MSNBC’s Jen Psaki Flat-Out Asks If Trump Orders To Military Need To Be ‘Questioned’
MSNBC host and former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki flat-out asked Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) if it’s time for military personnel to start “questioning” orders from President Donald Trump.
Trump followed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s address to military leaders Tuesday morning with a lengthy speech that featured several bonkers moments and characteristic deviations — and a lot of talk about “enemies” within the United States.
On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki, the host spent two segments with Governor Moore and asked him about the “bizarre, politicized event.”
Asked about “questioning” Trump’s orders, Moore — a veteran himself — told Psaki that military members “don’t have to follow” Trump’s orders if they aren’t “lawful”:
PSAKI: The government shut down, but yesterday also Trump and Hegseth gave what I thought was a bizarre, politicized event. They did a bizarre and politicized event in front of four-, three-, two-, one-star members of the U.S. military.
You are a veteran yourself, one of the — and there are a couple of things that struck me. They talked about fighting a war with — from within. They talked about these silly rules of engagement. When you’re in the military, and you know this better than I do, but I’ve worked with a member of the — they serve — they serve the commander-in-chief. They report to him. They do what he orders. And I just wonder if we’re in just a different moment where there should be some questioning. How do you think about it?
MOORE: Yeah, I mean, yesterday was really disheartening. I received a text from a person who I served with before. And he said to me, he said, you know, it’s — it’s normal to disagree with the commander-in-chief. He said, but I don’t know if it’s normal to be embarrassed by him.
PSAKI: Mm-hmm.
MOORE: And he said, I’m embarrassed. You know, it’s — and when we take the oath, we do. We take the oath that we are going to follow the Constitution of the United States of America, and we will follow the lawful orders of the commander-in-chief. It’s the same thing and it’s the same very humble responsibility that I take as the commander-in-chief of the Maryland National Guard, that I know the Maryland National Guard and the Maryland Air Guard, they move on the command of the commander-in-chief, that I’m giving them lawful orders.
But I also think there’s a confidence amongst the members of the Maryland National Guard and the Maryland Air Guard is that I would only ever give lawful orders. And that’s the struggle that I think for a lot of members of the military, they’re fearing right now. We will follow the commands of our commander-in-chief. That’s — that’s the oath we took.
PSAKI: Of course.
MOORE: When they’re lawful. And I think there’s a lot of people who, right now, when they heard the words from the commander-in-chief yesterday about talking about using American cities as training grounds, they’re not receiving lawful orders. In fact, they’re receiving orders that are in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution and of U.S. law. And so this is what is making this moment so tricky. It’s not just the fact that, you know, hearing Pete Hegseth, you know, ridicule people about merit is really rich when he is the most unqualified secretary of defense this country has ever seen. But it’s past that. It’s that we are hearing from our commander-in-chief about instructions that he is giving to the members of our military that are not just nonsensical, they’re unlawful. And that puts the members of our military in a really complicated situation.
PSAKI: What can they do?
MOORE: They don’t have to follow them. We have to follow lawful orders. We follow the instructions of our commander-in-chief. We follow the Constitution of the United States of America. But I — I cannot stress enough, that word lawful matters. And in fact, we are told, you do not have to follow unlawful orders. And so I think this becomes a really challenging moment for the members of our military when you — you usually have the ability to trust that the orders that you are getting are lawful. I think if we have seen anything from the precedent of this Trump administration, that is not always a guarantee nor a prerequisite for the decisions and the orders that they’re given.
Watch above via MSNBC’s The Briefing with Jen Psaki.
