Justice Alito’s ‘Irresponsible’ SEAL Team 6 Comments ‘Mocking Our Military’

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley spoke Thursday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” about Justice Samuel Alito’s remarks about SEAL Team 6 during Supreme Court oral arguments on former President Donald Trump’s immunity from prosecution. “This is a mockery of our military,” he said.

Alito said, “Some may argue that it’s not plausibly legal to order SEAL Team 6, but I’m not trying to denigrate SEAL Team 6 because they, no, seriously… They’re honorable, they’re honorable officers, and that’s who they are.” They are obligated by the Uniform Code of Military Justice not to obey unlawful orders. I think it’s implausible that that is legal, that the act is legal. I thought of many hypotheses. I’m sure you’ve thought of a lot of hypotheticals where a president says, “I’m exercising official power,” but he uses that power in a completely outrageous way. ”

Brinkley replied, “Yes. I mean, I thought it was totally irresponsible of Judge Alito to bring Team 6 of the SEALs into this. They are more than an honor, they are heroes to the American people. They couldn’t have done what they were doing, and this is all nonsense. We’re dealing with a highly politicized court. We don’t want to believe that. There is no presidential immunity in our Constitution.”