“U. S. cities should never be ‘training grounds’ for the military,” said U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., who served in the Marines.
“Why would a president ever consider deploying the military against his own citizens?” asked U.S. Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., an Iraq War veteran.
“It should send chills down the spines of every single American,” said U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., who served in the Air Force.
The GOP reaction was a familiar sidestep. For example, House Speaker Mike Johnson refused to comment during a live interview on ABC.
The assembled generals and admirals also sat silently through the speech of the defense secretary, who vowed to erase “woke” standards in the military.
As you would expect, there were no postgame comments from military leaders about what they heard.
The White House press pool report about the Trump’s speech noted officers “looking expressionless.” It said the president’s attacks on Biden were “met with silence.”
Before Trump arrived, he already had a message for the generals and admirals. “If I don’t like somebody, I’m going to fire him right on the spot.”
Trump did not repeat that threat in his speech.
“I was told that, ‘sir, you won’t hear a murmur in the room,’” Trump said in remarks that lasted 72 minutes.
What did those military officers think about possibly being ordered into American cities? We don’t know. But maybe their body language and “polite applause” told a larger story.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com