An active-duty Air Force major was arrested in uniform on the steps of the U.S. Capitol this week after he stood before cameras and demanded that President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance be impeached and removed from office.
Jason Watson, a career officer, spoke at a news conference organized by the Removal Coalition, an activist group pushing Congress to impeach Trump. Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who has filed articles of impeachment against Trump more than once, escorted Watson to the House steps. When Green stepped away, Capitol Police ordered Watson to end the demonstration or face arrest. He refused, and officers took him in under a District statute covering crowding and obstructing.
Watson argued that Trump's military strikes on Iran and Venezuela were "an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress' authority and a violation of the War Powers Clause." He said those actions "resulted in the deaths of 13 service members and injuries of hundreds more," and told the crowd the president and vice president "must be impeached, convicted and removed." He also called the administration's immigration tactics unconstitutional. The Senate recently voted to rein in Trump's Iran war powers in a bipartisan rebuke.
Green, who was himself removed from the chamber and censured after protesting a Trump address, praised the major.
“I was there to witness a major in the United States military bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice," he wrote on X.
Service members face tighter limits than civilians. Military law bars officers from using contemptuous words toward the president, and Watson could face a court-martial. The Air Force secretary said commanders would hold personnel accountable "in accordance with military law and due process," and the service has opened an investigation.