Senator Mark Kelly is set to see his retirement rank and pay cut after making “seditious statements” in a video, featuring several other lawmakers, that told troops they “can and must refuse illegal orders.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth moved to censure Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, on Monday, telling Fox News Digital that he directed Secretary of the Navy John Phelan to review the retired Navy captain’s retirement rank and pay and provide a recommendation in 45 days.
“Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline. As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice,” Hegseth also wrote on X.
“Therefore, in response to Senator Mark Kelly’s seditious statements — and his pattern of reckless misconduct — the Department of War is taking administrative action against Captain Mark E. Kelly,” Hegseth continued.
Kelly responded in a statement on Monday afternoon: “Over twenty-five years in the U.S. Navy, thirty-nine combat missions, and four missions to space, I risked my life for this country and to defend our Constitution — including the First Amendment rights of every American to speak out. I never expected that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense would attack me for doing exactly that.”
“My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country. I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby recovered from a gunshot wound to the head — all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder,” said the senator.
Giffords, formerly a congresswoman from the Tuscon area, was shot and wounded during a 2011 assassination attempt at a meet-and-greet with voters. Kelly and Giffords married in 2007; before joining the Senate, the former naval aviator Kelly was also an astronaut and flew several space shuttle missions between 2006 and 2011.
In the November video message, six congressional Democrats urge active duty military members to refuse orders from their commanders if they believe them to be illegal.
“You can refuse illegal orders,” other Democrats including Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Chris Deluzio say in the video. “You must refuse illegal orders.”
The new Pentagon review could result in a downgrade from the rank at which Kelly officially retired. His retirement pay, which is tied to rank, may also be reduced as a result.
Kelly was previously threatened with military prosecution over the video. He and others have defended the conduct as protected by the First Amendment against accusations of seditious activity by Republicans including Donald Trump, who called for the members of Congress in the video to be arrested and face charges of treason “punishable by DEATH.”
The president’s outlandish call for the severe punishment of his enemies was not followed up by the Department of Justice. Hegseth’s actions marks the first substantial move by the Trump administration has taken to retaliate against the video’s participants.
The Arizona senator is considered a rising star among the Democrats and a top attack target for Republicans with efforts to tarnish his reputation, given the possibility that he could run for president in 2028. Kelly has declined to answer whether he is considering a White House run, while acknowledging his surging national profile and popularity within the party.
Hegseth previously told reporters that Kelly’s status as a retired captain makes him the only lawmaker in the video who the Department of Defense can still initiate formal proceedings against. A handful of other Democratic members of Congress who served in the armed forces also participated in the message. None have walked back the language used in the video, and senior Democrats have backed them up.
The exact amount by which Kelly’s pay would be decreased, or whether his retirement rank would be affected will be determined at the end of the review conducted by the Defense Department. Kelly will be allowed to submit his own response and offer a defense of his actions.
Over the weekend, Democrats including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the president’s ordered operations against the Venezuelan government “illegal.”
“We have learned through the years, when America tries to do regime change and nation building in this way, the American people pay the price in both blood and in dollars,” said Schumer.
On Saturday, Kelly issued several statements condemning the Trump administration’s military assault on Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of the nation’s president, Nicolas Maduro. Kelly, with most of the rest of the Senate Democratic caucus, is set to support a War Powers resolution aimed at curtailing Trump’s ability to wage war in the Caribbean this week though the measure is not likely to succeed.
“Over the past year, Trump’s foreign policy has been reckless, chaotic, self-serving, and unconstitutional,” Kelly wrote Saturday. “Congress should vote this week to reassert its authority on behalf of the American people before he oversteps again.”
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