After President Donald Trump threatened to execute several Democratic lawmakers who urged service members to defy illegal orders, one conservative commentator is pushing back on the administration for what he labeled as “one of the dumbest controversies” he’d seen.
“I really wish both sides would take it down a notch,” said Andy McCarthy, a conservative commentator and former assistant U.S. attorney, appearing on Fox News Tuesday.
“I think the Democrats are wrong to have pitched this the way they did; the reaction to it is a way, way overreaction, and we'd be better off if both sides just took it down about 11 notches.”
Last week, a handful of Democratic lawmakers published a video in which they urged active duty service members to “refuse illegal orders,” sparking an immediate reaction from Trump: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH” he wrote on social media.
And on Monday, the Pentagon announced that it was investigating Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) – a former Navy pilot – for his participation in the video, an investigation that could lead to a potential court-martial.
Asked if the Justice Department “or anybody else” had a legitimate case against the handful of Democratic lawmakers, McCarthy dismissed the allegations against them out of hand.
“The Democrats, if they want to complain about lawless orders, should specify what orders they're talking about, that's perfectly reasonable. But in a country with the First Amendment, they're allowed to make even incorrect statements!” McCarthy said.
“As it happens, it's a correct statement of law to say that troops don't have to follow illegal orders, and you'd never be able to make a case out of that. At the most, what you would have – if they were truly interfering with the carrying out of lawful orders – you'd have insubordination, you wouldn't have anything like sedition or insurrection, which requires a violent uprising.”