Journalist Matt Taibbi on Wednesday said that Democratsâ call for the military and intelligence community to disobey President Donald Trumpâs administration was reminiscent of the start of Russiagate.
Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin posted a video to X on Tuesday in which she and five congressional colleagues â all with prior military or intelligence experience â instructed service members and intelligence personnel to ârefuse illegal orders.â Taibbi said on the âAfter Party with Emily Jashinskyâ podcast that the video reminded him of Russiagate because of how it weakens the credibility of the United States.
âItâs such blatant, bad, overwrought propaganda. And this whole idea of you can refuse to obey illegal orders â well, thatâs always been true. And weâve had a gazillion uh illegalities in government that the Democrats didnât say a word about for decades,â Taibbi said. âSo why now? And also just this general notion of encouraging an uprising essentially â I donât know. I mean, there are so many things about modern Politics that just make you shake your head and say weâre just in this new territory. I donât even know how to think about it, honestly.â
âThatâs beyond insubordinate or unhelpful? It reminds me again of the beginning of Russiagate when there were all these leaks about encouraging people not to share intelligence with the United States,â he continued. âYes, that made Trump look bad, but it also made the United States look weak and vulnerable and sent the signal that the country was in schism and maybe the government was not stable. Is that what theyâre trying to project? I mean, is that right? I donât think so.â
American intelligence personnel cautioned Israeli counterparts that then-president-elect Trumpâs supposed links to Russia might threaten security, claiming there was a possibility that information from the Trump administration could leak from Moscow to Iran, The Times of Israel reported in January 2017, citing a Hebrew-language daily.
While the Democrats did not identify a single illegal order the Trump administration has issued, their video comes amid criticism of lethal American strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean. However, Democrats did not make a similar video during former President Joe Bidenâs administration, which conducted missile strikes in Syria without congressional approval â although there was bipartisan backlash.
Moreover, Bidenâs Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated service members take the COVID-19 vaccine and discharged over 8,000 service members for refusing.
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