Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) was one of six Democrats who appeared in a video urging military members to defy orders they believe are illegal.
I thought the video was over the line, as there were far better ways to address the situation of which the legislators complained.
When Kelly was put on the spot to say whether he, as a former military member, would defy orders, he sidestepped the question like a true politician.
The video at issue included Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire, and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania.
After the video was released, Trump went ballistic. It was then announced that the FBI was going to call in each participating member to discuss the statements they made in the video. Slotkin responded, "To be honest, the president's reaction and the use of the FBI against us is exactly why we made the video. He believes in using the federal government against his perceived adversaries, and he's not afraid to use the arms of the government against people he disagrees with.”
She continued, “He does not believe the law applies to him … which is exactly why we made the video, to give people some assurance that they weren't alone as they watch this stuff unfold."
I disagree. They made the video to poke President Donald Trump, and it worked.
Several days after the video was posted, Slotkin and just about every other member of Congress who appeared in it became media darlings, and they were all over cable news.
Slotkin was on ABC News’ This Week when she was directly asked about whether she was aware of any illegal orders that had been given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or President Trump.
She responded, "To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal, but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela.”
That situation has since changed a bit, after a report surfaced over the weekend that Hegseth had possibly ordered a second strike to kill any survivors of an initial drug boat strike that took place on Sept. 2. Hegseth denies he gave such an order, and thus far, Trump has backed him up.
Sen. Kelly was also doing the media circuit when he was directly asked whether he would have refused an order given to him to carry out a strike against suspected drug boats. NBC host Kristen Welker asked him, "So I want to put the question to you, if you were still in uniform, if you received an order to strike suspected drug boats overseas and kill everybody on board, would you refuse that order in real time?"
Kelly responded, "People can tell the difference, should be able to tell the difference, between something that is unlawful and something that is lawful. And if I was ever given an unlawful order, I would refuse, if you have time, you can certainly go to the judge, advocate generals, the lawyers and have a discussion about it. If you don’t have time, you just say simply, I’m not going to do that. That’s against the law.”
Notice that he did not answer the specific question, yet the man just put out a video telling our troops to defy their orders. Welker asked him the question again, and again, Kelly spun, stating, "The difference between the initial strike, and what’s being reported as a second strike, and those things are different. I think the administration has tied themselves in knots, the explanations that we’ve received on how this is all legal, and I was saying weeks ago, my concern is with the service members, that we are going to put these individuals in a really tough place.”
As I noted in the first report, if a second strike was ordered against survivors of the first strike to ensure that they were all dead, someone is going to be brought up on charges, and you had better believe that Democrats are hoping the order was given by Hegseth. When the dust settles on this, regardless of who is held responsible, it is going to be bad news for Trump and Republicans. It gives Democrats their magic bullet, so to speak, and they are going to use it for all its worth.
