Three weeks ago, several Democratic military veterans serving in Congress released a video to remind service members that they have a responsibility to reject illegal orders. Despite the legal accuracy of the message, the White House launched a furious retaliation campaign that was extreme, even by contemporary standards.
Donald Trump helped lead the charge, insisting that the Democratic lawmakers, who’d done nothing wrong, had engaged in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
Though the story is no longer dominating headlines, the president has not given up on trying to use the levers of federal power, on multiple fronts, to target the Democratic veterans who appeared in the video. Last week, there was even a report about Trump-appointed FBI leaders “pressuring the bureau’s domestic terrorism agents to open a seditious conspiracy investigation” into the Democrats who urged service members to follow the law.
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the White House’s crusade, but if there are going to be investigations into political leaders who’ve said publicly that service members must reject illegal orders, administration officials should probably start preparing to scrutinize some of their own.
CNN reported last week, for example, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who’s helped advance the partisan offensive against the Democratic veterans, delivered remarks in 2016 explaining that U.S. military personnel “won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief” and described the refusal of illegal commands as a part of the military’s ethos and standards.
CNN also found that, as Election Day 2016 drew closer, the former Fox News host told viewers that service members are “not going to follow illegal orders.”
That is to say, eight years ago, the future Pentagon chief delivered the same message he and Trump are now condemning.








