There's not much that Democrats and Republicans can agree on these days, except that there's been a sharp uptick in political violence and the rhetoric that leads to it.

And that rhetoric got a lot hotter this week when the sitting president of the United States on Thursday morning called for the execution of six lawmakers. This dangerous escalation and the signals that

he's sending to the extremists in his base is, I think, a first for an American president. Not even

Abraham Lincoln, who led a nation literally at war with itself and faced actual armed traitors

ever crossed that line.

It all started when six Democratic lawmakers who collectively shared decades of military and

intelligence experience released a short video on Tuesday urging members of the military and

the intelligence community to refuse unlawful orders, not orders in general, but unlawful

ones. The group includes Senators Alyssa Slotkin and

Mark Kelly, Congressman Jason Crow, and Chris Deluzio, and Congresswoman Chrissy Hulahan, and Maggie

Goodlander. Here's a clip from the video.

Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.

You can refuse illegal orders. You can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal

orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution. We know this is hard

and that it's a difficult time to be a public servant. But whether you're serving in the CIA,

the army, or Navy, the Air Force, your vigilance is critical. And know that we have your back.

Now, disobeying unlawful orders is neither illegal nor radical. Under U.S. military law, a service member can refuse a patently illegal order, one that directs the commission of a crime or violates the Constitution. And that is

exactly what these lawmakers were urging. Fidelity to the law, not rebellion. But Trump's response was to

accuse these lawmakers of seditious behavior punishable by death. In a series of aggressive posts on

Thursday morning, he raged, quote, each one of these

traitors to our country should be arrested and put on trial. Their words cannot be allowed to stand.

An example must be set. Trump also reposted a comment that read, hang them. George Washington

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