U.S. Capitol Police arrested active-duty Air Force Maj. Jason Watson on the steps of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday after he refused lawful orders to stop demonstrating without a member of Congress present. Watson had been calling for the impeachment of President Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
The arrest came after Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), who had accompanied Watson to the steps following a press conference organized by the Removal Coalition, left the area. Under Capitol grounds policy, a protester must remain alongside a member of Congress to speak openly from the steps. Once Green departed, Watson was on his own, and Capitol Police moved in.
A Capitol Police spokesperson confirmed the sequence to the Washington Examiner:
"Yesterday afternoon, a man was escorted to the House Steps by a Member of Congress. When the Member of Congress left the area, our officers gave the man lawful orders to stop the illegal demonstration or he would be arrested. The man refused our lawful orders."
Watson was charged with violating 22-1307, crowding, obstructing, and incommoding. The charge is a misdemeanor under Capitol Police jurisdiction, but Watson's real legal exposure may run far deeper. As an active-duty officer, he is bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits contemptuous speech directed at senior civilian leaders in the chain of command.
Watson's remarks on the Capitol steps were sweeping. He accused the president of ordering unconstitutional military action against Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, claimed those operations resulted in the deaths of 13 service members and injuries to "hundreds more," and demanded impeachment and removal. He also accused the administration of sponsoring violence against American protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.
As The Hill reported, Watson told bystanders:
"When the president of the United States orders military action against foreign countries, absent an emergency scenario where American interests are under imminent dire threats, as was done with Venezuela, Cuba and Iran, that's an unconstitutional usurpation of Congress's authority and a violation of the War Powers Clause."
He continued: "These violations resulted in the deaths of 13 service members and injuries of hundreds more. For this, the president and vice president must be impeached, convicted and removed."
Watson also referenced specific incidents he attributed to immigration enforcement, naming U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good as having been killed by immigration authorities, and citing an unnamed legal observer who he said lost his left eye after being shot with a nonlethal projectile by an ICE officer in January. None of these claims were independently verified within the available reporting.
The Air Force responded carefully. A spokesperson told the Washington Examiner: "Service members must comply with all laws, regulations and policies governing conduct and the wear of the uniform." The statement stopped short of announcing any formal disciplinary action, but the implication was plain enough. Watson may face court-martial or other measures under the UCMJ.
Democrats have pursued a string of impeachment efforts during the current term, including filing impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, an effort with no realistic path to passage in the Republican-controlled House.
Rep. Al Green has made a second career out of impeachment theater. He accompanied Watson to the Capitol steps, then left before the arrest. Afterward, Green posted a video on X praising Watson's actions:
"He stood for impeachment of the president on the Capitol Grounds, and thereafter he walked up the steps where he was arrested, and he was taken away."
Green added: "This is the kind of courage necessary to inspire others to understand that liberty and justice for all that we pledge allegiance to is something that we can make real."
The congressman's own record of disruptions is well documented. He was thrown out of the chamber during Trump's first joint address to Congress in his second term and was again escorted out during the State of the Union speech earlier this year. Green also called DHS Secretary Mullin a "racist" and told him to "shut up" at a House hearing, adding to a pattern of confrontational conduct that has defined his final stretch in office.
Green lost his Democratic primary in May. His willingness to escort an active-duty military officer into a political stunt, then walk away before the consequences arrived, fits a familiar pattern. The congressman gets the footage. Someone else gets the handcuffs.
Watson, for his part, recited the U.S. Air Force oath of office during his remarks, framing his protest as an act of constitutional fidelity. Just The News reported that Watson told the press conference: "For the past 18 months, we the people have allowed the highest levels of the executive branch of the federal government to violate our Constitution and their oath to it with impunity."
Whatever one thinks of Watson's political views, the UCMJ exists for a reason. Article 88 prohibits commissioned officers from using contemptuous words against the president, vice president, and other senior officials. The restriction is not a technicality. It reflects a bedrock principle: the military serves under civilian authority, and uniformed officers do not freelance political campaigns from the steps of Congress.
Watson's speech was not a private gripe in a break room. It was a public demand, delivered in broad daylight, on the Capitol steps, alongside a sitting member of Congress, for the removal of his commander in chief. The Air Force has not yet announced whether formal proceedings will follow, but the facts as reported leave little ambiguity about the conduct at issue.
The broader impeachment push from congressional Democrats has produced a steady stream of filings with no legislative future. An Arizona Democrat filed impeachment articles against Hegseth over the Iran conflict, joining a caucus-wide effort that amounts to political messaging in a chamber where Republicans hold the majority.
Watson's arrest adds a new dimension to that effort, not because it changes the math in the House, but because it raises the question of whether the anti-Trump impeachment movement is now actively recruiting uniformed military officers as props. Green brought Watson to the steps. Green left. Watson stayed and got arrested. Green posted the video.
The Removal Coalition, which organized the press conference, has not been extensively profiled in the available reporting, but its name captures the ambition plainly enough.
Several critical facts remain unclear. Watson's current duty status, whether he has been suspended, placed on administrative leave, or returned to his unit, has not been disclosed. The Air Force has not said whether it has opened a formal investigation or initiated UCMJ proceedings.
Watson's specific claims also lack independent verification. He cited 13 service member deaths and hundreds of injuries from military operations against Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, but no official casualty figures from those operations appeared in the reporting. The identities and circumstances surrounding Alex Pretti and Renee Good, whom Watson described as U.S. citizens killed by immigration authorities, were not elaborated upon. The unnamed legal observer who Watson said lost an eye to an ICE nonlethal round in January was not identified.
None of this means Watson's claims are false. But an active-duty officer making grave public accusations against his commander in chief bears a particular burden of precision, and the public record, so far, does not fill in the gaps he left.
Meanwhile, the broader generational reckoning within the Democratic Party continues. Green, a veteran of decades in Congress, lost his primary and is now spending his final months in office staging confrontations that generate social media clips but change nothing legislatively.
Watson chose to make a political speech on the Capitol steps, refused a lawful police order, and got arrested. Those are facts, not matters of interpretation. Whether the Air Force treats this as a minor embarrassment or a serious breach of military discipline will say a great deal about the institution's willingness to enforce its own rules, rules that exist precisely so that the armed forces remain accountable to elected civilian leadership rather than to the political preferences of individual officers.
Green, for his part, praised Watson's "courage." It takes a particular kind of courage to walk a man into a situation, leave before the police arrive, and then post the video.