Episode 150 | Trump’s Retaliation Campaign Goes Off the Rails

It's Complicated

Renato Mariotti

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Several Democratic lawmakers recently released a video reminding members of the U.S. military that they can refuse illegal orders. An angry President Trump called the lawmakers traitors and accused them of sedition on Truth Social. After Trump’s post, the Pentagon announced it’s looking into allegations of “misconduct” by one of the lawmakers, Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot, and the FBI appears to be investigating the others. Asha and Renato discuss this latest abuse of power by Trump and whether the investigations are a menacing message to former military officials. Plus, they break down a federal judge’s dismissal of the James Comey and Letitia James indictments and the chances of those cases going away. Listen up!Asha Substack: https://asharangappa.substack.com/Subscribe to our podcast: https://link.chtbl.com/its-complicatedFollow Asha on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/asharangappa.bsky.socialFollow Renato on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/renatomariotti.bsky.socialFollow Asha on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/asha.rangappa/Follow Renato on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renato.mariotti/Cruise with us! https://www.travelstore.com/group-travel/its-complicated-cruise-2026/Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalAFMTN?sub_confirmation=1 Legal AF Substack: https://substack.com/@legalaf Follow Legal AF on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/legalafmtn.bsky.social Follow Michael Popok on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mspopok.bsky.social Subscribe to the Legal AF by MeidasTouch podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-af-by-meidastouch/id1580828595 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Have you ever wondered what a sandwich sounds like?
0:03.0	Not much to it is there?
0:06.0	Unless of course, it's a Walker's sandwich.
0:10.0	Mmm, that is good.
0:13.0	Now that's what Asani should sound like.
0:15.0	Go all crisp in with walkers.
0:18.0	Delicious.
0:20.0	So Renato, how far can the Trump administration go to punish lawmakers who speak out against them?
0:27.1	It's complicated.
0:33.1	I'm Renata Marietti.
0:34.8	I'm a former federal prosecutor, a practicing lawyer, and a legal analyst.
0:39.0	And I'm Asherangappa. I teach national security law at Yale University. I'm a former FBI special agent.
0:45.7	And I'm the author of The Freedom Academy Substack.
0:48.9	And we're here to help you understand topics that can't be boiled down into a sound bite or a skeet.
0:59.6	So, Asha, what an insane action by the Secretary of Supposedly War, Pete Heth, and I know so dumb.
1:11.2	And the Trump made sure.
1:12.6	Yeah.
1:13.2	It just got dumber, guys.
1:15.4	So I guess we've all seen this commercial, this, I add commercial, I think, video that these lawmakers made.
1:27.7	They're lawmakers who are veterans, former service members,
1:33.3	basically speaking to active duty service members
1:37.6	and telling them that they do not have to follow illegal orders.
	...

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