Group of veterans made video asking members of US military to defy \u2018illegal orders\u2019 <\/p>\n
The 90-second video was first posted early on Tuesday from senator Elissa Slotkin\u2019s X account. In it, the six lawmakers \u2013 Ms Slotkin, Arizona senator Mark Kelly, and representatives Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan \u2013 speak directly to US service members, whom Ms Slotkin acknowledges are \u201cunder enormous stress and pressure right now\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American people need you to stand up for our laws and our constitution,\u201d Ms Slotkin wrote in the X post.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump yesterday reposted messages from others about the video, amplifying it with his own words.<\/p>\n
It marked another flashpoint in the political rhetoric that at times has been thematic in his administrations, as well as among some in his MAGA base.<\/p>\n
Some Democrats accused him of acting like a king and trying to distract from other news, including the soon-to-be-released of files about disgraced financier and sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
With pieces of dialogue spliced together from different members, the lawmakers introduce themselves and their background.<\/p>\n
They go on to say the Trump administration \u201cis pitting our uniformed military against American citizens\u201d. They call for service members to \u201crefuse illegal orders\u201d and \u201cstand up for our laws\u201d.<\/p>\n
The lawmakers conclude the video by encouraging service members, \u201cDon\u2019t give up the ship,\u201d a War of 1812-era phrase attributed to a US navy captain\u2019s dying command to his crew.<\/p>\n
Although the lawmakers didn\u2019t mention specific circumstances in the video, its release comes as the Trump administration continues attempts at deployment of National Guard troops into US cities for various roles, although some have been pulled back and others held up in court.<\/p>\n
Troops, especially uniformed commanders, have a specific obligation to reject an order that is unlawful, if they make that determination.<\/p>\n
However, while commanders have military lawyers on their staffs to consult with in helping make such a determination, rank-and-file troops who are tasked with carrying out those orders are rarely in a similar position.<\/p>\n
Broad legal precedence holds that just following orders, colloquially known as the \u201cNuremberg defence\u201d as it was used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler, doesn\u2019t absolve troops.<\/p>\n
However, the US military legal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice or UCMJ, will punish troops for failing to follow an order should it turn out to be lawful. Troops can be criminally charged with Article 90 of the UCMJ, wilfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and Article 92, failure to obey an order.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Mr Trump reposted to social media an article about the video, adding his own commentary that it was \u201creally bad and dangerous to our country\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!!\u201d Mr Trump went on. \u201cLOCK THEM UP???\u201d<\/p>\n
He also called for the lawmakers\u2019 arrest and trial, adding in a separate post that it was \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH\u201d.<\/p>\n
Illegal orders can and should be refused. This is not a political opinion<\/p>\n
The Steady State, which describes itself as \u201ca network of 300+ national and homeland security experts standing for strong and principled policy, rule of law, and democracy,\u201d wrote in a Substack post yesterday that the lawmakers\u2019 call was \u201conly a restatement of what every officer and enlisted service member already knows: illegal orders can and should be refused. This is not a political opinion. It is doctrine\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell challenged the theory that illegal orders were being issued.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur military follows orders, and our civilians give legal orders,\u201d Mr Parnell said. \u201cWe love the constitution. These politicians are out of their minds.\u201d<\/p>\n
House speaker Mike Johnson defended Mr Trump\u2019s comments, saying he simply defined what crime they committed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I read was he was defining the crime of sedition,\u201d he told The Independent. \u201cBut obviously attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that. What I\u2019m saying, what I will say unequivocally, that was a wildly inappropriate thing for so-called leaders in Congress to do to encourage young troops to disobey orders.\u201d<\/p>\n
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries defended members of his caucus for their words.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe unequivocally condemn Donald Trump\u2019s disgusting and dangerous threats against members of Congress and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same,\u201d Mr Jeffries said.<\/p>\n
Mr Jeffries said Democrats had been in contact with the House sergeant at arms and US Capitol Police about the safety of members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Group of veterans made video asking members of US military to defy \u2018illegal orders\u2019 The 90-second video was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,11111,43,40,38,41,39,812,19247],"class_list":{"0":"post-151451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories","16":"tag-usa","17":"tag-x-formerly-twitter"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}