Sen. Kelly Blasts Trump ‘Suck Up’ Pete Hegseth By Sharing Old Video That Didn’t Age Well

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is actually agreeing with Pete Hegseth— or, to be more specific, a 2016 version of the defense secretary. 

On Tuesday, Kelly posted a clip to X from his recent appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.” 

The clip Kelly chose included an old — and now viral — video of Hegseth talking very frankly about the military’s obligation to reject orders that violate the law at an event hosted by what was then called the Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley in April 2016.

The throwback video of Hegseth seems to have gone viral thanks to Hegseth’s Sept. 2 double-strike controversy, an act many say was likely a war crime.

“I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes,” Hegseth said at the event in 2016. “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that.”

“That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief,” Hegseth continued. “There’s a standard, there’s an ethos. There’s a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.”

Last month, Democratic veterans and former intelligence officers — including Kelly — released a video urging service members to stand up to President Donald Trump’s administration if they receive “illegal orders.” The video was met with a pretty hostile response from Trump, who decried the video as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” on social media and appeared to endorse a post that called for the lawmakers to be executed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later clarified that Trump does not want to execute members of Congress.

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Hegseth responded to the Democrats’ video by publishing a tweet last week that said Kelly, a retired Navy fighter pilot, was facing investigation because he is the only one in that group who formally retired from the military and remains under the Pentagon’s jurisdiction.

“Pete Hegseth says he’s going to court-martial me for saying the same exact thing he said 9 years ago,” Kelly said in the caption of his tweet that included the clip of Hegseth in 2016. “What changed for Pete? Well to start, he spends all day thinking about how he can suck up to Trump. When Trump says jump, he says how high.”

The retired astronaut expanded upon this during his conversation with Burnett on CNN Tuesday.

“Well, Erin, I think he’s correct. And it’s exactly what we said,” Kelly said of Hegseth’s 2016 video. “But when we said it, Pete Hegseth now said — eight years later or … nine years later — he says, what we said was false and reckless. And I think it begs the question: What has changed?”

He continued, “And it’s pretty obvious what has changed is we have an unqualified secretary of defense who only cares about sucking up to this president, and loyalty to this president. That’s the difference. It’s who’s commander-in-chief.”

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