TAPPER: The president simply known as for the execution of some congressional Democrats. You heard me. The Lead begins proper now.
A video apparently has President Trump ticked off in which Democratic lawmakers remind troops that they needn’t abide by unlawful orders. The president known as that sedition. It isn’t stated. That they’re traitors. They aren’t. And additionally stated that they need to be executed. They shouldn’t.
Whatever occurred to bringing down the temperature submit Charlie Kirk’s homicide?
Plus, the Epstein recordsdata, how a lot will the general public actually get to see from the Justice Department? The former chief of workers to Attorney General Pam Bondi shall be right here on The Lead.
And aliens on Earth, what might that be true? A movie director who desires you to listen to him out.
Welcome to The Lead. I’m Jake Tapper. An explosive and unhinged presidential menace tops our politics lead right this moment. Quote, seditious conduct punishable by demise. That’s President Trump’s message on Truth Social this morning in response to 6 Democratic lawmakers, all of them former navy or intelligence officers, who appeared in a video reminding U.S. servicemembers that they aren’t obligated to hold out unlawful orders. Listen to a part of the video.
(VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: President Trump wrote. Their phrases can’t be allowed to face. Seditious conduct from traitors, Lock them up, unquote. He additionally reposted grasp them. George Washington would. Again, simply to remind you, that is the president of the United States at a time of harmful political violence in this nation, suggesting that six Democrats be killed for saying that troops shouldn’t break any legal guidelines.
So what have been these Democratic lawmakers involved about? Well, as of right this moment, they’d be justifiably involved a couple of commander in chief saying they need to be executed for feedback that don’t even vaguely meet the definition of sedition.
But past that, the lawmakers have been primarily involved about U.S. troops being dispatched to American cities and the potential of troops being instructed to make use of violence towards American residents peacefully protesting. They have been involved in regards to the deployment of the navy to polling stations.
Remember 5 years in the past when Black Lives Matter protesters have been exterior the White House in 2020, the president requested privately his navy advisors if U.S. troops might shoot these protesters. That’s in accordance with then Secretary of Defense Mark Esper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ESPER, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: I used to be simply dumbstruck by it. And he was talking to General Mark Milley when he requested that query of, you realize, can’t you simply shoot him? Just shoot him in the legs or one thing. And I used to be, you realize, shocked by it to listen to this from the President of the United States saying that we shoot our fellow Americans in the streets of the nation’s capital.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Now, that was again when President Trump had a cupboard that included individuals who have been keen to inform him, no, such not appears to be the case. And if you happen to have been hoping for congressional guardrails of any kind, properly, if needs have been horses, rides could be free.
Today, the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, defended Trump’s posts calling for his congressional colleagues to be executed. He known as the Democrats video wildly inappropriate. And here’s what the White House press secretary needed to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just to be clear, does the president need to execute members of Congress?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARRY: No. Let’s be clear about what the president is responding to, as a result of many in this room need to discuss in regards to the president’s response, however not what introduced the president to responding in this fashion.
We have 1.3 lively responsibility service members in this nation, and in the event that they hear this radical message from sitting members of Congress, that might encourage chaos and it might incite violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: There is a disciplinary observe in the U.S. Military for service members who disobey orders, and so they can in the end be charged with insubordination.
There is a mechanism for this. If Karoline Leavitt is fearful about messages that might incite chaos and encourage violence, properly, that decision is coming from inside the home, the White House.