A Democratic senator who joined five of her colleagues to urge members of the military to disobey “illegal orders” from the Trump administration said Thursday the sextet was under round-the-clock protection after the president called them “traitors” and said their words could be “punishable by DEATH.”
“Capitol Police came to us and said, ‘We’re gonna put you on 24/7 security,’” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), told MS NOW’s “All In with Chris Hayes.”
“We’ve got law enforcement out in front of my house. I mean, it changes things immediately,” Slotkin added. “And leadership climate is set from the top. And if the president is saying you should be hanged, then we shouldn’t be surprised when folks on the ground are going to follow suit and say even worse.”
Slotkin was joined by Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Reps. Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Rep. Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado in the 60-second video, released Tuesday, which warned service members: “Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders … you must refuse illegal orders.”
President Trump responded Thursday in a series of Truth Social posts, writing: “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.”
“SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” the president said in a subsequent post.
Trump also reposted messages of support from Tuth Social users, one of whom wrote in all caps: “Hang them George Washington would !!”
Slotkin, who was elected to the Senate last year after six years in the House of Representatives, said Thursday that while “I’ve had threats here and there,” the backlash stemming from Trump’s broadside was “instantaneous.”
“I mean, hundreds, if not at this point, thousands of calls, emails, texts, obviously online postings,” she told Hayes.
Slotkin, a former CIA analyst who also worked in the State Department and Pentagon during the Obama administration, is the only one of the six without military experience.
Crow is an Army veteran who won a Bronze Star for his actions during the Iraq War. Deluzio and Kelly served in the Navy and Houlahan served in the Air Force, while Goodlander spent 11 years as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve.
