The Democrat Gang of Six who urged service members to disobey orders that they, the gang and presumably service members, deem illegal, are caterwauling about President Donald Trump’s response.
After the gang posted a video that ordered soldiers, sailors, and airmen to disobey Trump, the president answered that the half-dozen had encouraged sedition, which is “punishable by death.”
What the far-left gang thought Trump would say is anyone’s guess. But sedition and other subversion is indeed punishable not only by up to 20 years in prison, but also by execution.
The Video, Trump’s Response
The gang includes two senators, Navy veteran Mark Kelly of Arizona and former CIA analyst Elissa Slotkin of Michigan; and four House members: Jason Crow of Colorado, a former Army Ranger; Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, former Air Force; and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, both former Navy.
Slotkin opens the ad, but they all speak in snippets, with each taking a part.
“We want to speak directly to members of the military and the intelligence community,” they begin. “We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now.”
The leftists claim that “this administration,” meaning Trump, of course, “is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.”
“You all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution,” they say. “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home,” again obviously point at Trump:
Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.
The video is titled “Don’t Give Up the Ship,” a line they reprise at the end.
As The New American reported yesterday, deciding that an order is “illegal” is dangerous for a serviceman because the result can be a court martial. Disobeying such an order — unless it were blatantly illegal, such as executing civilians — requires legal advice.
Republicans responded immediately, and today Trump responded with customary fury.
“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL,” he fumed on Truth Social:
Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL. Their words cannot be allowed to stand — We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET. President DJT
He followed that post with another, again citing sedition. “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country,” he wrote:
Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT
Then came this zinger, the object of the Democrats’ ire: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Democrats Respond
Of course, the Gang of Six said Trump’s reply doesn’t represent “who we are as Americans,” as Slotkin put it.
Claiming that Trump threatened the gang with a trial and death sentence because he “didn’t agree” with the video, Slotkin said, “This really isn’t about those of us who made the video. This is about who we are as Americans and how we’re going to engage with people who we disagree with.”
Indeed, what Trump said “is beyond the pale of who we are as Americans,” she repeated. “I refuse to believe that this is the new normal,” she continued:
I refuse to believe that we’re going to use fear and intimidation against people we disagree with, and I’m not going to be forced away from speaking up on behalf of my country.
The gang also published a joint statement on Slotkin’s X account.
Noting that the oath they took as servicemen, and in Slotkin’s case a CIA analyst, “lasts a lifetime,” they declared that “no threat, intimidation, or call for violence will deter us from that sacred obligation.”
Then they repeated the call to disobey orders:
What’s most telling is that the President considers it punishable by death for us to restate the law. Our servicemembers 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 repeated that “this is about who we are as Americans. Every American must unite and condemn the President’s calls for our murder and political violence. This is a time for moral clarity.”
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) said that “no president has ever stooped that low” in calling “for the execution of members of Congress.”
Schumer apparently didn’t find out whether a group of lawmakers had ever encouraged servicemen to disobey direct orders.
Federal Laws
Multiple federal laws punish sedition, insurrection, and rebellion.
10 U.S. Code 894 covers “mutiny or sedition.” It says that “any person” who “with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority, refuses, in concert with any other person, to obey orders or otherwise do his duty or creates any violence or disturbance is guilty of mutiny.”
The law also says that any person who “fails to do his utmost to prevent and suppress a mutiny or sedition being committed in his presence, or fails to take all reasonable means to inform his superior commissioned officer or commanding officer of a mutiny or sedition which he knows or has reason to believe is taking place, is guilty of a failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition.”
The penalty:
A person who is found guilty of attempted mutiny, mutiny, sedition, or failure to suppress or report a mutiny or sedition shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct [Emphasis added].
18 U.S. 2387 covers anyone “with intent to interfere with, impair, or influence the loyalty, morale, or discipline of the military or naval forces of the United States.”
Included is anyone who:
advises, counsels, urges, or in any manner causes or attempts to cause insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty by any member of the military or naval forces of the United States; or distributes or attempts to distribute any written or printed matter which advises, counsels, or urges insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty by any member of the military or naval forces of the United States.
Thus, the Gang of Six asked service members to risk prison or the death penalty for the gang’s belief that Trump’s orders to the military are “illegal.”
Service members take that advice at their peril.
Other laws cover rebellion and insurrection, seditious conspiracy, and advocating the overthrow of the government.
