Celebrity Admiral Promotes Election Panic

Including by posting a GIF of the flashing red button from Pixar's "Inside Out 2"

Adm. James Stavridis, another four star officer turned two star media commentator | DVIDS

Retired Admiral and media darling James Stavridis is warning that a terrorist strike is imminent, one bent on influencing the upcoming presidential elections.

“All of my signals are blinking red in terms of the potential for a terrorist attack against American interests in the U.S. or abroad in the next few months,” Stavridis said this week on X (formerly Twitter). The remark echoed FBI Director Christopher Wray’s December warning to Congress when he said he saw “blinking red lights everywhere I turn.” But Stavridis went a step further, saying, “The chance to disrupt the US election may be irresistible to our enemies.” 

This was the first time I’ve seen anyone in the commentariat tie the purported terror threat to the election. The connection struck me as odd, not only because there’s no evidence for it whatsoever, but also because if one is worried about the integrity of the election, does it really make sense to push the notion that the election is so shaky and vulnerable that a terror attack could alter the outcome?

Stavrides’ claim was likely influenced by reporting last week that U.S. military bases in Europe had been put on some kind of higher state of alert due to the threat of terrorism. (Stavridis himself served as Supreme Allied Commander of Europe before retiring in 2013, ostensibly lending credence to the blinking “signals” he claimed to have identified.) But shortly after Stavridis’ warning, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder clarified that the decision to heighten security had merely been taken “out of an abundance of caution” and that it was “not necessarily based on a single threat.”

Stavridis punctuated the sober message with, of all things, a GIF of a flashing red alarm from the Pixar animated film sequel, “Inside Out 2,” which opened in the past week. This was almost certainly unintentional, for several reasons. First, Stavridis’ persona as the solemn knower of all things national security doesn’t leave much room for a sense of humor. Secondly, the animation is among the first that appears when you search “alarm” on X’s GIF feature. Third, it’s just too perfect: Inside Out 2 is a Pixar movie about emotions like anxiety, an understanding of which could be beneficial to Stavridis and anyone else catastrophizing about shadowy threats to the election.

If you notice the “Inside Out 2” credit at the bottom right, you have more situational awareness than a former four star admiral

Stavridis has been holding forth on threats to the election since at least last month, when he warned on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “blatantly trying to insert himself into the U.S. election.” The remark rings hollow in light of everything that is going on right now.  

Suppose there was a terrorist strike between now and November. It’s hard to see how that could meaningfully swing the election in one way or the other. Even with wars raging in Ukraine and Israel, national security hardly seems to be making much of a dent in people’s thinking about the candidates, polling suggests. One could argue both ways that a strike would help Trump because it could be seen as a failure on the part of the Biden administration to protect America. Or it could be a win for Biden, in light of the rally-round-the-flag effect of such an event (and equally the reminder that would emerge of what might happen if Trump were president.)

Which raises the question: why sound an alarm about election influence at all? Surely it has nothing to do with Stavridis’ day job, as Partner and Vice Chair of Global Affairs at Carlyle Group, on whose behalf he has recently spoken with UBS bank for their “ElectionWatch” series. There, he discussed “the geopolitical landscape ahead of the election and the implications for investors,” according to UBS’ website. I’m sure it also has nothing to do with Stavridis’ role as director on the board of Fortinet, a cybersecurity firm that frequently advises on election security matters. The sage admiral, it would seem, benefits by keeping everything “blinking red.”

The fear of election interference may be good for business. But it’s bad for the public’s faith in elections.

— Edited by William M. Arkin