Originally published The Philadelphia Inquirer
Written by Sam Janesch

President Donald Trump’s threat Tuesday to eliminate the “whole civilization” of Iran unless its leaders capitulate to his demands would be the “epitome of an illegal order” if he were to follow through, said U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran who has been an outspoken critic of Trump on military issues.

Houlahan (D., Chester) was among a group of Democrats that Trump targeted in recent months with allegations of sedition for more broadly telling service members to refuse such orders. On Tuesday, she quickly decried Trump’s threat against Iran, describing it as a dire escalation of a conflict in which the president has been unconstrained by Congress.

Iran’s civilization, Trump wrote on social media early Tuesday, would “die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iranian leadership did not agree to a deal.

Trump pulled back on his threat to widen attacks to include civilian infrastructure subject to Iran agreeing to a two-week ceasefire and reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the Associated Press reported Tuesday evening.

Houlahan said in a statement earlier in the day that the president’s message was “a betrayal of 249 years of American excellence, diplomacy and alliance.”

“On the same day that our nation’s brave and patriotic astronauts stare down on our tender and fragile Earth, the President of the United States just unleashed a vile and hateful threat to wipe the ancient civilization of Iran from it,” she said. “In the strongest terms possible, I condemn these despicable words.”

Her reference to illegal orders came nearly five months after she and five other Democratic veterans warned of such crimes in a video aimed at active-duty members of the military and intelligence agencies. Trump raged against the video, calling their message “seditious behavior” that was “punishable by death.”

The lawmakers soon reported receiving bomb threats to their offices. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia also pursued a case against the lawmakers, but it was rejected by a grand jury in February. It was unclear what crimes were alleged, Houlahan said at the time.

The lawmakers had maintained their original message was not referring to any specific orders.

But an order to destroy an entire civilization and bomb every bridge and power plant, as Trump has indicated in recent statements, would rise to the level of illegal military conduct, Houlahan said in an interview.

“Those senior most commanders, combatant commanders, in my opinion would have no choice but to view that as being illegal and against the law of war and against all of the things that we’ve all been educated on,” Houlahan said. “They would be in very difficult legal jeopardy.”

If the commander-in-chief and military leaders issue such orders, there are also protocols in place for lower-level officers who are executing orders to ensure they are focused on military, not civilian, targets, Houlahan said.

Reiterating a point she and other Democratic veterans have been making for months, she said military personnel do not just have the authority to refuse illegal orders, but they are required to do so.

“This is just a really, really worrisome time, to be understated about it,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D., Mich.), who was also in the group of Democrats who previously reminded service members to “refuse illegal orders,” said in a statement that “it’s moments like these that are why we made the video to service members last year.”

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D., Allegheny), a Navy veteran who was also part of the group, said in a new video that Trump was now “openly contemplating war crimes.”

Other Pennsylvania Democrats also joined the chorus.

U.S. Reps. Dwight Evans and Brendan Boyle, from Philadelphia, both called Trump’s comments “deranged” in separate statements.

“It’s deranged and sick coming from anyone, let alone the president of the United States,” Evans said. “Any congressional Republican who remains silent is complicit. GOP majority leadership must bring Congress back to DC NOW and rein in Trump’s warmongering.”

Evans, Deluzio, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee (D., Allegheny), and U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D., Montgomery) were among a growing list of Democrats who called for Trump’s removal from office in the wake of the threat.

“It is 25th Amendment time,” said Dean, referencing the amendment that enables the vice president and a majority of the cabinet to declare the president incapacitated.

Pennsylvania’s highest-ranking Republican official, U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, had not commented by Tuesday afternoon but has vocally supported Trump’s actions in Iran in the weeks since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on the nation in February.

In a podcast interview recorded before Trump’s latest threats (but posted after them), the senator said it was a moment that “could be profound for the future of the Middle East.”

“But also we’re seeing a radical change in the nature of warfare playing out before our very eyes,” McCormick said in the interview with the Ronald Reagan Institute.

While critics of the war said Trump has not justified the attacks, McCormick said the “mission is clearly defined” — destruction of Iran’s ballistic missiles, drones, manufacturing capabilities, and ability to develop a nuclear weapon.

“We are making real progress, enormous progress, toward those goals,” he said. “Though this was never going to be easy.”

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat who has been his party’s most enthusiastic backer of the war, did not immediately comment Tuesday on the latest rhetoric.

Others described it as extremely troubling more than a month into a war that Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, had not authorized.

State Sen. Sharif Street, who is competing in the Democratic primary race to succeed the retiring Evans, called it “completely outrageous” in a group interview with The Inquirer Editorial Board on Tuesday.

“Any president that is literally sending late-night drunk text messages about what he wants to do in a war is not, cannot be trusted to act without congressional oversight,” Street said.

Ala Stanford, a physician also in the race, said it was “embarrassing that this is the leader of the United States.”

State Rep. Chris Rabb, comparing the attacks to the war in Gaza that he has called a genocide, said, “now our president is talking about a wanton genocide in Iran.”

Rabb has positioned himself as the progressive candidate in the race, with endorsements from organizations who have backed members of the progressive group in Congress known as the Squad.

Lee, the only current member of the Squad from Pennsylvania, similarly described Trump’s latest comments as genocidal while calling for him to be removed from office.

“This is sick and twisted from anyone, much less the president of the United States,” Lee said on social media. “Trump’s genocidal language and indiscriminate warfare cannot be normalized or accepted. He should be removed from office.”

Houlahan said there is little chance of removing Trump through the 25th Amendment or impeachment in the Republican-controlled Congress, which has rejected war powers resolutions aimed at reining in the president’s actions in Iran.

Trump was impeached twice during his first term, but was acquitted in each of his Senate trials.

Houlahan said she is instead focused on publicly pressuring Republican colleagues at “a time when silence is complicity.”

“We’ve been blasted by phone calls [from constituents] all day, begging us to do something,” she said Tuesday afternoon. “I can only do something as part of a team, and that team is Congress.”