Illegal Orders, Liberal Hypocrisy, and Fake Outrage

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

26 Nov 2025

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Senator Mark Kelly. Image KTAR.com

Democrats recruit military veterans and former intelligence agency operatives to run for office to prove their pro-war credentials. A contrived fight with Donald Trump shouldn’t fool anyone.

A group of six United States senators and members of congress recently released a 90-second video in which they assert that members of the military can and in fact should refuse to carry out orders that are illegal. Article 92 in the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) states that lawful orders must be obeyed and unlawful orders should not be carried out. While the assertion should not be controversial, the question of what is lawful or unlawful is not always clear. Military service personnel are at great personal risk should they attempt to make the distinction themselves. But the point of the video was not to educate the military or the public but to engage in anti-Trumpism and get votes for democrats in the 2026 mid-term elections.

Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and congress members Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Chrissy Houlahan are all democrats and all are either military veterans or former security state operatives. Their relationship with the military and agencies such as the CIA gives them a greater degree of legitimacy with the liberal class in making their case but that status is part of what also makes them problematic. Donald Trump’s predictable meltdown proclaiming them guilty of sedition and threatening them with execution has garnered attention, but his outburst should not be the focus of what is yet another Democratic Party effort to emphasize its war making bonafides while also getting their voters to the polls.

The democrats have been recruiting military and intelligence veterans to run for office for some time. In 2018, they won control of the House in part with election victories from women whom they dubbed the “Badasses,” military veterans and former intelligence agency spooks. Now these “Badasses” are called “Hellcats.” The language may be laughable but the strategy is the same, a nod to feminism cloaked in militarism which will supposedly make democrats look tough and therefore more appealing to both conservative and liberal voters.

The video does not make clear what orders are in question but there is a reference to the administration, “... pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.” Presumably they refer to the Trump administration deploying the National Guard to major U.S. cities in what he calls an effort to, “... help quell civil disturbances,” that is to say criminalize political protest.

Trump didn’t just call for executing the six, although he later walked back those remarks, but the Pentagon threatened to reinstate the retired Senator Kelly back into the navy for the purpose of prosecuting him for “seditious acts.” The administration added to the drama by requesting that the FBI meet with all of the lawmakers. Their anti-Trump gambit certainly worked, as liberals are now apoplectic about the threats against the officials.

Senators Kelly and Slotkin have expressed concern about the legality of the airstrikes that have killed nearly 100 people off the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of South America as part of the justification for attacking Venezuela. Yet neither of them have opposed U.S. policies of sanctioning Venezuela and destroying its economy or questioning the supposition that the U.S. has a right to decide who runs that country or any other for that matter. Kelly and Slotkin could simply say that they oppose any threat to Venezuela. Instead they use weasel words and anti-Trump rhetoric to give an impression of a difference that does not exist. Airstrikes and videos with military themed background music are no substitute for policy change and this entire brouhaha is proof of foreign policy agreement within the duopoly.

Focusing on the legality or morality of killing fishermen in Venezuela should not let anyone off the hook. Not only does the U.S. have no right to attack Venezuela, but there is no drug trafficking from that region of South America to any U.S. territory, the Cartel de los Soles allegedly run by president Maduro does not actually exist, and Kelly and Slotkin and their colleagues should just say so rather than record videos ending with the words, “Don’t give up the ship!”

Donald Trump makes it easy to defend anyone he attacks when he said that these members of congress ought to be executed, hanged as “George Washington would do.” Let us not fall for nonsense or take part in dubious expressions of outrage. The United States is not threatened by Venezuela in any way and that means any attack on that nation is illegal. If a more sophisticated administration were in office, then the six officials would likely have said nothing.

The Hellcats and Badasses are just as imperialist as their republican colleagues. Trump’s temper tantrums cannot be the basis for judging whether or not the U.S. can inflict sabotage, decapitate Venezuela’s leadership, or bomb that nation’s people. If they believe sending National Guard and federal law enforcement to patrol the streets of U.S. cities is wrong, they can make a determination in opposition to those actions without resorting to bad theater.

The case against U.S. aggression in Venezuela or Somalia or anywhere else could easily be made by members of congress but public opposition from them is always rare. More than twenty years ago George W. Bush’s administration claimed that the Iraqi government had weapons of mass destruction that endangered the United States. Everyone who was at all serious in judging those claims knew them to be untrue. Yet the U.S. still invaded that nation and there are U.S. troops occupying Iraq to this day. There are obvious lies being told about Venezuela in order to justify war, but it is also obvious that if the Trump administration chooses to take military action they will not be stopped by anyone in the Senate or the House.

Public support for any action against Venezuela is in the minority, even with constant war propaganda about cartels and terrorism. Yet there is no anti-war representation in Washington. Let the “seditious” six talk about that but they will not. They get institutional support and money to run for office because of their military and state service and support for defense spending and U.S. imperialism. Now they are cynically used to give the impression of opposition that is as real as Cartel de los Soles.

They have done their job as foils and Trump has not disappointed with his childish expressions of outrage. Senator Kelly should not be reinstated to navy service so that he can possibly be court martialed, but he also should not be viewed as a friend to anyone who advocates for peaceful outcomes and who opposes U.S. aggressions. The Hellcats may have a catchy moniker. They do not offer the policy changes that the people need or want. No one should fall for the foolish hype.

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and also find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram platforms. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.