After President Trump called for Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly’s execution and Pete Hegseth launched an investigation into him, Kelly says he isn’t worried—he’s been through worse and has no plans to back down.
Kelly stopped by “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday night, where the ABC host promptly asked for the senator’s reaction to the events of the last few days. According to Kelly, he learned of the president’s call for his execution — which came in response to Kelly participating in a video with other Democratic senators encouraging military members to not follow unlawful orders — while in an intelligence meeting inside a SCIF, and said it was “shocking.”
“I’ll tell you this though, I’m not backing down,” Kelly said. “I mean, we said something very simple; members of the military need to follow the law. We wanted to say that we have their backs. His response, ‘Kill them.’”
Eventually, host Jimmy Kimmel jokingly asked if Kelly missed the vacuum of space, considering he used to be an astronaut. But, speaking seriously, the ABC host wondered if Kelly is worried at all about the investigation.
“I’ve been through a lot more challenging things than this,” Kelly replied. “What I’m worried about is the reaction, and what this transmits to the military and the public, which is basically ‘shut up and listen to that guy.’ And that’s not the way our system works.”
“We have loyalty — my oath, and every oath every member of the military took, is loyalty to the Constitution, not to a person,” he continued. “And he’s trying to get some fear out there. And fear can be contagious, but what also can be contagious is courage and patriotism.”
Speaking about Pete Hegseth specifically, Kelly noted that the man is “totally unqualified,” and argued that Hegseth launched this probe simply to make Trump happy.
“From what I can tell in talking to some of my Republican colleagues, I mean, he just wants to please the president, and this is what he can do this week,” Kelly said.
You can watch Kelly’s full appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” in the video above.
