Colorado Rep. Jason Crow said he is facing death threats after President Donald Trump suggested he and several other Democrats committed a capital offense by telling members of the military and intelligence communities to “refuse illegal orders.”
“Trump called for my arrest, prosecution, and execution. Almost immediately, the threats exploded — against me, my family, and my office,” Crow tweeted Friday.
Crow shared audio from people who left him messages saying he deserves to die and wishing graphic deaths upon his family.
“I hope whoever blows your f—ing brains out records it because I would like to watch,” one caller said.
“You disgraced America, and I hope you die today, but not before your family does,” another said.
“All Americans must condemn this political violence,” Crow wrote in the post.
Crow is one of six Democratic lawmakers — all of whom have served in either the military or the intelligence community themselves — who said in a video, “You can refuse illegal orders.” That phrasing alludes to a tenet of military law that protects subordinates who disobey “a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime.”
The lawmakers said they made the comments to those actively working in the defense and intelligence sectors partly in response to Trump’s deployment of troops to major U.S. cities for crime and immigration enforcement operations.
Crow, in a PBS NewsHour interview, pointed to examples such as Trump saying he will “go to war with Chicago and send troops into our cities,” adding that several federal courts have ruled those deployments illegal.
Trump quickly responded to the lawmakers Thursday on Truth Social, saying, “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reshared a post that said, “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”
Trump’s comments were widely condemned as a call for violence. Even some Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham, called them “over the top.”
Trump attempted to clarify his comments following the backlash.
“I would say they’re in serious trouble. I’m not threatening death,” Trump said Friday in an interview on Brian Kilmeade’s conservative radio show. “But I think they’re in serious trouble. In the old days, it was death. That was seditious behavior.”
The White House did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment on Crow’s post.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.