Brinkley: Justice Alito’s ‘Irresponsible’ SEAL Team 6 Comments ‘Mocking Our Military’

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” that Justice Samuel Alito’s comments about SEAL Team 6 were “mocking our military” during the Supreme Court oral arguments on former President Donald Trump’s claim that he is immune from prosecution.

Alito said, “One might argue that it isn’t plausibly legal to order SEAL Team 6, and I don’t want to slander SEAL Team 6 because they’re, no, seriously they’re honorable, they’re honorable officers and they are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice not to obey unlawful orders. I think one could say it’s not plausible that is legal, that that action would be legal. I’ve thought of lots of hypotheticals. I’m sure you’ve thought of lots of hypotheticals where a president could say, ‘I’m using an official power,’ and yet the president uses it in an absolutely outrageous manner.”

Brinkley said, “Yeah. I mean, look, I thought Justice Alito was deeply irresponsible to even throw SEAL Team 6 into this. They’re more than honorable, they’re heroes to the American people. To kind of start playing this game of, you know, they wouldn’t have been able to do what they do and all of this it’s ridiculous. We’re dealing with a highly politicized court. We haven’t wanted to believe it. There is no immunity for presidents in our constitution.”

He added, “I feel that the court is mocking our military. It makes me sad because I spent a lot of my time tape recording, you know, veterans about the anniversary of January 6th. Our military and our CIA knows what they’re doing and the idea that a president is going to, you know, has this power to basically bring the military into being a tool of the White House goes totally against our great gift, our civilian democracy. The court is stumbling in a terrible way today.”

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