Politics isn’t supposed to be a loyalty test to a person. It’s supposed to be loyalty to the Constitution and the chain of command. According to The Denver Post, Democratic lawmakers including Rep. Jason Crow say the Trump administration is investigating them over a video message to troops urging resistance to “illegal orders.”
This is what happens when politicians treat the military like their personal audience for a campaign-style message. The uniform is not a prop, and neither is the oath.
And yes, no hall passes here. If a Republican did the same thing, I’d say the exact same thing.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Rep. Jason Crow and other Democrats say they are under investigation by the Trump administration.
- The issue centers on a video message directed to members of the military.
- In the video, lawmakers urged troops to resist “illegal orders.”
- The situation is being framed by the lawmakers as a political investigation.
- The broader dispute sits in the context of heightened conflict between elected officials and the Trump administration.
My Bottom Line
The president is the commander in chief. You don’t get to freelance a parallel chain of command because you think your camera angle is better than the Constitution.
Here’s the part that gets lost in the Denver and D.C. bubbles: telling troops to “resist” is not some cute civics seminar. It is playing with matches next to the gas can.
If you want to challenge an order, you do it through lawful channels, not by encouraging service members to start picking which elected civilian they feel like obeying today.
The military is not your political comment section.
If Crow and company believe they were talking about lawful duty and lawful refusal of unlawful orders, then they should welcome clear standards, clear facts, and a clean process instead of turning it into a partisan melodrama. If they crossed a line, own it, correct it, and move on. That’s what grown-ups do.
