Johnson said it was the Democrats who were acting “wildly inappropriate” by suggesting military members should disobey unlawful orders.
Speaker Mike Johnson defended Donald Trump’s declaration Thursday that some congressional Democrats engaged in “sedition” after the president suggested those Democrats should be executed Thursday.
Johnson said it was the Democrats who were acting “wildly inappropriate” by suggesting that military members should disobey unlawful orders from Trump. By post “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH,” according to Johnson, Trump was simply “defining the crime of sedition.”
“That is a factual statement,” Johnson said, adding attorneys would have to “parse” the language in the criminal act.
Trump had previously reposted another Truth Social user, who wrote, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!”
Johnson said he did not see the full scope of Trump’s comments and reposts, but he joined in Trump’s attacks on the six House and Senate Democrats who posted a video addressing military members.
“For a senator like Mark Kelly or any member of the House or Senate to behave in that kind of talks is to me so just beyond the pale,” Johnson said, before telling reporters, “I’m not going to say anything more on it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune pushed back on Trump’s suggestion of executions, saying, “I don’t agree with that.” But he, too, criticized Democrats: “Obviously everybody has a First Amendment right [but] what they did was ill-advised and provocative and unnecessary.”
Later in the day — after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that Trump did not actually want to execute members of Congress — Johnson softened his remarks, saying that “the words that the president chose are not the ones that I would use.”
“Obviously, I don’t think that … these are crimes punishable by death or any of that,” Johnson said. “But what the point [that] we need to emphasize here is that members of Congress in the Senate [and] House should not be telling troops to disobey orders. It is dangerous.”
Speaking in a morning floor speech, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced Trump’s comments, saying the president “is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline.”
“Every senator, every representative, every American regardless of party should condemn this immediately and without qualification,” he said. ” Because if we don’t draw a line here, there is no line left to draw.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.