WASHINGTON — As President Donald Trump threatens a genocidal attack on Iran, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said it is “moments like these” when U.S. service members must remember their oath to the Constitution and their duty to refuse illegal orders from superiors.

Slotkin, a former CIA officer, was one of six military and intelligence members of Congress who appeared in a viral November video urging service members not to follow future orders that violate laws. “Don’t give up the ship,” the lawmakers pleaded in the video.

That video was made for the situation we’re in now, she said Tuesday.

“I know that our service members up and down the chain of command know their duty and the law to refuse illegal orders. Even as the Commander-in-Chief tells the world otherwise,” Slotkin wrote on social media. “It’s moments like these that are why we made the video to service members last year. And I hope and believe our troops — especially those in command — will have the moral clarity to push back if they are given clearly illegal orders.”

Her comments come hours after Trump threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran doesn’t open the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday night.

Slotkin noted that targeting civilians en masse “would be a clear violation of the law of armed conflict as laid out in the Geneva Conventions, as well as the Pentagon’s Law of War Manual.”

“This kind of focus on civilians is exactly what we accuse our adversaries of doing and what our military trains to avoid. It’s built into the rigorous drilling and routines that our military are trained on from their first weeks,” the Michigan senator said. “If they are today or have been asked to do things that violate the law and their training, it puts them in very real legal jeopardy.”

The five other Democratic lawmakers who made the video with Slotkin were Sen. Mark Kelly (Ariz.), a retired Navy captain and NASA astronaut; Rep. Jason Crow (Colo.), a former Army Ranger; Rep. Maggie Goodlander (N.H.), a former Navy reservist; Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), a former Air Force officer; and Rep. Chris Deluzio (Pa.), a Navy veteran.

HuffPost reached out to all of them for comment on whether they feel they made their video for moments like the one we’re in now. Only one responded.

“Rep. Houlahan has no comment at this time,” her office said.

Later, Crow said in a statement that members of the U.S. armed forces must remember their oaths to the Constitution.

“As I have said before, if servicemembers are asked to carry out illegal orders, they have a solemn duty to follow the law,” he said. “The President is endangering the American people, our servicemembers, our allies, and innocent civilians. Americans of good conscience must come together and reject this madness.”

The lawmakers’ video infuriated Trump, who responded by calling their behavior “seditious” and punishable by death. He later said the lawmakers belonged in jail. By January, the Trump administration was launching nonsensical federal investigations into the lawmakers.

A federal grand jury ultimately declined to indict them in February.

“Donald Trump and people around him don’t like when somebody presents something that he doesn’t agree with,” Kelly said at the time. “He thinks he should be allowed to do and give whatever order he wants because he’s a wannabe dictator.”

Slotkin isn’t the only lawmaker publicly urging U.S. service members to defy illegal orders as Trump threatens to annihilate Iran.

“This is a threat of genocide and merits removal from office. The President’s mental faculties are collapsing and cannot be trusted,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said in a statement.

“To every individual in the President’s chain of command: You have a duty to refuse illegal orders,” she said. “That includes carrying out this threat.”

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