{"id":215850,"date":"2026-07-03T16:52:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/air-force-officer-arrested-at-capitol-after-calling-for-trumps-impeachment-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T16:52:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T16:52:48","slug":"air-force-officer-arrested-at-capitol-after-calling-for-trumps-impeachment-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/air-force-officer-arrested-at-capitol-after-calling-for-trumps-impeachment-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force officer arrested at Capitol after calling for Trump\u2019s impeachment – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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An Air Force major was arrested in uniform on the steps of the Capitol after he called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump<\/a>.
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U.S. Capitol Police arrested Jason Watson, an active-duty service member<\/a>, on Wednesday afternoon following remarks at a news conference<\/a> where he said Trump and Vice President JD Vance should be removed from office.
The event was organized by the Removal Coalition, a group that lobbies members of Congress to impeach Trump, and attended by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas,<\/a> who has repeatedly introduced articles of impeachment against Trump.
\u201cI\u2019m here with him because Rep. Green is the only member of Congress that has demonstrated the courage and conviction to … force a vote on articles of impeachment,\u201d Watson said at the event. \u201cIf Congress followed his example, we could remove the entire Trump administration, but Congress remains unconvinced of the urgency and necessity for them to honor their oaths, so we must persuade them with our unrelenting, uncompromising civil resistance.\u201d
Watson said he is not a Democrat and does not share policy positions with Green, who lost his re-election bid<\/a> this year. In a post on X<\/a> Wednesday, Green said, \u201cI was there to witness a major in the United States military bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice.\u201d
Capitol Police said in a statement that it \u201cis generally against the law for the public to demonstrate on the House Steps unless they are with a Member of Congress.\u201d
\u201cYesterday afternoon, a man was escorted to the House Steps by a Member of Congress,\u201d the statement said. \u201cWhen the Member of Congress left the area, our officers gave the man lawful orders to stop the illegal demonstration or he would be arrested. The man refused our lawful orders.\u201d
Capitol Police identified the man as Watson, adding that he was arrested on charges of \u201cCrowding, Obstructing, and Incommoding\u201d and that it is legal to protest in other spots on the Capitol grounds.
Watson is currently being held in custody at an air force base, according to Jessica Denson, the founder of the Removal Coalition. Denson said she expects significant charges to be filed against Watson; she added that was also Watson\u2019s own expectation going into Wednesday\u2019s protest.
Service members are subject to stricter laws than the average citizen when it comes to protesting. The Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits officers from \u201cusing contemptuous language towards the President, Vice president, the Secretaries of War and of a military department, Congress, and certain other officials,\u201d according to an Air Force memo last year.
An Air Force spokesperson said in a statement Thursday: \u201cService members must comply with all laws, regulations and policies governing conduct and the wear of the uniform. All Department of the Air Force personnel are expected to uphold the highest standards of discipline and professionalism, both on and off duty.\u201d
All service members, not just members of the Air Force, are prohibited from participating in \u201cpolitical activities\u201d in uniform.
Watson\u2019s criticism of Trump and Vance focused on the administration\u2019s actions in Venezuela and Iran, calling them \u201can unconstitutional usurpation of Congress\u2019 authority and a violation of the War Powers Clause.\u201d
\u201cThese violations resulted in the deaths of 13 service members and injuries of hundreds more,\u201d he said, referring to the number of U.S. military deaths tied to the Iran war. \u201cFor this, the president and vice president must be impeached, convicted and removed.\u201d
Watson also called the administration\u2019s immigration policies and tactics unconstitutional.
Denson said it is ironic that Watson was arrested in the days leading up to July Fourth, \u201cconsidering that you have somebody who\u2019s speaking out about the very tyranny that we declared independence from 250 years ago,\u201d and added, \u201cthat should be lost on no one.\u201d
Desk assistant at NBC News Washington.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeAn Air Force major was arrested in uniform on the steps of the Capitol after he called for the impeachment of President Donald Trump.Limited time: Save 25% on NBC News subscriptionGet exclusive reporting, live Q&As and ad-free reading.U.S. Capitol Police arrested Jason Watson, an active-duty service member, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215851,"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-215850","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\/215850","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=215850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}