Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a national TV interview that former President Donald Trump wanted her to be tried for treason and “potentially executed” following his loss in the November 2020 election.
Speaking with NBC News last week, Benson said she was told by someone familiar with the situation that Trump made the comments during a White House meeting. Benson did not disclose who the source was or provide any other information to back up her claim.
“It was surreal and I felt sad,” stated Benson. “It showed there was no bottom to how far he and his supporters were willing to stoop to overturn or discredit a legitimate election.”
Her spokesperson, Tracy Wimmer, did not provide any additional details when asked about the comments.
Benson calls on Legislature to make threats against election officials a felony
“Secretary Benson and all election officials need to be able to do their work administering democracy free from threats and retaliatory harassment, even from the former President of the United States,” said Wimmer on Friday. A request by the for further comment from Wimmer has yet to be returned.
However, a Trump spokesman disputed the allegation when asked by NBC News.
“I have it on good authority that Secretary Benson knowingly lied throughout her interview with NBC News,” said spokesperson Taylor Budowich.
Benson and Trump have long had a contentious relationship over the issue of voting, especially in the run-up to the 2020 election. After Benson had mailed out absentee ballot applications to registered voters in Michigan as a pandemic measure, the former President repeatedly and wrongly accused her of mailing out actual ballots, calling her a “rogue Secretary of State,” and threatening to hold up federal funding for Michigan.
Trump later accused Benson, without evidence, of purposely misprinting ballots for overseas voters after an error left off then-Vice President Mike Pence’s name. Benson responded by calling it “an unintended computer glitch that was caught & quickly corrected.”
While Benson has not commented directly on the allegation she made to NBC News, she did tweet last Thursday on the issue of harassment of election officials. Pro-Trump protesters assembled outside her home after the 2020 election.
“Since 2020 election officials on both sides of the aisle have faced an unprecedented barrage of threats and harassment for doing their jobs with integrity,” stated the tweet from her campaign account. “This is a five-alarm fire. If we do not protect election officials from violence and harassment, we will lose our democracy.”
GOP secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo at Former President Donald Trump rally in Washington Twp. on April 2, 2022 | Allison R. Donahue
Benson is running for reelection and will likely face Trump-endorsed and Michigan GOP-endorsed candidate Kristina Karamo in November. Karamo, who has been connected to the QAnon conspiracy theory, was catapulted to prominence by the former president because of her willingness to help spread the lie that the 2020 election was “rigged.”
Karamo came to Trump’s attention after she alleged illegal vote counting at the TCF Center in downtown Detroit where she showed up as a self-appointed “poll challenger” while officials counted approximately 174,000 absentee ballots. However, as the Guardian reported, her allegation was based on a misunderstanding of the counting process.
The ongoing spread of misinformation by GOP candidates about the legitimacy of Michigan’s 2020 election results continues despite over 250 state and local audits confirming election results which showed President Joe Biden beating Trump by more than 154,000 votes to win the state’s 16 electoral votes on his way to winning the White House.
In addition, an investigation by the Republican-controlled state Senate Oversight Committee “found no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud in Michigan’s prosecution of the 2020 election.”
authored by Jon King
First published at https%3A%2F%2Fmichiganadvance.com%2F2022%2F05%2F23%2Fbenson-claims-trump-wanted-her-tried-for-treason-and-potentially-executed%2F
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