Elissa Slotkin acknowledges that Trump did not issue an illegal order to the military but holds him responsible for the threats she receives

Rep. Elissa Slotkin recognized that none of Donald Trump's orders to the Army had been illegal, amid controversy over a video in which the Democrat and five party colleagues tell the military that it must refuse to obey "illegal orders." In the release, none of the Democratic congressmen mention any specific orders.

"To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal...but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes, and everything related to Venezuela," Slotkin maintained during an interview on ABC's This Week.

However, the senator insisted her concern was not "hypothetical," stating, "This President, in his last administration, asked the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs to, quote, 'shoot at the legs' of unarmed protesters." Journalist Martha Raddatz immediately challenged the statement, noting that former Secretary Mark Esper, who recounted the episode, said the Republican had only "suggested" it, not ordered it.

Raddatz insisted that the Democrats' video seemed to indicate that the president had made some illegal order, and asked why the Democrats had not instead said, "If you are worried something is legal or not you should do this."

Slotkin countered that it was "just a broad statement," and cited the Nuremberg trials and the movie "Few Good Men" as examples of low-ranking personnel tried for following orders. He also insisted that he had received messages from junior officers who doubted the legality of the orders they had received.

Democrats denounce threats and hold Trump accountable

The authors of the video, all with military experience, claimed to have received threats after its publication. Slotkin followed suit in a weekend interview, taking direct aim at Trump:

"Leadership climate is set at the top. So, if the president is saying things like that, you can imagine people on the ground, what they’re doing, the calls into our office…into our teams, the calling of police."

He thus alluded to a Trump post in which the president reacted to the Democratic video by posting, "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" "The president took issue with one sentence in a video and was calling for our death, I think that’s inappropriate whether you’re democrat, republican or independent," Slotkin commented.

During the week, a spokeswoman for Slotkin claimed the senator had received a bomb threat. Four other congressmen also reported bomb threats.

The White House came out the same Thursday of Trump's publication to assure that the president simply demanded accountability, but not the execution of members of Congress. The president himself later reinforced this message, assuring that he was not threatening them with death.

In the final hours, he insisted that the Democrats should be tried, but did not again allude to the ultimate penalty:

"The traitors that told the military to disobey my orders should be in jail right now, not roaming the fake news networks trying to explain that what they said was ok. It wasn’t, and never will be! It was sedition at the highest level, and sedition is a major crime. there can be no other interpretation of what they said!"

"Many great legal scholars agree that the democrat traitors that told the military to disobey my orders, as president, have committed a crime of serious proportion!" he insisted shortly thereafter.