Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said Sunday that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are “not serious people” in response to their comments about a video Kelly and several fellow Democrats made earlier this month calling on military and intelligence officials to “refuse illegal orders.”
“This president thinks he can bully and intimidate people, but he's not going to, he's not going to stop me from speaking out and holding him accountable for the wrong and illegal things that he does,” Kelly said on NBC News' “Meet the Press.”
Earlier this month, Defense Department officials said they start of investigation Kelly after President Donald Trump accused him and several other lawmakers of “seditious behavior“, a charge that the president said could be “punishable by death.”
President later went back his comments in which he told conservative radio host Brian Kilmeade that he did not make death threats against lawmakers.
Trump's accusations came after several Democratic lawmakers — all of whom are military veterans or former intelligence officials — released a video calling on current military and intelligence officials to “refuse illegal orders,” adding that “no one is obligated to follow orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
The FBI also has tried to schedule interviews with six Democratic lawmakers who appeared in the video, including Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Hoolahan of Pennsylvania.
In the video, lawmakers did not specify what illegal orders they might be referring to, and Kelly said Sunday that the video was “looking forward to,” without referring to any potential illegal orders that may have already been issued under the current administration.
However, Kelly cited comments Trump made on the debate stage during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, where the then-candidate said he could force the military to follow his orders even if they were illegal under international law.
“If I say 'do it,' they will do it,” Trump said at the time. “That’s what leadership is all about.”
“They won't refuse me. Trust me,” he added.
Kelly also referred to comments Trump made earlier this year saying the military should use “dangerous” US cities as “training grounds“
“We're concerned that this president, this secretary of defense, is going to get us into serious trouble. So it was a simple message: 'Follow the law,' and it was designed for the future,” Kelly said Sunday.
In a statement, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told NBC News: “Despite their outlandish and dangerous statements, Democrats were unable to list any examples of illegal orders when asked – because there were none. It should be deeply troubling to all Americans that elected Democrats are publicly calling on the military to openly defy the chain of command and the lawful orders of the Commander in Chief in order to subvert the will of the American people.”
Hegseth called the Democratic lawmakers' original video “despicable, reckless and false.” post on X earlier this month.
Kelly called Hegseth “the least qualified secretary of defense in the history of our country.”
In a separate interview with CNN on Sunday, Kelly said the Navy had not yet notified him of the investigation into his conduct based on the video.
“I was notified of this via a tweet, the same tweet you saw, and it shows how unserious this administration is,” Kelly told CNN. “They care more about the publicity about it than the process or the law. The Navy didn't notify me.”
The Defense Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Sunday's Meet the Press, the Arizona senator mentioned his time in the Navy, where he said he sank ships.
“I never questioned whether these orders were legal or illegal. People can tell the difference – should be able to distinguish what is illegal from what is legal,” he said. “And if I were ever given an illegal order, I would refuse.”
Asked about reporting The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Hegseth ordered a Navy SEAL team to “kill everyone” on a boat suspected of transporting drugs to the US in September – the first strike in month long campaign against alleged drug vessels – Kelly said: “I hope the report is not true” and called for an investigation.
“We're going to swear these people in and find out what happened. And then we need to hold them accountable,” Kelly said, pointing to the fact that the House and Senate Armed Services Committees started an investigation studying Washington Post reports.
