Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s latest crusade—a bizarre Pentagon investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly—triggered immediate blowback, including from inside his own party.
Even Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon, a retired military officer, has decided he’s seen enough, branding the spectacle “amateur hour once again at the Department of Dense.”
Hegseth, who now calls himself the ‘Secretary of War’ as part of his attempted makeover of the Defense Department, ordered the probe after Navy veteran Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers appeared in a minute-long video urging service members to “refuse illegal orders.”
The group—Sens. Elissa Slotkin and Kelly, and Reps. Chrissy Houlahan, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander, and Jason Crow—told troops that “no one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.”
Kelly defended himself to Rachel Maddow on MS NOW. He rattled off his résumé of near-death encounters—missiles exploding next to his aircraft, multiple near shoot-downs, and four trips to space “built by the lowest bidder”—before invoking the 2011 assassination attempt on his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords. “We know what political violence is,” he said. “And we know what causes it, too. The statement that Donald Trump made is inciteful.”
Republicans may not have loved the Democrats’ video, but several seem even less impressed by the Trump-Hegseth scorched-earth response. Enter Bacon, a Nebraska Republican and retired military officer who publicly blasted the Pentagon’s escalation. “I thought the video by six Dems was unnecessary and foolish,” he wrote on X. “But the threats of sedition charges and courts martial in response are also crazy.”
One respondent to Bacon’s post suggested lawmakers seemingly sowing dissent could lead to “instability.” Bacon shared the sober view that what the gaggle of lawmakers called for is actually run-of-the-mill.
“We all have to decide if an order is illegal. We are trained to not follow illegal orders,” he asserted. In another reply, he said, “I think good to criticize… but dumb to be talking courts martial.”
One respondent proffered that, “Calls for insurrection are serious, actually!” He replied, “They said don’t follow illegal orders. That is the law by the way. It was dumb and unnecessary video, but good luck prosecuting someone who is quoting the law. The Administration should have just pointed out how dumb it was. The threats looked dumber.”
Several accounts came at Bacon from a similar angle, but he stuck to his guns. “Let’s show some common sense and restraint,” Bacon signed off his original post.
Restraint wasn’t exactly President Donald Trump’s instinct, however. The president erupted after the lawmakers’ video circulated, fixating on capital punishment. He accused the Democrats of “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH,” amplifying a user who urged him to “go get all those traitorous sons of b—–s for sedition at the very least.” Another repost, also highlighted by the president, declared: “These pompous traitorous communists should be impeached and prosecuted.”
The political theatrics arrived as Trump continues to pressure the Pentagon and intelligence community to align more closely with his directives. Kelly has become a target of the administration, but it might not have hurt his potential bid for a 2028 presidential run.
Kelly has not ruled out such a run. In July, CNN’s Jake Tapper pressed the Arizona senator on why he’s suddenly popping up in Pennsylvania and Michigan, two states any future White House hopeful would be foolish to ignore. “Yes or no: Are you considering running for president in 2028?” Tapper asked.
Kelly dodged. “That is a good question,” he said, before refusing to give the yes-or-no answer Tapper repeatedly invited. He insisted he’s focused on his day job and “getting the word out to the American people.”
Kelly—who made the shortlist to be Kamala Harris’s running mate in 2024—pointed instead to Democrats’ dismal polling and said he’s concentrating on trying to improve it.
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