2 GOP senators caution Hegseth on punishing Kelly

Two high-profile Republican senators on Monday warned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth against reducing Sen. Mark Kelly’s (D-Ariz.) military rank or pension as punishment for filming a video with several other Democratic lawmakers urging service members not to follow unlawful orders.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who has jurisdiction over the Pentagon’s budget as chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, said it’s not “appropriate” to target Kelly’s retired rank or pension because of the video urging members of the military to defy orders they view as unlawful.

“I don’t think that’s appropriate,” Collins said Monday of the proceedings Hegseth announced earlier in the day against Kelly, a retired Navy captain who flew 39 combat missions as a naval aviator and four space missions as an astronaut.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) called the Pentagon’s censure of Kelly “ridiculous,” even though he strongly criticized the Democrats’ video urging service members to ignore orders they view as unjust or illegal.

“That video was rage bait … but my gosh, he is a U.S. senator who operates in a political world,” Tillis said, according to a reporter for HuffPost.

“I think it has a chilling effect on speech, and I’ve got a real problem with it. And I think Hegseth overreached,” Tillis warned.

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Kelly will have a chance to defend himself during what he said would be an “adjudication process.”

“My understanding is that there’s an adjudication process and I think we should let the adjudication process work its way through,” he said.

Asked if the disciplinary proceedings are appropriate given Kelly’s position as a senator and member of the Armed Services panel, Rounds said, “I think we’ll let the process play out.”

“I think Sen. Kelly is perfectly capable of working his way through this issue,” he said.

Other Republican senators declined to comment on the sensitive matter affecting one of their colleagues.

Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said she didn’t know enough about the matter to comment.

“I don’t know enough to have a reaction,” she said. “I just saw a blurb.”

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said the disciplinary matter is between Kelly and the Pentagon.

“I think that’s really between the Department of War and Sen. Kelly. I’ll let them sort that out,” she said.

Hegseth announced Monday that the Defense Department had initiated administrative proceedings against Kelly that could reduce his retirement rank and pension because of the video he made with other Democratic lawmakers.

Hegseth in a post on social media accused Kelly of releasing a “reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline.”

He noted that Kelly is “still receiving a military pension” and “knows he is still accountable to military justice.”

Hegseth said that his department had initiated a “retirement grade determination proceeding” and that he had issued a formal letter of censure to outline “the totality of Captain (for now) Kelly’s reckless misconduct.”

Kelly on Monday vowed he “will fight this with everything I’ve got.”

“It’s outrageous and it is wrong. There is nothing more un-American than that. If Pete Hegseth, the most unqualified Secretary of Defense in our country’s history, thinks he can intimidate me with a censure or threats to demote me or prosecute me, he still doesn’t get it,” Kelly said in a statement posted on the social platform X.

“I will fight this with everything I’ve got — not for myself, but to send a message back that Pete Hegseth and Donald Trump don’t get to decide what Americans in this country get to say about their government,” he declared.

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