Bulwark Takes - Trump Called for Democrats to Be Executed

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

Trump spent the morning amplifying posts calling for Democratic lawmakers to be hanged for releasing a video reminding service members they don’t have to follow unlawful orders. Sam Stein and Andrew Egger give their take why Trump snapped, what the Democrats actually said, and why this moment is more dangerous than we’ve gotten used to pretending.

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Edgar, author of Morning Shots, who I guess must have just run to the shower and combed his hair because usually he's not operating at this hour right after filing morning shots. But thank you, Andrew. I appreciate it. We're here because something crazy is happening right now online. It's 11 a.m. on Tuesday. And Donald Trump has been bleeding multiple, multiple times about, let's be just blunt about, about hanging and killing Democratic members of Congress. That's a real sentence. The president has been posting about his desire to see members of Congress killed. That's what's happening.

Now, the crime here is that group of members of Congress collaborated on a video where they made a suggestion or a reminder to military personnel that they don't have to obey unlawful orders, which is true. They don't. Let's watch a tiny clip of that video, and then, Andrew, I'm going to go over what Trump's reaction has been. This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens. Like us, you all swore an oath. To protect and defend this Constitution.

Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren't just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution. We know this is hard and that it's a difficult time to be a public servant. But whether you're serving in the CIA, the Army, or Navy, the Air Force, your vigilance is critical.

And know that we have your back. Because now, more than ever. The American people need you. We need you to stand up for our laws. Our Constitution and who we are as Americans. Don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up.

Don't give up the ship. All right. So there you see it. bit of a video. Here's how Trump has reacted to this, okay? I'm just going to read a little snippet of it, and then I'm going to let Andrew Cook on this. He's been reposting a bunch of things such as this. Hang them. George Washington would. Unlawful is the key word, folks. Unlawful. Sedition, insurrection, treason. Get these people out of office. They aren't doing their jobs. They're looking for ways to be rebels. Here's one. It's called seditious behavior at the highest level. Each one of

these traitors to our country should be arrested and put on trial. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. We won't have a country anymore. An example must be set. And then lastly, one that was been pushed around by his counts, seditious behavior, punishable by death. I don't know. What do you think? I mean, yeah, on a certain level, what do you say, right? I mean, for a little more background on the video that these Democrats put out, it's Democrats who have, who are either Army veterans, or who have served in the intelligence community. They personally have, you know, served their country in this way.

And they, speaking from their own experience, but also their own knowledge of the law, just speaking to this moment in time when Donald Trump's exercise of the military and exercise of, you know, federal law enforcement has become increasingly unhinged and at least inching right up to the line of unlawfulness, if not just unlawful activity in a number of things, from blowing up boats in the Caribbean to, you know, sending them. the National Guard into these cities over the over and around the objection of various courts. So, I mean, this is the moment we find ourselves in. And this stuff all kind of started off with Stephen Miller, as these things are want to do. He spent all of yesterday saying essentially

that Democrats were calling for an insurrection because they were reminding these service members what these service members are already told in their own training, which is that a lawful, an unlawful order is not an order that you are bound by your oaths and by the lot of follow. Right. They were not specifically identifying any of these things as unlawful orders. They were not saying, you know, these specific things you are being commanded to do are unlawful and you should therefore not do these specific things. They were just giving that reminder and then and really what it was was just sort of like a rallying cry, right? For people in the armed services who feel just sort of dismayed or who might feel torn between, you know, their chain of command and their bad feelings about what certain things that are going on. And the kind of the slogan that popped up at the end was don't give up, don't give up the shit.

right and I honestly thought it was like kind of a remarkable video in a lot of ways and an interesting thing for democracy putting forward potentially a useful thing for democracy putting forward but in particular because Donald Trump just can't I mean this is the kind of thing that just drives him absolutely insane right I mean these are people who have actually put themselves on the line for the country in a way that he has never done and who are going after what is his kind of like central like core principle in all of this which is that he is the state of course yeah essentially is is the military is the government is the you know all all of these things and lashing out at them in sort of the most unhinged ways we've ever seen out of him. I mean, I'm really kind of startled here. Yeah, no. Okay. So there is a fair bit to unpack. The Democrats video was totally fine. There's nothing, it's like almost anodyne, right? It's just a video being like, this is a reminder that you do not have to execute unlawful orders. They didn't have to put it out. It felt compelled to do it. The reaction to the video is what's hinge, right? Like, so you mentioned Stephen Miller. This is what he said to Fox. I mean,

let's play a little bit of it. It's a general call for rebellion from the CIA and the armed services of the United States by Democrat lawmakers, saying that you have not only the right, but the duty and the obligation to defy orders of the commander in chief, that those who carry weapons in America's name should defy their chain of command and engage in order. open acts of insurrection that the CIA, the clandestine service, which isn't even legally authorized to operate in the United States, should engage in, again, acts of rebellion and insurrection. These lawmakers should honestly resign in disgrace and never return to public office again for even daring to think, let alone to say these words and to say them proudly.

Right, so that's one of it. And then you have Todd Blanche on Hannity doing the same thing. This is a disgusting and inappropriate display of supposed leadership from the Democrat Party. These men and women should not have described themselves as former members of the military or former members of the intelligence community. They should have described themselves as Democrats who lost and Democrats who don't like the result of last November because there is no laws being violated. There are no orders that are be given that are unconstitutional or illegal. and the fact that these folks came out

and encouraged our young men and women who are all, many of them armed, to defy court orders is something that we have to take a very close look at and I promise you, Sean, that we will. Bullock takes a sponsor by soul. Cold nights, cozy blankets, and soles out-of-office gummies.

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go to getsole.com and use the code bullwork takes. That's getsold.com promo code bullwork takes for 40% off. Don't miss their best deal of the year. And then one of the guys who was in the video, Congressman Jason Crow went on Fox News to talk about and defend it, and they're like, well, what action are you talking about? Name a specific action that he's, you know, where he's issued in a lawful order. And Crow didn't take the bait. He's just saying, look, I'm just talking about in general.

And well, number one, the protests of Lafayette Square and the first Trump had where he said, can't you just shoot them? Can't you just shoot them in the legs or something? That's a direct quote. And, of course, the then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff, put back on that. That was not a military order. That was a comment. That was a record.

When that's coming from the President of the United States to your command, to your generals, don't you think that's a request? I'm asking specifically right now what you're talking about. Yeah, number two, he's also threatened to send the military into Chicago and other cities to quote, go to war with those cities. right? That is a very, very disturbing thing. Number three, he's also alluded to sending troops to polling stations, which is actually a violation of U.S. criminal law prohibits troops from going to polling stations. And he's alluded to that. So those are just one of many examples.

It seems to me that the Trump folks really just want to elevate this and create an absolute, you know, they want to create a fight out of this. They want this to be the main issue. And so they're they're going on Fox, they're denouncing it, they're calling it seditious. They want us to do what we're doing, essentially. They want us to freak out about their freak out. And I'm a little bit torn about it, but I actually don't mind that we're freaking out about their freak out. Yeah, well, there are two elements to it.

There's the strategic element, and there's always the question of, you know, like, what is it they're trying to draw eyeballs away from? What are they trying to put eyeballs on? Plainly, they see, you know, stuff like, you know, troops in the streets and blowing up these boats in the Caribbean as more of, like, winning issues for them. ban, for instance, the Epstein files, you know, like another big thing that's been in the news, right? I mean, it is obviously true that, you know, Trump does try and Trump, as people do try to deflect away from news stories that are that are bad on them, back to ones that they think are

on their turf. But there's also just like the personal psychological element for, for Donald Trump here. And I think that that is what you can see in sort of the delta, in the difference between the stuff that like Blanche and Miller are saying on the one hand and the significantly more unhinged stuff you're seeing this morning now from the president is specifically calling again for these guys to be tried and and put to death the way that that implicates like his personal psychology is he is incensed at the at the idea that anybody is talking to his troops right his he views the military as like his guys his guys that he gets to put out there and so like the idea that that other electeds are even able to like you know bring things up to these guys that that that could lead to them not like loving

you know doing every single little thing he asked them is intolerable. in. I want to just jump on that because I'm reading over the Stephen Miller quote. His remedy for this is the lawmaker should honestly resign and disgrace and never return to public office again for even daring to think, let alone to say these words. Whatever. Shut up. So over the top. Trump is on a different planet, man. It's not, it's galactically different. He's calling for them to be killed. Killed. And then on top of that, this is a guy who, to your point, believes that the government works for him. And so there's fairly ample, I mean, not saying they're going to kill these lawmakers

are trying them. But, you know, he's a week ago, he instructed Pambani to open up an investigation to Jeffrey Epstein. And within four hours, she did it, right? Like, it's not like the, the Justice Department is just going to sort of be like, oh, I won't let that one, you know, burnout in the ether. You know, there's, he obviously directs the Justice Department. At the same time, like, how long has it been now, a couple of months, a month or two, since like the great right wing sort of like freak out over over political rhetoric and so that's my next part yeah that was my next part is that this is coming in a moment where everyone is supposed to be denouncing political violence and they should and certainly those

white house has made the case you can google any jd vans tweet you want about how political violence is you know run amok and that liberals are the problem for it and then to turn around and have the president of the united states your boss say we need to kill lawmakers on the other side because of anodyne video they put out. I mean, it's so outrageous. And the problem, of course, is that we're just so calloused by this all. Like, it's become normalized to a degree that's like, oh, yeah, the president's out there bleeding that people should be killed because he didn't like the video.

And I mean, like, if you are like taking the plain words at their plain meeting, it is not only just like these people should be tried and like executed. I mean, like, hang them, George Washington would. George Washington was never, like, you know. Did George Washington do that? I don't know. This is explicitly talking about, like, you know, these extrajudicial, like, processes. Like, you just, we should just string those guys up, right?

I mean, that's the, those are the plain words on the page. That's not one Trump typed out with his own thumbs. He retweeted that from an ardent fan on truth. Yeah, I know. But there are some that they've been reposting from their house accounts. Like, this is definitely, yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's really, what do you say?

It's dangerous shit. It's really dangerous shit. I will just say, I'll close it with this. I know that they want us to be focused on this. I know that they want this video that Democrats made to be the topic one. I know it. It's obvious. They do this thing every time where they find something that they think works through

their advantage that can be divisive, and then they amplify it through every possible medium channel that they can find, usually Fox News. and then Trump jumps on it with his own social media feeds and he pushes it and pushes it and he loves it when we talk about this stuff and you know what guilty I'll talk about it I don't care it when the president is calling for political opponents to be hanged that is a problem and you can't just sort of skirt around it and say well we're not going to talk about it because he wants us to talk about it no and the other thing is the other thing is Sam like he's wrong Like, he is not correct if he thinks that this stuff plays to his ultimate political benefit.

They are so fucking high on their own supply that they think this kind of thing is like getting the American people jazzed up. Like, there are, I don't think the median Trump support. I mean, there are a lot of people who, you know, his loudest fans, his most core fans, you know, based. Great job, Mr. President. This is what I voted for, you know, all that kind of stuff, no matter what he does. but like he is like heading for a catastrophe in the midterms if this is the issue that he wants to make like the mail like vote for me to string up like veterans who are now House Democrats. Yeah, it's it's kind of ridiculous, right?

It's like, oh yeah, from the revenge, it's like, oh yeah, watch that video. And you watch a video, it's like, you don't have to follow an illegal order. It's like, okay, yeah. Yeah, I know. It's like so ridiculous. Anyways, we'll keep monitoring it. Karen Leavitt's briefing today. I'm sure she'll be asked about it.

I'm sure a bunch of Republicans in Congress will say they didn't see any of the dozen bleats that he's put out. So we'll see. But yeah, we'll follow it. Andrew Eger. Thank you, buddy. Appreciate it.

Here we go.