Democrat Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is facing a firestorm after suggesting that he believes members of the U.S. armed forces should “save us” from President Donald Trump.
This remark openly flirts with the idea of a military coup against the duly elected commander-in-chief.
Warner and other Democrats have spent weeks accusing the Trump Administration of committing “war crimes” over naval strikes on Venezuelan drug-trafficking vessels.
Those accusations center on a Washington Post article sourced to unnamed individuals, a story that has already been debunked.
The false Post story claims War Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized follow-up strikes intended to kill survivors.
But on Wednesday, Warner escalated the rhetoric dramatically.
During an appearance on MS NOW, Warner blasted Trump and Hegseth for removing Obama/Biden-era DEI commanders and restoring traditional military leadership and Warrior Ethos.
“This is an administration that has fired uniformed generals, from the head of the NSA, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency,” he complained.
Then came the line that ignited immediate backlash.
“I think uh… uh in many ways, the uniformed military may help save us from this president and his lame people like Hegseth because I think their commitment is to the Constitution and obviously not to Trump,” Warner said.
WATCH:
To conservatives, the meaning was unmistakable: a sitting U.S. senator appeared to endorse the idea of uniformed military personnel defying, or even overthrowing, the president.
“They’re now just openly calling for military coups against President Trump,” said conservative strategist Greg Price.
Others went further.
“When Mark Warner’s Russian Collusion coup failed he should’ve been punished,” one commenter wrote.
“When Mark Warner’s Ukrainian Impeachment coup failed he should’ve been punished. He wasn’t.
“Now Mark Warner is calling for a military coup.”
Other critics argued that Warner’s remarks amounted to sedition and said he should be arrested.
A Pattern on the Left
Warner’s comments are the latest in a growing trend of Democrats hinting, implicitly or explicitly, that the military should act as a political counterweight to Trump.
Last month, six Democratic lawmakers released a video instructing service members that they can and “must refuse illegal orders.”
At no point did they identify any such “illegal” orders from Trump, and the video was conveniently followed by the false Washington Post story.
“We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now,” the lawmakers said.
“Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home.
“You can refuse illegal orders… you must refuse illegal orders.”
Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has also floated the idea of the military acting as an unofficial branch of government to restrain Trump.
“Military members have told me, ‘We can be a check,’” Swalwell said.
“Their honor and integrity might just save us.”
White House Responds
The Trump administration has dismissed the “war crimes” accusations as baseless, politically motivated, and rooted in false reporting.
Secretary Hegseth has repeatedly emphasized that the strikes have targeted narco-terrorists responsible for sending poison into the United States.
From the White House perspective, the pattern is clear as Democrat officials are laying the rhetorical foundation to justify military defiance against the president, something unheard of in modern American politics.
And Warner, critics say, has now said the quiet part out loud.
READ MORE – Trump Signals ‘Military Courts’ Investigating Democrats Behind ‘Traitorous Statement’
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