Last week, as you are quite aware, several Democrats in Congress posted a video encouraging military members to defy any order they deemed illegal.
This was clearly about Donald Trump’s recent drug boat strikes, with the president swiftly unleashing venom in the lawmakers' direction over the post.
Now, it is being reported that the FBI will be speaking with each member of Congress involved with the video, and this comes after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced a possible court-martial of Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ).
The video, in my opinion, was despicable.
This, to me, was a political stunt that was using military members as pawns in an effort to get under Trump’s skin, and it worked.
I will get into Trump’s reaction in a second, but the fact that these lawmakers are openly encouraging members of the military to defy orders they cannot even conclusively say are unlawful (and several of them have been asked to cite illegal orders in the media).
There were better ways to go about fighting Trump’s orders if the legislators thought they were questionable, but encouraging mutiny was clearly not the way. Anyone defying orders could have their career ruined, but hey, Sen. Kelly got some facetime on national news, and that is all he really cares about.
Trump blasted the group after the video was released. I think he went a bit overboard with his threats, but I completely understand the outrage because I felt it myself.
The president posted to Truth Social, "This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???”
Trump later posted, "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!"
That, of course, is what the media and Democrats latched on to, saying that Trump was threatening to kill them all, which was not the case. Again, I think it was a bit much to post, but he did not threaten them with death; he stated the historically prescribed punishment for sedition.
As we noted above, there has already been talk about Sen. Kelly potentially being recalled to active duty for the purposes of a court-martial, and again, I think that is a bit much, but I would welcome an investigation into his actions.
Hegseth, on the subject, stated, "In the military, vague rhetoric and ambiguity undermines trust, creates hesitation in the chain of command, and erodes cohesion. The military already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders. It does not need political actors injecting doubt into an already clear chain of command."
To that point, today, the FBI announced that it would be scheduling interviews with each member of Congress who appeared in the controversial video.
I think this is a far better way to go about it, and I truly believe that everyone in that video needs to apologize, not to Trump, but to our troops. You are a member of Congress, so if you have a problem with an order, challenge it yourself, but don’t put our military members in the middle of your political battle.
