The White House on Thursday defended President Donald Trump’s call for a group of Democratic legislators to be put to death by hanging after they teamed up for a social media video urging service members to “refuse” what they deemed to be “illegal orders.
Asked about the matter in her briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused the senators and Congress members of delivering a “radical message” that could “disrupt the chain of command.” But she did not try to clarify or tamp down the president’s inflammatory call for a violent end.
Earlier in the day, Trump took to Truth Social to accuse senators Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona, plus Colorado Rep. Jason Crow, New Hampshire Representative Maggie Goodlander and Pennsylvania’s Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of engaging in what he described as “seditious behavior” by participating in the video, calling them “traitors to our country” who should be “arrested and put on trial.”
He later posted a message in which he repeated his all-caps accusation of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” from the lawmakers before claiming that such “behavior” is “punishable by DEATH,” along with a repost of another Truth Social user who encouraged him to “HANG THEM.”
Asked about the president’s call for the execution of American lawmakers during a press briefing on Thursday, Leavitt complained that reporters were more interested in the president’s accusations against the legislators than what they had actually said before accusing the representatives and senators — all of whom are military or intelligence community veterans — of having “conspired together” to encourage “members of the national security apparatus” to “defy the president’s lawful orders” even though the video in question only urged them to “refuse illegal orders.”
“The sanctity of our military rests on the chain of command, and if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed. It can lead to chaos,” Leavitt said.
She added later that the senators and representatives had misused their credentials as veterans and former intelligence officials to “signal to people serving under this commander-in-chief, Donald Trump, that you can defy him.”
“That is a very, very dangerous message, message, and it perhaps is punishable by law. I'm not a lawyer. I'll leave that to the Department of Justice and the Department of War to decide,” Leavitt said.
Neither the president’s claim that the legislators had engaged in “seditious behavior” or Leavitt’s claim that what they did was “punishable by law” have any basis in reality.
While the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires service members to obey “all lawful orders,” the definition of “lawful orders” as commonly understood excludes orders to commit crimes, target civilians or noncombatants, or perform civilian law enforcement activities that have long been banned under U.S. law.
It’s unclear what, if any, legal grounds would exist to prosecute the representatives and senators for urging service members not to follow illegal orders, as legislators enjoy broad immunity for statements and other acts taken in their official capacities.
Not only does the First Amendment provide broad protection for political speech, the United States has not had laws criminalizing speech against the government as “sedition” on the books since Congress repealed the First World War-era Sedition Act in 1920.
While there is a section of the U.S. criminal code that prohibits “seditious conspiracy” — a rarely used charge last employed against pro-Trump rioters who participated in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — that provision only applies to conspiracies to “levy war against the government,” "oppose the government of the United States by force,” or "prevent, hinder, or delay" the execution of any law by force.”
And despite Trump’s claim that “seditious behavior” is a capital offense, in fact that U.S. criminal code only provides for a punishment of imprisonment for “not more than 20 years.”
In a joint statement issued in response to Trump’s call for their executions on Thursday, the Democratic legislators said it was “most telling” that Trump “considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law.”
“Our service members should know that we have their backs as they fulfill their oath to the Constitution and obligation to follow only lawful orders. It is not only the right thing to do, but also our duty,” they said.
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