re: Slotkin Actually Referenced A Movie When Asked What Unlawful Orders Trump Gave

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TBoy

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When ABC News Sunday interviewed Slotkin, anchor Martha Raddatz elicited several damning admissions. (Incidentally, the slog back toward occasional difficult questions for both parties by news networks is one of the few encouraging developments of this past horrible year.) First, Raddatz interrupted after Slotkin claimed Trump “asked his secretary of defense and his chairman of the Joint Chiefs to ‘shoot at their legs’ at unarmed protesters,” reminding the ex-CIA official-turned-Senator that though this was mentioned in former Defense chief Mark Esper’s A Sacred Oath, Trump “didn’t exactly say that. [Esper] said the president suggested that, but they were never ordered to do that.” Raddatz then pressed further, asking, “Do you believe President Trump has issued any illegal orders?”

Slotkin offered a curious reply: “To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal.” When Raddatz kept after her, Slotkin mentioned “legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela,” then talked about “the use of U.S. military on American shores, on our city, in our cities and in our streets,” where “people in uniformed military get nervous, get stressed, shoot at American civilians.” Raddatz from here asked the obvious question, namely that Slotkin sounded like a person describing murky or unclear situations, so “couldn’t you have done a video saying just what you just said?” In other words, if you’re unsure if something is legal, here’s the proper procedure. That would be the truly apolitical, public service announcement version of a “You can refuse illegal orders” video.

That’s not the only message they wanted to send, however, as became clear when Slotkin laid out “Don’t Give Up The Ship” in greater detail:

I mean, going back to Nuremberg, right, that, “Well, they told me to do it, that’s why I murdered people,” is not an excuse. If you look at popular culture, like, you watch, you know, “A Few Good Men,” like we have plenty of examples since World War II, in Vietnam, where people were told to follow illegal orders, and they did it, and they were prosecuted for it.

Invoking a movie as if it were a real-world example of being “told to follow illegal orders” exposed the cynicism of Slotkin and Kelly’s ploy. They could have mentioned specifics in the video, explaining what to do about the administration’s drug boat bombing campaign, under a cloud after the resignation of Southern Command chief Admiral Alvin Holsey, or the deployment of National Guard troops to streets of Democratic-run cities, already interrupted in some cases by judges.

Steering so far from specifics that the Code Red from A Few Good Men became the example, though, invited the entire population of military and intelligence officers to ponder their orders, not just in terms of legality but the potential to be “prosecuted for it,” as Slotkin put it. Underneath its lawyered veneer, the video was a clear message to the rank-and-file that they might be Nuremberged by a future administration, one presumably run by a party already comparing this one to the Third Reich.

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Where do you think these movies come from?

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