Democratic Senator Mark Kelly accused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Tuesday evening, of doing the president’s bidding by threatening to court-martial him for making a video reminding active military service members to abide by the Constitution.
Kelly, a retired U.S. Navy captain, joined late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live! to defend himself after Hegseth announced that the Defense Department was investigating him for “serious allegations of misconduct.”
“He’s totally unqualified,” Kelly said of Hegseth, who recently changed his public title to Secretary of War – though that has not been officially changed by Congress.
“He just wants to please the president and this is what he could do this week, he could go after me under the uniform, the code of military justice,” Kelly added.
Hegseth announced Monday that the Defense Department was investigating whether or not Kelly violated a military law that prohibits retired service members from disseminating materials that could promote insubordination or disloyalty among active service members.
The investigation arrived after President Donald Trump spent days lashing out at Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers for making a video that encouraged service members to ignore orders that defy the Constitution. Although the lawmakers did not name a specific order in the video, they chose to deliver the message as the Trump administration conducts legally questionable lethal strikes on boats.
On Truth Social, Trump called the lawmakers “seditious” and claimed their actions amounted to being “punishable by death.”
The president had previously said the Democrats featured in the video would face punishment.
Days later, Kelly discovered he was the subject of the military investigation. He’s accused the president of trying to use intimidation tactics to silence him.
“It’s how democracies die,” Kelly told host Jimmy Kimmel.“It is right out of the playbook – the playbook of authoritarianism. That’s what they try to do, they try to suppress speech.”
Kelly added: “I’m not backing down.”
The Arizona senator also condemned the president for utilizing incendiary speech to express his outrage and reminded viewers that his family was personally impacted by political violence.
In 2011, Kelly’s wife, Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords, then a Democratic congresswoman, survived a near-lethal assassination attempt that left her seriously wounded during a constituent meeting.
Kelly retired from active duty at the rank of captain from the Navy and NASA that same year to care for Giffords.
When asked if he was worried about the administration’s recent threats, Kelly responded: “I’ve been through a lot more challenging things than this.”
