STEWART RHODES (FOUNDER, OATH KEEPERS): And one other thing I want to say is that President Trump, as commander in chief, always has absolute authority to call all of us up as the militia because every one of us — in federal statues defining the militia, it’s every able-bodied male from age 17-45. And for us veterans, it goes up to age 64 because of our prior training and experience.
Right now, under federal statutes, President Trump can call us up as the militia if he sees it necessary, especially for three purposes: to repel invasions, to suppress insurrections, and to execute the laws of the union. And right now, we see all three of those in play. We have — we’re facing an ongoing invasion of this country, it has not stopped. We’re facing an insurrection by the left. And we’re also facing a direct blocking and resistance against enforcing federal law — federal immigration laws, attacking ICE agents, you know, trying to ram them and run them off the road, throwing bricks to their windows. All of that is going on. And so under those three purposes, he can call up the militia.
And the militia is all of us. So the National Guard is part of the militia, which is why it’s completely lawful for him to use the National Guard as he has, and he should do more of that, I think, across the country.
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He could just say given the circumstances of an invasion, insurrection, and resistance against federal law being being enforced, I’m calling up the militia, ordering all the men to come together [in] every county, put the veterans in charge of training and organizing all the other men and just have them stand too and await his orders. He can do that and I think he should do that. And so that’s what I’ll be advocating for from him. So from the bottom, from down the rank and file, we can let President Trump know that we’re ready to serve, encourage him to do that, call us up as a militia, order us all to come together in our counties under his command, which gives you complete legal sanction to do what you’re doing.
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RHODES: So President Trump is well within his power and authority under the Constitution to bring out the militia — all of the militia, not just the National Guard but the rest of us too. And I think he should.
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