Episode 11: The Seditious Six

Episode 11 of The Reagan Faulkner Show, “The Seditious Six,” analyzes a controversial video in which six Democratic lawmakers with military and national security backgrounds urge U.S. service members not to obey “illegal orders” from President Trump. Reagan highlights how the video references refusing unlawful commands in general terms but never identifies a specific order, which critics such as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump argue creates dangerous ambiguity inside the chain of command. The episode frames this as more than routine political messaging, portraying it as a direct appeal over the heads of military leadership to individual troops at a volatile moment.​

Faulkner then explores how the “Seditious Six” label emerged as the administration and conservative commentators accused the lawmakers of encouraging insubordination or even sedition. The show notes that the Pentagon opened an inquiry into Senator Mark Kelly and that the FBI is seeking interviews with the six lawmakers, underscoring that federal authorities see the video as serious enough to merit investigation. Reagan argues that the lawmakers’ background as veterans and former intelligence or defense officials makes their message more potent because they know exactly how such language will be heard inside the ranks.​

Finally, the episode situates the controversy within a broader information war over public trust in institutions, especially the military. Faulkner contends that the video operates like a “politically motivated influence operation,” using careful legal framing to shift perceptions of Trump’s legitimacy and to recast the military as a potential check on his authority. She warns that this kind of rhetoric risks radicalizing ordinary Americans and service members alike, blurring lines between lawful dissent, partisan messaging, and genuine sedition

Transcript

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What's up guys and welcome back to the Reagan Faulkner Show. Today we're going to dive into the Seditious Six and try to understand a little bit about why the video that they put out to the American people was so important and so crucial and so terrifying to be honest. So on November 18th two senators and six representatives released a video where they called for U.S. military personnel to defy what they dubbed illegal orders and of these individuals it was Senator Mark Kelly, Senator Alyssa Slotkin, Representative Jason Crow, Representative Chris DiLuzio, Representative Maggie Goodlander, and Representative Chris E. Houlihan. So of these six we're really going to be looking at Mark Kelly and Alyssa Slotkin. They're the ones that popped up in the media the most. They're the ones that really there's the most to talk about. The other ones were definitely involved and are involved in everything that we're going to talk about but Kelly and Slotkin are the two that we're really going to dive into. So if you haven't seen it yet I would encourage you to go actually watch the video to understand what we're diving into but for a little bit of context the elected officials it was I think three on top three on bottom they were lined up kind of like a zoom call I guess would really be the best way to explain it but they were in this video and they were speaking specifically they were speaking to U.S. citizens but specifically they were speaking to members of the U.S. military and they were stating that they have a constitutional duty a constitutional oath to defy illegal orders illegal military orders and they provided no context about what these orders were what they were referring to what deems in order illegal no context they just said that you that as a military personnel you have the duty to defy illegal orders and they also invoked images from the Nuremberg trials which I thought was really wild that's a really crazy move given that we don't see any anything that even resembles the Nuremberg trials or anything like that we see they also came out and invoked images from the movie a few good men so they're bringing up these fantasy abstract things that the U.S. population you know you kind of think of when I don't even know really what they were trying to do to be honest they they just brought up things that were very Hollywood very just picturesque what you can imagine instead of bringing up real actual objective evidence to back up their statements they're just kind of off in fantasy land invoking random images that people think of when they think of military tribunals and things like that no no objective evidence no nothing like that no facts and it really is just absolutely crazy to see elected officials go off and do things like this and go against the sitting administration I mean it really is completely unprecedented but the reason why this has gotten so much attention is because Senator Kelly served in the Navy and he has to abide by I can't remember the specific name of it but I think it's the uniformed military conduct something like that I think the abbreviation is the UCMC but basically those are the rules that uniformed members of the military have to abide by and for what Trump has dubbed sedition Senator Kelly can actually be sent back into active service so it's a really big deal for him which is why he's been so involved and is being investigated now and then Senator Slotkin who we're going to spend a lot of our time talking about today was actually an analyst for the CIA now Kelly has turned this entire thing he's gone from sedition and defying illegal orders to full campaign donor mode which is insane but he is on x he's making videos he's requesting money for quote-unquote what's ahead for the future I think he said something like we need money for wherever this thing might go I think was along the lines of one of his quotes but it's really interesting he went from trying to save America trying to save democracy trying to do whatever it is he thinks he was doing to straight into the mom Donnie like give me money type vibe I'm I was baffled when I saw that but he's really seen a huge surge in donations so I mean it's working he is raising money I guess he's trying to raise money in case he has to do um get involved in a legal battle due to the FBI probe and um some of the the consequences that have come from this but he's seen a huge surge in donations and he's not even set to be on the ballot until 2028 which is wild I mean if you're not raising money for your campaign and you're not raising money for court if it doesn't go to court then where is all this money going what what is he gonna do with it and or he's just gonna let it sit there for three years which I guess is an option but it's really interesting to see all these donations coming in and that he already has a donor platform set up when he's not even running for office for another three years this is way ahead of the ball game for most candidates but as much as it is a political stunt and it's a campaign stunt for these six individuals who I believe all plan to run again I could be wrong I do believe that all six have plans to continue being involved in U.S. politics and continuing to run for election it goes a lot deeper than just a campaign political stunt it it has huge ramifications so jumping into Senator Slotkin I said that she was an analyst for the CIA so one of her roles was specifically to review the outcomes of CIA operations in foreign nations and then determine whether or not these operations were successful so she would review briefs she would review data she would go through all this information from operations that the CIA was doing overseas and then she would use various data points to analyze whether or not the operation was objectively successful or whether it was an objective failure so that the CIA can know which I guess techniques for lack of better words are more successful than other ones for specific goals and outcomes so a lot of these operations would include coordinating propaganda campaigns specifically aimed at regime change and then changing public opinion against a foreign nation's own government their own sitting government and then instilling unrest confusion chaos things like that within a foreign nation's civilian population so the CIA kind of they'll have a goal of regime change they'll send operatives into the foreign country they'll run these propaganda campaigns they'll do specific use psychological techniques psychological actions I guess within these propaganda things again I'm not super familiar with how the CIA works I don't think any of us really are with because they're so secretive but they will go and do these actions to elicit a regime change in a foreign country and then people like Senator Slotkin will review what was done and whether or not it was an objective success what techniques were successful what should be reused etc etc so Slotkin served three tours in Iraq and historically if you know anything about Iraq and why we were there the one of the dominating motives was to topple Saddam Hussein's regime and then instill democracy in the area so when she was serving these three tours in Iraq she was extremely familiar with the CIA propaganda machine regime change instilling the unrest causing just genuine disdain for the sitting regime which obviously Saddam Hussein was a terrible person so that was probably pretty easy to do and I don't have any problem with that I mean Saddam Hussein was absolutely a terrible person so but she was very familiar with it is the point I'm trying to make here um she's familiar with the rhetoric she's familiar with the psychological techniques that they were using with the psychological campaigns um and then just generally with different types of propaganda and what propaganda serves to be beneficial versus what propaganda doesn't work or you know has a more of a varying point of whether or not it'll work she knows what objectively works doesn't work may or may not have a chance she's very familiar with all of this and then how to put it into action successfully so when going after a social media campaign like what these six senator senators did Slotkin was especially familiar with the process and with the consequences that messaging like that can have because she's been analyzing it for decades so given the delivery given the language of the video given all of that President Trump has accused all six um elected officials with sedition and then an FBI probe has been launched into the representatives and the senators into the video into the motive into all of it so now the politicians are coming out they're defending the video they're defending what they did they're calling this political persecution prosecution but it's it's not it's an issue of national security when we see elected officials coming out and trying to tell the military to go against a sitting U.S. President that's really concerning that's concerning for national security that's concerning for military personnel that's concerning for understanding what orders to take versus what orders not to take especially when there was no specificity no objective fact that was given by these senators and we also need to point out the fact that sedition and treason are very very different so when you look at treason treason is an act that directly goes against the sitting government the sitting administration so a lot of times it'll involve a foreign entity or a foreign group think like if somebody partnered with China to try to take out the U.S. government specifically like doing something specifically against the U.S. government especially with a foreign group that is treason now sedition is inciting violence or rebellion against a nation's government so that is what these senators are doing that's the difference between the treason versus the sedition is they're trying to stir up rebellion they're trying to make or maybe not make but incentivize I guess you could say the military personnel to rebel against orders to go against orders to go against president Trump and that is why it's sedition because it's trying to incite violence or rebellion instead of at like physically doing the act of the rebellion or the act of the violence so that is a state crime sedition is a state crime while treason is a federal crime from my understanding of it so that's just a little bit of background into why they got char or accused of and not treason but going in a little bit more there are a lot so so this is something that's been coming up very very often in the media after this and just kind of looking at some of the techniques that the left has been using with recent protests and demonstrations but we see a lot of similarities with leftist rhetoric with the no kings protests and the BLM protests and the type of propaganda that they're pushing forward and then this thing called a color revolution so historically color revolutions have been used to overthrow governments and utilize regime change or you know instill regime change so basically what they'll do is these revolutions will be dubbed a color I believe there was a pearl revolution and a tulip revolution so you'll use a color or an object to kind of vaguely describe this revolution and the goal of the revolution will be regime change overthrowing a sitting administration etc etc they're characterized specifically by what I've said before propaganda changing public opinion instilling a distrust in the government things like that and when we think about that and then we think about what the left has been doing since president trump's um second term has begun they're really similar I'm not saying that this is what they're trying to do but I think it's extremely odd the similarities that are coming out first of all calling trump a king calling him hitler calling him a dictator and an authoritarian those are the first things that you would do if you want to elicit distrust within a population you want to make them think that the president wasn't elected legally or accurately so calling him a king because monarchs aren't elected hitler who was elected but was just a really terrible person authoritarians you know normally have an election process and then they just refuse to leave or refuse to hold another election they're using these terms that are eliciting distrust from the American public towards our elected officials they're also calling conservatives nazis and fascists which is putting the same motive or feeling about trump that people may have towards trump upon just regular everyday conservatives or other elected officials that are conservative but not necessarily trump so that's furthering that distrust the no kings protests are just really ingraining that idea that trump is this monarch that he's they're not even saying he wasn't elected accurately i really don't understand how they can do the no kings protests i really don't but from for more on that you can go back to the no kings episode from a month or so ago and then bringing up trump's phony felonies that actually were political persecution they're bringing that up to elicit distrust elicit confusion elicit chaos make the american people just doubt trump i mean they really are trying to change public opinion we're seeing people that have been strong maga supporters changing their opinion we're seeing this clashing of conservative opinions within the party it's really concerning and it is just propaganda it really really is and then utilizing the epstein files as a political issue i guess i mean if they had anything on trump you know the biden administration would have dropped that back when he was president from 2020 to 2024 these files didn't just magically appear when trump took office on january 20th of this year if they had something on trump it would have been dropped it would have been in the news with his um court case last july so or june i believe it was so they're using all of these different situations all of this rhetoric all of this propaganda to try to elicit distrust within americans and then make them change their political opinions or change their opinions on government or politics or whatever it may be very very similar to what we do in foreign countries when we try to elicit a regime change even more interesting that slotkin was in the cia and is extremely familiar with these moves and these types of propaganda now elected officials with military and security backgrounds calling for just this vague defy illegal orders whatever without any reference to what the orders are or why they're illegal is just extremely concerning it's not right and it has a lot of opportunity to backfire from a national security perspective and then after all of this after all this illegal orders defy blah blah blah after all of it slot king came out and said that none of these orders even were illegal she said that nothing illegal has even been done which is insane they did all of this startup all of this drama all of this turmoil literally made an fbi probe have to be launched for something that's not even reality and most americans like you wouldn't know that an everyday american doesn't know the difference between a legal and an illegal order from the military i mean it's just absolutely wild to make americans afraid for something that's not even accurate and secretary of war pete hegg says he made a post on x or twitter whatever we call it nowadays about how messages like this are specifically dangerous for the military and like yes they can be dangerous for everyday civilians like i said because of the propaganda and the psychological impact but specifically for the military because the military has very very specific ways that they deal with illegal protocols and or illegal orders and um protocols for how to report these illegal orders and how to deal with them and how to handle them so when people who aren't actively serving start trying to stir up this mess and stir up this drama with these vague terms it creates a lot of chaos and distrust and confusion within the military and basically what hegs that said is that political actors have no business stirring up this chaos and confusion within the military and that the vague language just makes it an unhealthy place within the military because people don't know what what's happening they don't know what they need to be looking out for and it just breeds this distrust that keeps coming up i feel like i've said that word so much but that's really what it's doing it's distrust and then it's confusion and it's doubt and it's chaos and it just is really really bad for the everyday rank and file service members in the united states military and then when we start looking at consequences maybe it's related maybe it's not we don't know yet but eight days after this video was posted we saw an afghan national that served with the u.s military in afghanistan during the evacuation he attacked two national guardsmen actually three one tragically passed away one was extremely injured and the other the third one was the one that took the individual out took the shooter out but when we see elected officials people who we should trust as americans or as immigrants or as anybody living in the united states when we see them saying that the military is being given illegal orders that they're doing illegal things it's going to cause consequences and maybe this attack was a consequence maybe it was an afghan terrorist a muslim radical whatever we want to call it whatever it may be but we can't be surprised to see these attacks on our military after rhetoric like this is being spread by people that we are supposed to trust as americans and people who are supposed to reflect and uplift american ideals and american values and american tradition it's rhetoric like this from the elected officials from democratic leadership and even from radicalized professors and teachers in colleges high schools middle schools that are leading to the increase in political violence in the u.s they're leading to the violence at protests that turn into riots they're leading the violence where people are trying to attack ice agents they're leading to the violence of people like charlie kirk being shot for expressing their opinions and it really is their rhetoric there's come out after these tragic events and they say oh my gosh there's no room for political violence in the united states but then they're eliciting it it's quite the contradiction and really really just disheartening but i can't even tell you how many posts i've seen after the national guardsmen attack where people are saying that they shouldn't have been there in the first place they wouldn't have been shot if they weren't there because we shouldn't have the military on the streets of america i'm sorry i i can't even grasp that concept they were following legal orders mind these orders were not illegal they were minding legal orders they were serving their country they were protecting and defending the homeland to say that they should have just not been there in the first place is an absolute just slap in the face to our service members that serve day in and day out to protect our rights it's disgraceful it's wrong and it's just nauseating and these are normal americans these are normal americans that have been radicalized by the rhetoric that we're talking about and it's just sickening to be quite honest with you the left has been pushing this propaganda machine for years it started with universities it started with radical professors indoctrinating young adults in universities it progressed through the blm movement that we saw start i think it started around 2016 moved through 2020 with the george floyd riots and now we're actually seeing targeted propaganda being used against citizens of the united states it is sickening and it is wrong and it is thoroughly un-american and these six representatives and um or elected officials they should be completely ashamed of themselves for what they're doing and how they're behaving against their own constituents the rhetoric against charlie kirk specifically demonizing him and his fans it's it's also just sowing this distrust against everyday americans it is sickening it is wrong and it is inappropriate to be using these violent rhetoric this psychological warfare against innocent everyday americans we're seeing billboards popping up from win without war which is a coalition of progressive activists and progressive organizations incentivizing military personnel to um defy orders and there's like an encrypted um not website an encrypted email chain where you can email the group and tell them what's going on they'll give you um suggestions on how to fight it it's it is truly truly sedition it is truly going against a sitting administration and going against what is the best for america and our national security we have a lot of foreign threats right now we have a lot of illegal immigration issues we have a lot of people who are not happy with the united states and to be trying to sow this distrust within america and to create an issue in the interior when we have so many threats abroad is sickening and worrisome and extremely concerning but it's up to us to see through this deception it's up to everyday americans like you and i to see through the deception to see through the propaganda to see this psychological attack and these psychological tools being used upon americans and for us to recognize that we are in fact being used as political pawns no different than how foreign citizens are used by our central intelligence agency and to to not fall for it to be quite frank our government has been invaded by radical marxists the same way that we go into foreign countries and invade them they're using psychological warfare on us the same way that our government uses psychological warfare on other countries and they want a regime change they want to stop donald trump they want to prevent him from saving america prevent him from putting america first they want to destroy america and it is up to us to say no we're not having it no we are not putting up with these games we are america first we're going to save america and no matter how much you throw at us we are going to stand by our country and our government it's up to us to say no thank y'all so much for joining me on today's episode of the reagan faulkner show if you want more check us out on youtube spotify wherever you get your podcasts and check us out on instagram tiktok facebook x that's going to be at the reagan faulkner show and at the wilmington standard look at our website thewilmingtonstandard.com and reaganfaulkner.com thank you so much i'll see you on the next one