White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told News on Monday that the US military “cannot allow” soldiers to question whether an order is legal in the field.

Last week, six Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence experience released a video urging military service members to disobey illegal orders from President Donald Trump’s administration. This sparked a storm of criticism from the Republican Party and Trump, who called the video “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” on social media and reposted a message calling for the lawmakers to be executed.

Appearing in “The story with Martha MacCallum,Leavitt condemned those legislators for “essentially encouraging [military personnel] defy the orders of his commander in chief.

“They are trying to sow chaos and mistrust, which is a very dangerous thing within the military,” Leavitt continued.

MacCallum said Democratic lawmakers are now “taking a step forward in trying to answer the question about what they were talking about in the first place” in the released video.

“They can’t answer the question, Martha, because there is no answer. They can’t identify illegal orders because there are no illegal orders,” Leavitt said. “But they were suggesting, again, to the 1.3 million active duty members of the military today that if they believe an order is illegal, they don’t have to follow it.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the video of lawmakers urging members of the military not to follow illegal orders.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the video of lawmakers urging members of the military not to follow illegal orders.

Win McNamee via Getty Images

“You can’t have a soldier on the battlefield or carrying out a classified order wondering if that order is legal or if he should follow it,” Leavitt added. “There must be a chain of command in our military.”

On Sunday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), one of the lawmakers who posted the video, admitted during an interview on ABC’s “This Week” that she was “not aware” of whether Trump had issued any illegal orders to the military.

In addition to Slotkin, the Nov. 18 video also included Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA.), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Rep. Chrissy Houluhan (D-PA.), and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.).

The Defense Department announced Monday that it will open an investigation into Kelly, a retired Navy captain, in connection with the video.

Following the release of the video, the FBI said it is working to schedule interviews with the lawmakers who appear in the video.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called the video “despicable, reckless and false” in an X post on Monday.

“In the military, vague rhetoric and ambiguity undermine trust, create vacillation in the chain of command, and erode cohesion,” Hegseth added. “The military already has clear procedures for handling illegal orders. It does not need political actors to inject doubt into an already clear chain of command.”

Watch Leavitt’s appearance on News below.

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