Undaunted Veteran Stands Up to MAGA Bullies
Senator Mark Kelly is a national treasure
Since he posted a video along with five fellow Democrats with military or intelligence experience advising U.S. military personnel to reject illegal orders, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has been on fire. He has roundly skewered Donald Trump for threatening to execute him; reminded lawmakers and the public that the U.S. is bound by domestic and international laws; lambasted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as manifestly unqualified; demanded a full inquiry into the military’s Sept. 2 strikes, which allegedly murdered shipwrecked survivors posing no threat to Americans; and explained the finding of the Defense Department Inspector General investigating Signalgate.
The “don’t follow illegal orders” video, which Kelly later said he was motivated to participate in due to Trump’s repeated statements that he expected the military to carry out illegal orders, was exceptionally prescient:
Trump and his MAGA minions freaked out, calling Kelly and his colleagues “seditious” and suggesting the appropriate punishment was “DEATH!” Trump and his horrifically incompetent defense secretary (whom Kelly compared to a “12-year old playing Army”) settled on a bogus investigation, which should go nowhere—given that the lawmakers were simply stating black letter law.
Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut, swiftly responded to the death threat issued to him and his colleagues with a statement: “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work.” He added:
I have given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution.
He went on to make clear on Rachel Maddow’s show that he would not shy away from holding Trump accountable for his actions:
Last Sunday, Kelly hammered Trump again. “We have a president who doesn’t understand the Constitution, who installed an unqualified Secretary of Defense. I cannot think of a Secretary of Defense in the history of our country that is less qualified than Pete Hegseth. He should not be in this position,” Kelly declared on State of the Union. “He should have been fired after Signalgate.” He reiterated, “These guys don’t scare me. They’re not serious people. I mean, the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense. Neither of them.”
On Meet the Press, he was equally defiant:
Pete Hegseth says that I should be court-martialed. I mean, how ridiculous is this? We say, ‘follow the law,’ and this is their response? These are not serious people. And, Kristen, this is meant to just intimidate us. We’re sticking up for the Constitution here, and the rule of law, and they’re saying these folks should be executed for doing that.
On Monday, Kelly delivered a blistering critique of Trump, providing a primer for Americans on the law and the futility of Trump’s bullying:
Throughout his entire career—in business, reality TV, and politics—Donald Trump has had one and only one play: bully his opponents into silence. He did it as a failed casino owner who bankrupted his properties and screwed over his contractors. He did it as a reality TV host known for firing people. And he has done it as a President who tries every day to intimidate people, with no regard for the rights or well-being of the American people.
I’ll say this for him: while he’s never seemed to do much else right, for most of Donald Trump’s career, bullying people has worked out for him. But not now. Because I won’t let it. The American people won’t let it. President Trump is trying to silence me—threatening to kill me— for saying what is true. He’s sent his Secretary of Defense after me. And it’s not going to work.”
In response to the news of the so-called second strike, Kelly declared that Hegseth was the one who needed to answer questions under oath.
As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he will be among those conducting the oversight investigation. On Monday, he said that “folks in the military need to understand… the Law of the Sea, the Geneva Conventions, what the law says.” If there were survivors “clinging to a damaged vessel” a strike would be “over a line,” he observed.
On Tuesday, Kelly offered up even more damning information: the Pentagon lawyer who briefed Congress months ago on the Sept. 2 incident did not say anything about a second strike. “He didn’t share all the information with us,” Kelly said on Morning Joe. He added, “We asked a bunch of questions. They seemed to me to be sort of evasive. Their legal analysis about this entire operation has a bunch of holes in it.” That lack of candor is consistent with the regime’s release of a video of the strike that omitted the second strike and Hegseth’s changing narrative as to whether he witnessed the strikes.
After Trump pardoned the former Honduran president previously sentenced to 45 years for his role in smuggling more than 400 tons of cocaine into the country, Kelly slapped down Trump on social media. He asked the obvious question: “If Trump wants to stop drug traffickers, why did he just pardon the guy convicted in one of the biggest narco cases in U.S. history?”
On the following day, Wednesday, Kelly told the Wall Street Journal that the Pentagon’s IG who investigated Signalgate found Hegseth “should not be using his cellphone and putting … this kind of information on an unclassified system.” Contrary to Hegseth’s patently absurd argument that the material was not sensitive, the data could have put our service people at risk:
The watchdog report states that Hegseth declined to sit for an interview with the inspector general, instead sending a written statement, according to a person with knowledge of the document. In that statement, Hegseth claimed that he intentionally declassified information that wouldn’t pose a threat to servicemembers or the mission, the person said.
However, the report found that the operational details he shared on Signal would have posed a risk to troops and the mission if it had been intercepted, according to the person and another person briefed on the report.
Signalgate seems to sum up Hegseth’s character flaws—his cowardice (refusing to sit for an interview), his recklessness (having used an insecure channel), his dishonesty (denying it was any big deal) and his utter lack of seriousness, just as Kelly has been saying all week.
No one has been more fearless, impassioned, and authoritative on the abject incompetence and lawlessness of the regime’s use of the military than Senator Mark Kelly.
Undaunted, unapologetic, and unafraid in the face of Trump’s insults and threats, Kelly continues to inform his fellow Americans about the expectations we set for and expect from our military. His experience makes him an authoritative figure to explain just how badly Trump has stained the reputation of our military. We are all grateful for his service, and grateful that Kelly will be part of the committee investigating this entire atrocious escapade.
A superb piece, Jennifer! We all stand behind Senator Mark Kelly!
I live in Aurora, Colorado. My Congressman is Jason Crow, a former army ranger who served in Afghanistan. In the opinion of his district's citizens, he, too, is a national treasure. He actually is, like Senator Kelly, a combat veteran who knows a thing or two about the military. After the video came out with the 6 congressmen and women standing firm about our Constitution, the rule of law, and urging our servicemen and women NOT to obey illegal orders, his family has received death threats, many of them. Aurora is the same community that DJT said was being run by drug cartels, a clearly "Fake News" utterance that was loudly denied by the Republican mayor of Aurora. Sadly, pretty much everything that comes out of the mouths of DJT and his incompetent cabinet is "Fake News" and lies. It is a sad and outrageous thing that Kash Patel's girlfriend gets to have a security detail to "protect her" but nothing is done to protect the children of our war hero congressman. Oh yes, and then there is Caroline Leavitt's comments that, basically, anything and everything put forth by DJT IS LEGAL and true just because DJT is POTUS, when the real truth is that most everything emerging from the White House these days has zero relationship to truth. I am 78 and have lived through a thing or two myself. I would never have believed that America could sink this low.