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Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) has doubled down on his vow to not be silenced by President Donald Trump and his administration over his participation in the viral Democrat “illegal orders” video.
In recent weeks, Kelly has shrugged off threats from Trump for appearing in the video in mid-November alongside five other Democratic lawmakers, in which they encouraged military service members to disobey illegal orders from the Trump administration.
The Department of Defense, helmed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, announced late last month on X that it was launching an investigation into Kelly after Trump accused him and the other left-wing lawmakers in the video of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” and called for them to be executed.
The Pentagon’s consideration for a possible court-martial for Kelly, a retired Naval captain, has raised questions about constitutional protections among other concerns.
Appearing Sunday on MS Now’s “The Weekend,” co-host Jacqueline Alemany asked Kelly if there has been “any conversations” amongst him and the other lawmakers in the video about “suing the [Trump] administration back.”
“Is this something that is under discussion when you say that the administration wants to silence you and you’re not going to be silenced?” Alemany questioned.
“Well, they’re clearly in violation of my first amendment rights. I said something that was lawful, it was pretty simple,” Kelly replied. “It was a message that I felt members of the military, at this time — when you consider who this president is and who the secretary of defense is — they needed to hear this pretty basic message.”
Getty Images/YouTube.
The Arizona senator added, “And there wasn’t anything wrong with it, and I didn’t expect this response from the president.”
Kelly went on to say that Trump is “trying to silence me, but he’s not silencing me.”
“I’m still speaking out. I’m still going to do my job every single day regardless of whether this president wants to kill me, hang me, execute me or shut me up. I’m not going to shut up,” he continued.
Kelly then directly answered Alemany’s question.
Telling her that “litigation” is “not in my nature,” he said. “I’m going to respond. I’ve got a legal team that will respond to — whether it’s DOD [Department of Defense] or DOJ [Department of Justice] — forcefully, because they’re in the wrong here, and I think people know it.”
Kelly continued, “It’s kind of a ridiculous proposition that because of something I said, they want to either kill me or now prosecute me under the uniform code of military justice. It’s ridiculous.”
On Friday, Kelly spoke on the controversy at a Tucson town hall, telling the crowd that the probe against him is “also in violation of the separation of powers of me as a United States senator.”
He blasted Trump and Hegseth as “not serious people,” adding that “they haven’t been serious enough about this to even notify me other than on Twitter.”
The lawmaker also argued that he ultimately expects Hegseth to “take a hike” over his calls for him to be court-martialed.
“Or he can try to prosecute me, but I’m not going away,” he added.
Watch Kelly’s appearance on MS Now’s “The Weekend.”
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