Washington — Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona criticized President Trump for his recent comments, in which the president accused him and other Democratic lawmakers of “seditious behavior,” with Kelly saying Mr. Trump should understand that his words “could have serious, serious consequences.”
“His words carry tremendous weight, more so than anybody else in the country, and he should be aware of that, and because of what he says, there is now increased threats against us,” Kelly said Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Democrats have railed against the president in recent days after he posted Thursday on social media that a group of lawmakers who urged members of the military to disobey illegal orders should be arrested and face trial for “seditious behavior.” In another post, Mr. Trump also said “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted “HANG THEM, GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!”
The president’s posts came in response to a video featuring Kelly and Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, along with Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire. In the video, the lawmakers, who are veterans and former national security officials, cited threats to the Constitution while urging service members and members of the intelligence community to “refuse illegal orders.”
Crow, who appeared separately on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, said that the video referred to orders that are “manifestly unlawful, that our troops might be put in the position to carry out, because that is what the president has repeatedly threatened to do.”
Crow listed several examples of what he considered to be unlawful orders, like threatening to send troops into Chicago or to polling stations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday the president does not want to execute members of Congress. And Mr. Trump clarified on Fox News Radio Friday that “I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death. That was seditious behavior.” Then, late Saturday, the president again railed against the lawmakers in a post on Truth Social, saying the lawmakers who made the video “SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW.”
“IT WAS SEDITION AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL, AND SEDITION IS A MAJOR CRIME,” Mr. Trump said.
Kelly said the president is “trying to intimidate us.”
“I’m not going to be intimidated,” he said, noting that Crow, who also appeared on “Face the Nation,” is “not going to be intimidated either.”
“We both served our country,” Kelly said. “We swore an oath. All we said is we reiterated what basically is the rule of law. Members of the military should not, cannot follow illegal orders.”
Kelly’s wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot at a political event in 2011, and he noted that “as the husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, I understand what political violence is.”
“The president should as well,” Kelly said, referring to the July 2024 assassination attempt in which a bullet grazed Mr. Trump’s ear in Butler, Pennsylvania. “Just like Gabby, somebody tried to assassinate him, and he should understand that his words, have you know, could have serious, serious consequences.”
Crow, whose district office reported a bomb threat late Saturday, said he didn’t know yet whether the threat was credible, but he said it’s “very disturbing stuff.”
“When you have the president of the United States threatening to execute and to hang and to arrest using this rhetoric, people listen to it,” Crow said. “We’ve seen before a pattern of insightful, dangerous rhetoric being used by the president, and then people acting on that.”
The Colorado Democrat cited his experience of the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, calling it a “very similar dynamic.”
“He’s been doing this for years,” Crow said. “Saying things in total disregard for the outcome and what might happen when he throws this stuff out in the world.”
Crow said on top of the “irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric,” it’s also “so telling that when members of Congress simply remind service members of the Constitution and their duty to obey the law, which is not just our right, but is our obligation, to do that, he cannot handle that, and he resorts to threats of violence and threats of arrest and execution.”
“That tells you everything you need to know about Donald Trump’s respect for the Constitution and the rule of law,” Crow said.
The veterans and former national security officials wanted to “start a conversation” about “the dangerous rhetoric this president is using and the threats that he’s made to use our military in an unlawful way,” Crow said.
“If we wait until the moment that he gives a manifestly unlawful order to a young soldier, then we have failed them,” he added. “We have to start that conversation now and get people thinking about the distinction which is exactly what we did.”
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