President Donald Trump on Thursday lashed out at Democratic lawmakers who told US military personnel they should refuse any illegal orders, calling them traitors and saying they should face the death penalty, Reuters reports.
Trump shared on social media an article about a video posted on Tuesday by six Democratic congressmen who served in the military or the intelligence community. In the clip, they urge US service members to disobey illegal orders, although they did not specify what those orders would be.
"We support our troops, our service members, who are often put in very difficult positions, and Donald Trump has put them in very difficult positions and has hinted that he will put them in even more difficult positions in the coming months and years, so we remind people what the code of military justice says, what the Constitution says, what the law of war says," Crowe said on Fox News Wednesday afternoon.
The clip quotes President Donald Trump's musings during his first term on whether military personnel could shoot American protesters in the legs, his more recent decisions to send the National Guard to several American cities to deal with illegal activities, and possibly sending US troops to polling stations.
"Donald Trump made a series of very disturbing comments and proposals that would violate U.S. law and put our military in a terrible position," added Crowe, a former Army Ranger. "I don't want to wait until this happens to remind our troops of this duty because then it will be too late."
"REBELLIVE BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!", the Republican president wrote in a post on Truth Social.
"This is truly bad and dangerous for our country," Trump wrote in an earlier post. "Their words cannot be left alone. REBELLIVE BEHAVIOR BY TRAITORS!!! SHUT THEM UP???"
The congressmen who recorded the video include Senators Elisa Slotkin, a former CIA analyst and Iraq War veteran, and Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy veteran, as well as Representatives Jason Crowe, Maggie Goodlander, Chris DeLuzio, and Chrissy Hoolahan.