White House Accuses Members of Congress of Inciting Military Defiance, Citing Potential Legal Repercussions

to members of Congress. >> No, let's be clear about what the president is responding to. Uh 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 me 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 US Navy. Maggie Goodlander was a naval officer. And notably, she was also she is also the wife of Joe Biden's national security former adviser, 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 me 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. >> But the president has frequently But Caroline, can I just follow up? president and the vice president for that matter have accused the other side of encouraging political violence. Isn't that exactly what the president is doing when he says that members of Congress should be killed? Why aren't you talking about what these members of Congress are doing to encourage and incite violence? They are literally saying to 1.3 million active duty service members not to def to defy the chain of command, not to follow lawful orders. Every single >> can refuse an illegal order which is But they're suggesting they're suggesting Nancy that they the president has given illegal orders which he has not. Every single order that is given to this United States military by this commander-in-chief and through this command chain of command through the secretary of war is lawful. And the courts have proven that. This administration has an unparalleled record at the Supreme Court because we are following the laws. We don't defy court orders. We do things by the books. and to to suggest and encourage that active duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do and they should be held accountable and that's what the president wants to see. >> Phil, >> uh, thank you. Ambassador Mike Huckabe had a meeting with Jonathan Pard, a former US citizen who was convicted and spent three decades in jail for selling state secrets to Israel. Did the White House know that that meeting