U.S. Air Force Officer Arrested on Capitol Steps for Call to Impeach Trump: ‘The Bill Must Come Due’

Allison Bailey/NurPhoto
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Air Force Major Jason Watson was arrested on the Capitol Steps Wednesday after taking part in a protest that called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.

Watson, an active member of the Air Force, delivered a speech ahead of his arrest. He listed several perceived crimes committed by the president and vice president.

“Our Constitution binds us all together as Americans. Like countless veterans before me, military members serving now, I’ve devoted my life in service to our Democratic Republic,” Watson said. “Always doing my best to honor my oath and protect America against foreign threats. But the greatest threat to our Democratic Republic is not a foreign one. It is us, we the people, not just the left or just the right or just the center, all of us together define who we are as Americans, and like it or not, we have all played a part, myself included, in getting ourselves into this mess we are all in.”

Watson added, “The burden of that culpability is much heavier for some amongst us than others. Undeniably, and for those with a lion’s share of guilt, such as those currently running the executive branch of the government, the bill must come due.”

“When the President of the United States orders military action against foreign countries absent an emergency scenario where American interests are under imminent dire threat, as was done with Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, that’s an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress’s authority and a violation of the War Powers Clause,” Watson noted. “These violations resulted in the deaths of 13 service members and injuries of hundreds more. For this, the President and Vice President must be impeached, convicted, and removed.”

“When the President of the United States grants an unelected mega donor sweeping authority, he’s shut down large swaths of our federal government, along with unrestricted access to our government databases,” he continued. “That’s an unconstitutional circumvention of Congress’s Advice and Consent Authority under the Appointments Clause and Congress’s power of the purse under the Appropriations Clause. These violations expose every American’s personal sensitive data to leaks and exploitation, illegally terminated tens of thousands of federal civil servants, being crippled support for Americans, to Americans for medical care and disaster preparedness, and by far most tragically resulted in the address deaths of hundreds of thousands of the world’s most impoverished people within humanely abrupt cessation of USAID.”

Under Watson’s purview, Trump and Vance’s additional crimes include directing “the Department of Homeland Security to deny hundreds of people any due process before illegally detaining them and sending them to a foreign prison notorious for human rights abuses” and sponsoring “violence on the American people, engaged in their constitutional right to peacefully assemble and protest.”

Per Free Speech for People, Watson was joined by Jessica Denson, founder of the Removal Coalition, Congressman Al Green (D-TX), members of About Face Veterans, constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, and Defenders of Our Republic.

“Major Watson demonstrated today the kind of courage our democracy demands,” said John Bonifaz, President and Co-Founder of Free Speech For People in a statement. “He honored the same oath that every Member of Congress has taken—to support and defend the Constitution. His willingness to risk his own freedom stands in stark contrast to those who continue to look away as President Trump commits unprecedented abuses of power. Congress has both the authority and the constitutional obligation to act to impeach and remove Donald Trump from public office.”

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