from several top Republican state lawmakers.

She is running against Democrat Mo Green.

The superintendent’s race has drawn national attention because of scrutiny of Morrow’s past social media posts, including those that talked about killing President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and other Democrats.

After CNN reported on those since-deleted posts in March, following her primary win, Morrow said that the network was “trying to interfere in the 2024 election” and said that “CNN thinks they can choose who leads K-12 in NC by intimidating me and lying to you.”

Top Republican donors and elected officials have thrown their support to Morrow since she became the GOP nominee. Two major North Carolina donors, developer John Kane and businessman Bob Luddy, held a fundraiser for Morrow in Raleigh in April.

House Speaker Tim Moore, who is currently running for Congress, also said he would support Morrow’s campaign, telling reporters in April that he didn’t think the past comments he had seen from Morrow were “appropriate at all,” and that he wouldn’t “condone” them, but that he was going to support all of the Republicans running for office.

One exception is U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who publicly said he wouldn’t endorse Morrow after her social media posts about the killing of prominent Democrats came to light.