GOP nominee to run North Carolina schools advocated pro-Trump military coup in January 6 video

By Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN

(CNN) — Michele Morrow, the Republican nominee to run K-12 public education in North Carolina, filmed a video after attending the January 6 riot at the US Capitol urging then-President Donald Trump to put “the Constitution to the side” and use the military to stay in power.

In a deleted Facebook livestream she filmed from her hotel room, Morrow called for mass arrests of anyone who helped certify the 2020 election. “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,” said Morrow. “In which case the Insurrection Act completely puts the Constitution to the side and says, now the military rules all.”

Morrow was at the Capitol as the attack occurred, according to public videos reviewed by CNN that show her in a restricted area on the northwest side of the Capitol. CNN has seen no evidence that Morrow entered the Capitol building that day or that she engaged in violence, and she was not charged with any crimes.

In March’s Republican primary, Morrow defeated the incumbent North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction, a job that manages the state’s $11 billion budget for K-12 public schools and helps set education priorities and implement curriculum standards.

That same month, CNN’s KFile reported Morrow had previously called for the public execution of Barack Obama and the death of Joe Biden and other prominent Democrats in comments on a since-deleted X account.

“I prefer a Pay Per View of him in front of the firing squad,” Morrow wrote in a since-deleted post from May 2020 about Obama. “I do not want to waste another dime on supporting his life. We could make some money back from televising his death.”

It’s unclear when the Facebook video was deleted, but the candidate has purged past extremist posts since running for office in North Carolina.

Morrow, a registered nurse and grassroots activist who homeschooled her children, previously lost a race for her local school board in Wake County, North Carolina, outside Raleigh. At the time, Morrow was endorsed by the state’s Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the current GOP nominee for governor.

In a comment provided to CNN by her campaign, Morrow declined to address her past comments.

“What North Carolina voters are concerned about is the education of our children,” Morrow said.

Morrow has also been endorsed this year by Robinson, with him saying at a recent event with her, “We’re gonna make sure we do everything to get you in office.”

Morrow is running on a platform of supporting parental rights and opposing critical race theory. A poll after the primary in March showed Morrow in a tight race against Democrat Mo Green for school superintendent.

Her website lists endorsements by “conservative school board member(s)” but remains light on changes she’d make if elected. Morrow has in the past called public schools “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.”

Extremist comments

Morrow has always publicly maintained that she never committed violence at the Capitol. In an interview with the Charlotte Observer on January 9, 2021, Morrow denounced the violence that occurred that day. On the since-deleted livestream, Morrow also said that those who vandalized the Capitol should have been arrested.

On the night of January 6, Morrow posted a since-removed livestream on her friend’s Facebook account advocating for a military coup. In a video since-removed from YouTube in December 2020, Morrow said she had been locked out of her Facebook page for being “naughty” until January 23, 2021 – according to a copy archived by the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.

“President Trump is still president until the 20th,” Morrow said in the video streamed from her hotel room on the night of January 6, 2021. “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. 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. Okay?

“And let me tell you, President Trump, 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 added. “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.”

The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to deploy troops to an American state if requested by the governor or state legislature. Additionally, under certain circumstances involving the defense of constitutional rights, the president can send troops unilaterally, though the law has been used sparingly – most notably to enforce desegregation in the 1950s and most recently during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Using the Act to remain in office would be “tantamount to a military coup,” said Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University who previously served as the special counsel to the general counsel at the Department of Defense, “and would have likely involved a serious federal criminal matter for those involved.”

“Ms. Morrow’s description of the relationship between the Constitution and Insurrection Act shows a fundamental lack of understanding how the Constitution and our system of laws works,” he added.

Morrow previously streamed videos of herself espousing extremist rhetoric on Facebook and YouTube – but deleted them sometime before running for office.

CNN obtained the footage from an anti-Morrow group called Say No To Extremists, a grassroots organization that archives content from local candidates in North Carolina.

Later, in the same video of the livestream, she condemned violence at the Capitol.

“I do not promote breaking and entry. I do not promote vandalism,” Morrow said.

The new January 6 video comes as Morrow has defended her past claims, saying that her comments about executing Democrats were taken out of context, made in jest or not said at all.

“[Her comments] demonstrate an ahistorical and baseless understanding of the world that is, at best, incompatible with the goals of a quality education,” said Jared Holt, an expert on extremism at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which studies right-wing extremism.

Morrow on Jan. 6

CNN also reviewed, uncovered and obtained numerous videos of Morrow on January 6, 2021.

Morrow is among a number of people running for elected office this year who were at the Capitol on January 6. She was not charged with any crime.  Trump has continued to defend January 6, calling people convicted in the Capitol riot “heroes” and dangling pardons to defendants if he is reelected.

In a video Morrow live-streamed earlier that day, she said to the camera she was on her way to the Ellipse rally that preceded the Capitol riot because “that’s where our president asked us to come.”

“We are here to take back America. We are here to stop the steal. We are here to ensure that President Trump gets four more years,” she said, appearing to walk with a crowd to the Ellipse rally.

“If you’re gonna commit treason, if you are going to, if you’re gonna participate in fraud in the United States election, we’re coming after you,” Morrow added.

So far, the North Carolina Republican Party has refused to comment on Morrow, as has Robinson, the party’s nominee for governor who previously endorsed her when she ran for her local school board in 2022.

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