Karoline Leavitt Tells Fox News: You Can’t Have a Soldier ‘Questioning Whether That Order Is Lawful’

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went off on the six Democratic lawmakers who said military and intelligence service members must “refuse illegal orders,” with Leavitt on Monday saying they were “deranged” and seeking to undermine President Donald Trump as commander-in-chief.

Leavitt, during an appearance on The Story With Martha MacCallum on Fox News, said the Democratic lawmakers were dead wrong on the issue. She said service members have a “legal obligation” under the Uniform Code of Military Justice to “obey lawful orders and that orders are presumed to be lawful.”

The military would descend into anarchy without that presumption, Leavitt told Martha MacCallum.

“You can’t have a soldier out on the battlefield or conducting a classified order questioning whether that order is lawful or whether they should follow through,” Leavitt said. “There must be a chain of command in our military.”

Leavitt’s answer comes a week after Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and five other Democratic lawmakers told service members, in a video posted on X, that “threats to the Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but right here at home.”

“You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders,” the lawmakers said, as they took turns reading lines from the same statement.

The other Democrats in the video were Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-PA), Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH), Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ). Those lawmakers served in the Navy, Army, Air Force, or Central Intelligence Agency.

President Trump, two days later, branded it “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” that should be “punishable by DEATH.”

The president vented his anger again on Saturday night, saying the Dems “SHOULD BE IN JAIL.” 

President Trump’s Department of Defense — now known as the “Department of War” — announced on Monday that it was investigating Sen. Kelly after his appearance in the video.

Leavitt on Monday ripped the six lawmakers, saying they are unable to point to a single illegal order from the president.

“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 service members in the military today that if you think an order is illegal, you don’t have to follow it.”

Sen. Slotkin, during an appearance on ABC on Sunday, admitted she was “not aware” of any illegal orders made by Trump.

Watch Leavitt above, via Fox News.

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