Trump suggests Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly should face the death penalty

Six Democrats in Congress released a video on Tuesday in which they directly addressed members of the military and intelligence communities, telling them they do not have to carry out illegal orders.

President Donald Trump is now suggesting that those Democrats — including Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly — should face the death penalty.

Like Kelly, all of the Democrats are either military veterans or served in intelligence roles.

"We want to speak directly to members of the military … like us, you all swore an oath … our laws are clear: you can refuse illegal orders," they said in the video.

In a post on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump labeled the video as “seditious behavior from traitors,” suggesting the six Democrats should be imprisoned.

In a follow-up post, Trump again referred to the video as seditious behavior “punishable by death.”

The 90-second video was first posted early Tuesday from Sen. Elissa Slotkin’s X account. In it, the six lawmakers — Slotkin, Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan — speak directly to U.S. service members, whom Slotkin acknowledges are “under enormous stress and pressure right now.”

“The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution,” Slotkin wrote in the X post.

Kelly said the president’s words carry a lot of weight. With that in mind, Kelly told CNN that he has to be concerned by Trump’s accusation that he and five other Democratic lawmakers are guilty of sedition.

"I mean, I never expected after serving 25 years in the Navy, flying combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait, flying the space shuttle, that now I’ve gotta worry about my personal safety and that of my wife, Gabby Giffords, who was already nearly assassinated, because of something the president said," Kelly said.

Kelly defended his video, arguing there’s nothing more American than standing up for the Constitution.

Are U.S. troops allowed to disobey orders?

Troops, especially uniformed commanders, have a specific obligation to reject an order that’s unlawful, if they make that determination.

However, while commanders have military lawyers on their staffs to consult with in helping make such a determination, rank-and-file troops who are tasked with carrying out those orders are rarely in a similar position.

Broad legal precedence holds that just following orders, colloquially known as the “Nuremberg defense” as it was used unsuccessfully by senior Nazi officials to justify their actions under Adolf Hitler, doesn’t absolve troops.

However, the U.S. military legal code, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice or UCMJ, will punish troops for failing to follow an order should it turn out to be lawful. Troops can be criminally charged with Article 90 of the UCMJ, willfully disobeying a superior commissioned officer, and Article 92, failure to obey an order.