Rep. Seth Moulton: It’d be military’s ‘responsibility’ to disobey Donald Trump
If Donald Trump becomes president, Rep. Seth Moulton says it would be the “responsibility” of military members to disobey him on proposals the Massachusetts congressman says are unconstitutional.
The former Marine Corps officers made the comments in an interview with WGBH’s Boston Public Radio Thursday afternoon. Moulton was asked what soldiers should do if they were to receive a hypothetical order from Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, that they consider to be unlawful.
“Well, you disobey it,” said the 37-year-old Marblehead representative, who serves on the House’s Armed Services committee.
“The oath we swear as members of the military is to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Moulton said. “It’s not an oath of allegiance to the commander-in-chief. And specific in that oath it says to obey lawful orders.”
Asked for examples of what orders merit such a rebuke, Moulton specifically cited Trump’s support for torture, his proposed immigration ban on Muslims, and his calls to “take out” the families of terrorists.
Moulton isn’t the first person to suggest the military would refuse a potential President Trump’s orders. Former CIA director Michael Hayden said in February that “the American armed forces would refuse to act” if Trump were to follow through on his pledge to kill terrorists’ family members—which, as Politifact points out, is against Geneva Convention rules of war.
Trump’s proposal to block Muslims from entering the United States is considered unconstitutional, according legal experts interviewed by the Associated Press. Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union published a memo on a slate of Trump campaign pledges they would challenge in court as unconstitutional.
During the interview Thursday, Moulton also criticized Trump for “castigating” the United States’ international allies, as well as the Republican nominee’s calls for Russian hackers to publish Hillary Clinton’s emails and his praise for President Vladimir Putin.
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