Thursday on MSNBC’s “All In,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said she took part in a video featuring Democratic lawmakers telling military members about refusing illegal orders because President Donald Trump reportedly once asked the military about shooting protesters.
Host Chris Hayes said, “Why did you want to make the video? What were you trying to accomplish with it?”
Slotkin said, “I think there’s a lot of concern about like, well, what if I’m asked to do something that’s not legal? Or what if I’m not sure if this is legal? So we just wanted to make the point to say to the group, look, we hear you. We know what it’s like to be in tough positions. It’s a chain of command environment so you are to follow orders but there is a provision in the UCMJ going back to Nuremberg and World War II, making clear that you do not have to follow an order that is illegal, that violates the law. I think, you know, people have been asking, well, is this theoretical and what are you concerned about?”
She added, “Unfortunately, President Trump, this is not theoretical for him. In his first term, he was upset about the peaceful protests outside the White House in Lafayette Square during the George Floyd protests and it was it got under his skin and he called in his then Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and said, you know, bring in the 82nd Airborne, bring in active duty troops. and, you know, can’t you, quote, shoot at their legs? To the credit of the then Secretary of Defense, they sort of maneuvered themselves out of the Oval Office before he followed up and sort of demanded that of them. But that is a perfect example of an illegal order. You cannot shoot at unarmed people. I would hope that anyone like the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who knew immediately that wasn’t right, that anyone in government would feel that way, anyone who sits in the chair of the Commander in Chief would feel that way but it’s not a hypothetical.”
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