Sen. Mark Kelly came out swinging Monday, insisting he won’t be silenced by President Donald Trump or Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as Pentagon brass digs into “serious allegations of misconduct” tied to the Arizona Democrat.
“I will not be intimidated by this president. I am not going to be silenced by this president or the people around because I’ve given too much in service to this country to back down to this guy,” Kelly told reporters, turning the dial to defiant.
The dust-up stems from a video Kelly and several other Democrats pushed last month telling U.S. service members they could refuse illegal orders, a clip Trump blasted as “seditious behavior, punishable by death.”
Kelly escalated the clash, ripping Hegseth as “unqualified for this position” and demanding he answer for a deadly incident in the Caribbean Sea. The White House has already acknowledged there were multiple strikes on a drug-running vessel in September. Survivors from the first strike were later killed in additional blasts, according to a source who spoke with ABC News.
Kelly, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the situation “needs to be an investigation” after reporting claimed that Hegseth personally issued a verbal order authorizing a second lethal hit. “If there is anyone who needs to answer questions in public and under oath, it is Pete Hegseth,” he said.
The former Navy pilot even weighed in on the legality of the strike itself. “I hope what we are hearing is not … accurate. I will say, though, you know, as somebody who has sunk two ships myself, that folks in the military need to understand, you know, the Law of the Sea, the Geneva Conventions, what the law says. And I’m concerned that if there were, in fact, as reported, you know, survivors clinging to a damaged vessel, that that could be, you know, over a line. I hope it’s not the case,” Kelly said.
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Pressed on the Washington Post report that Hegseth ordered all passengers killed, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted it was Adm. Mitch Bradley who called in the second strike. “Adm. Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was completely eliminated,” she said.
Kelly denied his earlier video encouraging troops to reject illegal orders had anything to do with the Caribbean operation, saying it was “not about this specific thing.” But he argued that Americans deserve to see the legal rationale behind the strikes that lawmakers have been shown in closed-door sessions.
