Trump: 'I'm Not Threatening' Democrats

President Trump spoke to Fox News on Friday and clarified his assertion that Democrats who directed a video to service members committed a crime "punishable by death." The president told Brian Kilmeade that he is not calling for the execution of lawmakers, as some of his critics have said.

• "I'm not threatening death," said Trump, per the Guardian. "But I think they're in serious trouble," he added.
• Trump said Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were looking into the video, in which the Democrats told service members they could "refuse illegal orders. "They're looking into it militarily," said Trump. "I don't know for a fact, but I think the military is looking into it, the military courts."

• Trump said his original comments were meant to point out that "in the old days, if you said a thing like that, that was punishable by death." He also complained that "it's a meeker, milder world" these days. "These are people that, in my opinion, broke the law. Now what happens to them, I can't tell you."
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was one of those accusing Trump of going too far in his Thursday comments. "The president of the United States is calling for the execution of elected officials," he said on the Senate floor, per CBS News. Schumer called it an "outright threat" and said it was "deadly serious."
• One of the six Democrats behind the video also responded. "I would hope that people of all backgrounds—Democrat, Republican, independent—would agree that threatening death for people you disagree with is beyond the pale of who we are as Americans," said Sen. Elissa Slotkin in a new video. "I refuse to be intimidated out of defending the country I love."