Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that he plans to demote the military rank of Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona after the retired Navy captain reminded those actively serving to disobey illegal orders.
Kelly, a former combat pilot and astronaut, appeared in a video in November with five other Democratic lawmakers in which he denounced the administration for pitting service members against U.S. citizens and told those serving that they “can refuse illegal orders,” a basic tenet of U.S. military law.
The lawmakers said they made the remarks partly in response to President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops to major U.S. cities for crime and immigration enforcement operations.
Although all six lawmakers served in either the military or intelligence communities, only Kelly served long enough to formally retire and receive a pension, which Hegseth — a former Army National Guard officer — has noted makes Kelly “still accountable to military justice.”
After the video was published, Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition, calling their actions “punishable by DEATH” on social media. Kelly, like other lawmakers in the video, has said that he and his wife — former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived being shot in the head in 2011 while a member of Congress — received threats after the president’s posts.
In Monday’s social media post, Hegseth argued that Kelly’s comments violate Articles 133 and 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which refer to “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman” and general misconduct. Hegseth said on X that the message in the video was “clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline.” Hegseth said he issued a “letter of censure” to Kelly, calling it a first step toward a demotion and a decrease in pension.
Censure is a formal disciplinary action, sometimes punitive, that can only be issued by someone in a service member’s chain of command. If successful, it can result in demotion of a service member’s rank and a reduction in their retirement pay.
Kelly has 30 days to formally respond to the letter, but he immediately fired back on social media.
“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,” Kelly said, adding that countless members of the armed forces have done likewise.
“Pete Hegseth wants to send the message to every single retired servicemember that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them the same way,” Kelly wrote.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.