{"id":172708,"date":"2025-11-22T00:59:27","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T00:59:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-he-wasnt-threatening-democrats-he-accused-of-seditious-behavior-punishable-by-death-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T00:59:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T00:59:27","slug":"trump-says-he-wasnt-threatening-democrats-he-accused-of-seditious-behavior-punishable-by-death-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-he-wasnt-threatening-democrats-he-accused-of-seditious-behavior-punishable-by-death-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he wasn't threatening Democrats he accused of 'seditious behavior, punishable by death' – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WASHINGTON \u2014 <\/strong>President Donald Trump said Friday that he\u2019s \u201cnot threatening death\u201d toward a group of Democratic members of Congress whom he accused of committing \u201cseditious behavior,\u201d<\/a> which he said a day earlier was \u201cpunishable by death.\u201d
\u201cIn the old days, if you said a thing like that, that was punishable by death,\u201d Trump said in an interview Friday on conservative Brian Kilmeade\u2019s radio show when asked to clarify what he meant.
The president’s latest remarks come after he lodged the accusation and warning Thursday after Democratic lawmakers, many of whom are veterans, released a video<\/a> urging members of the military and intelligence community not to follow illegal orders.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who previously worked at the CIA and Defense Department, on Tuesday shared the video of herself and other former members of the military and intelligence community.
\u201cThis administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens. Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution. Right now, the threats coming to our Constitution aren\u2019t just coming from abroad but from right here at home. Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders,\u201d they said. \u201cNo one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.\u201d
The other participants included Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Reps. Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Jason Crow of Colorado.
Trump responded to their video message in multiple posts on Truth Social, including one where he said, \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR<\/a>, punishable by DEATH!\u201d He also reposted other posts such as one that said, \u201cHang them George Washington would.\u201d
The president denied that he threatened the members of Congress: \u201cI think they\u2019re in serious trouble. I would say they\u2019re in serious trouble. I\u2019m not threatening death, but I think they\u2019re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death. That was seditious behavior.\u201d
Asked to respond to Trump’s latest comments Friday, Slotkin’s office referred to remarks she made Thursday night on MS NOW<\/a>, saying that she received threats instantaneously and Capitol Police told her she’d be put on 24\/7 security.
“We\u2019ve got law enforcement out in front of my house,” she said. “It changes things immediately. And leadership climate is set from the top. And if the president is saying you should be hanged, then we shouldn\u2019t be surprised when folks on the ground are going to follow suit and say even worse.”
Crow said in a statement Friday evening that “Trump’s Truth Social posts threatening to execute Democratic Members of Congress speak for themselves.”
\u201cNo matter his attempts to silence and intimidate me, I will not back down from my lifetime oath to uphold and defend the Constitution,\u201d he said.
Kelly, Deluzio, Houlahan and Goodlander didn\u2019t immediately respond to requests for comment in response to Trump\u2019s assertion Friday that he wasn\u2019t threatening death.
Trump said that the lawmakers who appeared in the video \u201cbroke the law,\u201d and added, \u201cI can say if I ever said that and there were a Democrat as president, all hell would have broken loose. And it has broken loose.\u201d <\/strong>The president said that he believes Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is investigating the situation.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the idea Thursday that the president was calling for members of Congress to be executed. \u201cNo,\u201d she said when asked that question, later adding that the Democrats\u2019 comments are \u201ca very, very dangerous message and it perhaps is punishable by law. I\u2019m not a lawyer. I\u2019ll leave that to the Department of Justice and the Department of War to decide.\u201d
Threats and violence against public officials<\/a> have surged in recent years, including the two attempted<\/a> assassinations<\/a> of Trump while he was campaigning for president last year. A recent NBC News poll<\/a> found that more than 6 in 10 registered voters said they thought \u201cextreme political rhetoric\u201d contributed in the September assassination<\/a> of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who said Thursday he wouldn’t have used the same language as Trump, was asked Friday about the rise in threats against people serving in elected office and whether Trump has a responsibility to tone down the heated rhetoric.
\u201cI don\u2019t think you can put the blame on the president for any of that,\u201d Johnson told reporters. \u201cThe rhetoric is heated all the way around. We\u2019ve had Democrats throughout this Congress who have in essence encouraged political violence against the president himself, against Republicans. I\u2019ve been calling on people to turn down the rhetoric across the board, everywhere, throughout the institutions. It\u2019s a dangerous time.\u201d
Crow, who served in the Army, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday that he was receiving more threats since Trump\u2019s posts. His office has formally requested that the U.S. Capitol Police investigate the president\u2019s posts, referring to them as \u201cintimidating, threatening, and concerning,\u201d according to a copy of the email reviewed by NBC News.
\u201cI write to report threats made by the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, against Congressman Jason Crow,\u201d Crow\u2019s office begins the email, which outlined the Truth Social posts and said his offices have received \u201ca significant uptick in calls and emails with violent rhetoric and additional threats.\u201d Axios first reported<\/a> the letter. Capitol Police doesn\u2019t typically comment on potential investigations, but requesting a probe into the sitting president is a long shot.
\u201cYou know, when the president of the United States tweets out death threats and says the things that he says that, you know, that stirs things up a lot,\u201d Crow said Friday. \u201cBut again, I\u2019m not going to be incredibly intimidated, and certainly not going to change my approach.\u201d
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who served in the Marines, told NBC News he has seen an uptick in online vitriol since the president’s comments on sedition.
\u201cClearly the president knew exactly what he was doing, trying to turn his online digital mob against these members of Congress,\u201d he said in an interview Friday, while in Chicago to talk to small businesses about the impact of recent immigration operations.
\u201cThe fact is that, what they\u2019re [Democrats are] saying is very much what you do when you join the military. … You should not follow any orders that are illegal, very simple,” he added. “And the fact that he took it so personally tells you, tells me he just didn\u2019t understand the military. He thinks that they\u2019re his toy. They\u2019re not there to protect the Constitution United States.\u201d
Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.
Sarah Dean is a White House Producer for NBC News.
© 2025 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeWASHINGTON \u2014 President Donald Trump said Friday that he\u2019s \u201cnot threatening death\u201d toward a group of Democratic members of Congress whom he accused of committing \u201cseditious behavior,\u201d which he said a day earlier was \u201cpunishable by death.\u201d \u201cIn the old days, if you said a thing like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172709,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}