Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
Source
Participants
Main
g
greta brawner
cspan06:41
Appearances
e
elissa slotkin
sen/d02:12
karoline leavitt
admin01:52
Clips
donald j trump
admin00:09
?
Voice
Speaker
Time
Text
Democratic Lawmakers Urge Service Members00:15:23
unidentified
And the live look outside the White House, where the press is waiting for word on the meeting between President Trump and the New York City mayor-elect Zorhan Mamdani, who's reportedly arrived to discuss affordability.
The press standing by to see if the mayor-elect makes any remarks and will bring you live coverage if he does here on C-SPAN.
While we wait, we'll show an earlier discussion from our own Washington Journal.
While you dial in or text, we'll begin with that video from a portion of the video showing Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence background telling service members to disobey President Trump if his directives amount to illegal orders.
It was posted on Facebook on Tuesday by Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan.
An ad posted by Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence background of the president responded on Truth Social saying it's called seditious behavior at the highest level.
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.
He went on to also post this on Truth Social, seditious behavior punishable by death.
Now here's Democratic Senator Alyssa Slotkin who began that video responding to President Trump's Truth Social post while speaking at a conference in DC yesterday.
I think if you just take a step back, we have the President of the United States calling for a group of service and veteran lawmakers to be arrested, tried, and then hung.
I mean, this is what he said.
And because we made a video that he didn't like.
And I think separate from any one of us who made the video, this is just for me about who we are as a country and whether we're going to accept that this is the new normal for how we treat people we disagree with.
It's about the example we want to set for our kids and it's about whether we are going to accept that this is just how we're going to engage with each other.
You know, I, in my previous life, swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution.
I took that same oath when I was sworn in as a senator 11 months ago.
And that oath is to the Constitution, not to any one man, any one president.
And I think, certainly for me, I refuse to be intimidated out of fighting for the country that I love.
And I think, And you all know this as state and local officials.
Fear can often be contagious.
And when it's scary and people don't speak up, then it kind of spreads.
But if fear is contagious, so is courage.
And I think when a lion's share of Americans understand that it is in their own power to push back on this kind of rhetoric and this kind of threat, that's when we actually turn the tide.
So I appreciate the support.
I appreciate law enforcement.
But this country has given me everything.
I am here because I'm an American and it gave me everything.
And I'm not going to shut up because Donald Trump is threatening me.
Democratic Senator Alyssa Slotkin, they're responding to the president's Truth Social post.
Now, the Washington Post this morning says it's not clear what orders, those illegal orders, those Democrats are referring to, but they said they are hearing from some service members questioning the legality of strikes that have targeted people by targeting people in the narcotics organizations by sea.
So related to that, Punch Bowl News has some news this morning.
House Democrats plan to unveil a bill today that would cut off funding for U.S. operations in or against Venezuela.
The legislation led by Representative Seth Moulton of Massachusetts would bar the Trump administration from spending money on military campaigns targeting Venezuela unless lawmakers approve an authorization for use of military force.
Moulton plans to announce the push during a 9 a.m. news conference today alongside fellow Democrats.
The legislation continues House Democrats' pushback against the Trump administration's strikes targeting alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Half a dozen leading lawmakers earlier this week pitched a resolution seeking to prevent Trump from using U.S. forces against any group he's labeled as designated terrorist organizations within the Western Hemisphere.
The Senate has blocked two similar resolutions in recent months.
Let's get to your calls.
The president accusing Democrats of seditious behavior, John, in New York and Independent, your reaction to this back and forth in Washington this week.
unidentified
My response is the tape that these Democratic congresspeople made was really shock.
It was shocking.
I'd never heard of anything like this ever that I read in history or notice.
I'm 72 years old, and I never saw any response like this from a Democratic or anything.
And I do believe that this has to be truly investigated.
Donald Trump's response was rational.
I give him credit for that.
That was very rational.
But I don't believe that any of these senators should have any kind of contact with the Pentagon, our military forces, or anything until this is fully investigated.
And that I do hope that The Washington Journal doesn't sit in this because I hope they don't defend the response that these Democratic senators made.
John, can I ask you to respond to The Wall Street Journal and how they frame the story?
They say that the president asked his more than 11 million followers on Truth Social whether they should be jailed, saying that seditious behavior was punishable by death.
You said his response was rational.
What about the suggestion they're punishable by death?
unidentified
Do you think that the Democratic Congress people response was rational?
How come you focus definitely on Donald Trump?
And you know, that's what's wrong with this.
The Washington Journal is complicit in all this mess.
Let's be clear about what the president is responding to, because many in this room want to talk about the president's response, but not what brought the president to responding in this way.
You have sitting members of the United States Congress who conspired together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military, to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus, encouraging them to defy the president's lawful 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.
And that's what these members of Congress who swore an oath to to abide by the Constitution are essentially encouraging.
We have 1.3 active duty service members in this country.
And if they hear this radical message from sitting members of Congress, that could inspire chaos and it could incite violence and it certainly could disrupt the chain of command.
These three members of Congress, I will also add, knew exactly what they were doing.
You look at Alyssa Slotkin.
She's a former member of the CIA.
Mark Kelly was a captain in the U.S. Navy.
Maggie Goodlander was a naval officer.
And notably, she was also, she is also the wife of Joe Biden's National Security former advisor, Jake Sullivan.
And so these members knew what they were doing.
They were leading into their credentials as former members of our military, as veterans, as former members of the national security apparatus to signal to people serving under this commander-in-chief, Donald Trump, that you can defy him and you can betray your oath of office.
That is a very, very dangerous 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.
Caroline Lovitt at the White House podium yesterday, we want to get your reaction and hear your response to her argument there about the President's Truth Social Post and this ad by Democratic lawmakers.
The Washington Post reports this morning the Pentagon did not respond Thursday morning to questions about the president's post.
Traditionally, the U.S. military adheres to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which holds that service members must obey lawful orders.
Whether they agree with them or not, they are obligated to not follow manifestly unlawful orders.
But such situations are rare and legally fraught.
Members of the military take an oath to the Constitution, not the president.
The Washington Post this morning with their reporting.
There are the lines on your screen.
We want you to join us in this conversation this morning.
Eddie is in Ackworth, Georgia, Democratic caller.
Morning, Eddie.
unidentified
Good morning.
I'm going to say it is very scary with Trump in this office.
Man, I'll be glad when he's gone.
These Republicans, boy, they is block-minded by everything this man does.
This man is trying to destroy the United States.
The whole world he's trying to destroy.
And the Republic's too blind and too stupid to see that he's trying to tear us down.
We'll go back to the topic here this morning, the Democratic ad from six lawmakers who have experience in the military and in national security, calling on those in the military to disobey illegal orders.
The president responding on Truth Social, calling it seditious behavior.
Here's the definition of seditious behavior from Newsweek.com.
If two or more persons in any state or territory or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States conspire to overthrow, put down or to destroy by force the government of the United States or to levy war against them or to oppose by force the authority thereof or by force to prevent,
hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years or both.