“We’re going to swear these people in,” the retired U.S. Navy captain said on “Meet the Press.”
Pentagon investigating whether Sen. Mark Kelly violated military law
The Pentagon is investigating Sen. Mark Kelly over a video in which members of Congress told the military that they “can refuse illegal orders.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said on the Nov. 30 episode of “Meet the Press” that the Senate Armed Services Administration will hold a hearing on potentially illegal military orders issued by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“We’re going to hold these people under oath and find out what happened,” Kelly said, referring to military personnel who took part in the Sept. 2 attack ordered by President Hegseth on survivors of the initial crash on a boat that the Trump administration claimed was carrying a drug cargo, the Washington Post reported.
“People should be able to tell the difference and be able to tell the difference between what’s illegal and what’s legal,” Kelly said. The senator did not say which orders would be illegal, but added that he was concerned that the orders given to the military would put them in a “tough position” where they would later find out “they did something illegal.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) said in a statement on November 28 that his committee had ordered a Department of Defense investigation into the attack. “We will conduct vigorous oversight to uncover the facts surrounding these circumstances.”
Mr. Wicker, along with Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, have sent multiple requests to Mr. Hegseth for basic information, including legal legitimacy and information supporting individual strikes.
“This administration is strangling the narrative we’ve been given that this is all legal,” Kelly said on “Meet the Press.”
Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper reported that Mr. Hegseth gave verbal orders to his troops to “kill everyone” on the ship as it sailed off the coast of Trinidad, and that the special operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second attack on the survivors to follow Mr. Hegseth’s instructions. The Intercept reported on September 10, citing two anonymous sources, that the survivors died in the secondary attack.
In a Nov. 28 post about X, Hegseth claimed the paper’s reporting was “fake news” and defended the operation as “legal under U.S. and international law.” Mr. Kelly called Mr. Hegseth “the most unqualified secretary of defense in the history of our country” on NBC’s Sunday show.
Kelly says Hegseth and Trump are ‘not serious people’
“These are not serious people,” Kelly said when asked about his administration’s response to a video in which Hegseth and President Donald Trump encouraged military personnel to refuse “illegal orders.”
“This president thinks he can bully and intimidate people, but that’s not what he intends to do, and it’s not going to stop me from speaking out and holding people accountable for what is wrong and illegal.”
Kelly is one of six Democratic congressmen featured in the video, each of whom has served in the military or intelligence agencies. President Trump accused Democratic lawmakers of “seditious behavior, worthy of the death penalty!” After the video was released, posts flooded social media. He later told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade that he didn’t think the lawmakers should be executed, but that he believed they were in “deep trouble.”
“We support the Constitution and the rule of law, and we’re saying they should be executed for that,” Kelly said.
The Pentagon has launched an investigation into Kelly for possible misconduct related to the video, which could include recalling the retired U.S. Navy captain to active duty for a court-martial.
Contributors: Joey Garrison and Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY
