Kelly Vows to ‘Fight This’ After Hegseth Announces Actions Against Senator Over ‘Illegal Orders’ Video
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona vowed that he would “fight” back after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced administrative actions against the retired Navy captain for his participation in a video that urged U.S. troops to refuse unlawful orders.
“Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution—including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out,” Kelly said in a post on X on Monday. “I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.”
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it,” he continued. “I will fight this with everything I’ve got—not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government.”
Kelly shared his statement soon after Hegseth announced on X that his department was initiating proceedings against Kelly that could result in a reduction in the Senator’s military pension, and that he had issued a “formal Letter of Censure” to “ensure this action.” The letter, Hegseth said, “outlines the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct” and will go in the retired captain’s “official and permanent military personnel file.”
“Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly—and five other members of Congress—released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth said. “As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War—and the American people—expect justice.”
Hegseth was referring to a video that Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers—all of whom either served in the military or in national security roles before taking office—posted in November, in which they told members of the military and intelligence community that “no one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
The politicians didn’t specify in the video what kinds of orders, if any, prompted them to share this message. But President Donald Trump’s use of the American military during his second term has sparked controversy among lawmakers and legal experts, including the strikes his Administration has authorized on boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean that it has claimed were transporting narcotics.
Trump and members of his Administration expressed outrage over the video. The President called it “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” The Department of Defense said in November that it would investigate Kelly for possible violations of military law. Legal experts, however, previously told TIME that nothing the six Democrats said in the video was “seditious” or “illegal,” and that there was no grounds for the department to open an investigation into Kelly over the video.
“They did not encourage unlawful action,” Brenner Fissell, professor of law at Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law and vice president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said at the time, referring to the six Democrats in the video. “They were not encouraging the disobedience of lawful orders; they were encouraging the disobedience of unlawful orders. And that is a correct statement of the law.”
Still, Hegseth maintained on Monday that the video was “seditious.” He said that Kelly has 30 days to submit a response to the Department of Defense, and that the state of his retirement grade will be determined within 45 days.
“Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,” Hegseth said.
In his statement, Kelly outlined his decades of service and criticized the Trump Administration for unjustly targeting him.
“My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country,” he said. “I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head—all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder. Generations of servicemembers have made these same patriotic sacrifices for this country, earning the respect, appreciation, and rank they deserve.”
“Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way,” Kelly continued. “It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that.”