Episode Details

In a stunning display of partisan desperation, six Democrat lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds—Senators Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), along with Representatives Jason Crow (D-CO), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH)—released a video entitled “Don’t Give Up the Ship” on November 18th. In it, they directly addressed active-duty service members and intelligence personnel, reminding them of their oath to the Constitution and their duty to refuse “unlawful orders.”

This came amid President Trump’s deployment of National Guard forces to quell violent crime in Democrat-run cities like Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and potentially others. President Trump rightly condemned this as “seditious behavior at the highest level,” labeling the lawmakers “traitors” whose actions endanger the chain of command and national stability.

To wit: those who cloak their political opposition in faux concern for the Constitution while actively undermining civilian control of the military are the real threat to the Republic.

To understand why this intervention is so pernicious, one must first grasp what constitutes a truly “unlawful order” under US military law. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and longstanding precedent make clear that service members are obligated to disobey orders that are manifestly illegal—that is, orders that clearly violate the Constitution, federal law, or the laws of war, where no reasonable person could believe them lawful. The Department of Defense Law of War Manual and court-martial precedents emphasize that the illegality must be patent and palpable. Classic examples include orders to commit war crimes, such as murdering unarmed civilians or prisoners.

History provides sobering illustrations. The most infamous US case is the 1968 My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, where Lieutenant William Calley ordered and participated in the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers. Calley’s defense—“I was only following orders”—was rejected; he was convicted of premeditated murder because the order to kill non-combatants was manifestly unlawful. The courts-martial of Calley and Captain Ernest Medina reaffirmed that “superior orders” is no defense to obvious crimes.

Similarly, post-World War II Nuremberg Trials established that Nazi officers could not hide behind Hitler’s directives to exterminate Jews or execute prisoners—such orders were void ab initio. In American jurisprudence, cases like United States v. Keenan (1969) further solidified that an order to commit a serious crime against civilians carries no legitimacy. These are not gray-area policy disputes; they are blatant criminal acts.

Sedition, by contrast, strikes at the heart of governmental authority without necessarily involving overt violence. Under 18 USC § 2384, seditious conspiracy occurs when two or more persons conspire to oppose by force the authority of the United States, to prevent or delay the exec