Scott O’Grady, a former fighter pilot and Trump loyalist, is a Pentagon nominee chosen by the White House to become assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, a key position within the Department of Defense. O’Grady has retweeted tweets that falsely stated Trump won the election in “landslide fashion” and that millions of votes were stolen from Trump. The nomination, which was sent to the Senate on Monday, comes as the Pentagon’s top civilian officials have been hastily replaced with perceived Trump loyalists and conspiracy theorists, despite some lacking credentials.
In the aftermath of this year’s presidential election, O’Grady has taken to retweeting dozens of conspiracies and falsehoods about the results, all of which allege that Trump won the election or that the election results were tampered with or covered up. Some of O’Grady’s most outlandish tweets include:
- 11/19/20: A claim that Hillary Clinton and George Soros were involved in allowing foreign interference in the presidential election.
- 11/23/20: “They stopped counting votes when @realDonaldTrump was winning ‘in landslide fashion.’”
- 11/25/20: “Brian & Brad seem to have something to hide. We need to find out what it is. I suspect they are hiding the TRUTH.” He was referring to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Even before his most recent online outbursts, O’Grady frequently trafficked in the QAnon conspiracy theory. The far-right conspiracy theory claims that a cabal of Satan-worshiping Democratic politicians and celebrities abuse children and are working toward overthrowing Trump.
Despite, and possibly because of, his refusal to accept Trump’s election loss, O’Grady finds himself a nominee for a top spot at the Pentagon. The most troubling aspect of his nomination is that he recently began calling for Trump to declare martial law and order a new presidential election. As the days until President-elect Biden’s inauguration inch closer, Trump is surrounding himself with loyalists who claim the election was rigged, even though Attorney General William Barr said in an interview published Tuesday that there is no evidence that widespread fraud occurred during the election.
