Wes Moore: Trump Has Authority Under Insurrection Act, But Doesn't Have 'Moral Clarity', Fact Soldiers Have to Wonder if Orders Are Legal Shows Problem

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MS NOW’s “The Briefing,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) said that “technically, the president does have the authority to operationalize the Insurrection Act, in the case where something like that becomes essentially your last tool, right? The challenge is, is that this is not about the authority of the president. This is about, does it have both the moral clarity and the operational necessity for it to be real?” He also said that the fact that soldiers have to think if the orders they’re getting are lawful, “underscores the fundamental problem with the operations that are taking place right now, and the fundamental challenge that we are now asking our servicemembers to put themselves into.”

Host Jen Psaki asked, “You and I have talked in the past about, just the fact that anyone who’s active-service military does not have any obligation, nor should they abide by or follow unlawful orders. And we’ve heard a number of people make that argument. Have you thought about what advice you would give to men and women serving now, who might be asked to be a part of the Insurrection Act, or might be — are being asked to potentially deploy to Minnesota? Are those legal actions that they should be abiding by? What advice would you give the servicemen and women being asked?”

Moore answered, “Well, this is the challenge of this situation because, technically, the president does have the authority to operationalize the Insurrection Act, in the case where something like that becomes essentially your last tool, right? The challenge is, is that this is not about the authority of the president. This is about, does it have both the moral clarity and the operational necessity for it to be real? And those are fundamentally different questions. And for each and every one of us, we did, we had to take an oath that we would follow the orders of the command, the lawful orders of the commander-in-chief. The challenge is, the idea that we even have soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines and Coast Guardsmen who even have to think for a second about whether or not the order that I’m getting, is it lawful or not, highlights and underscores the fundamental problem with the operations that are taking place right now, and the fundamental challenge that we are now asking our servicemembers to put themselves into.”

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