Sen. Kelly responds to unearthed Hegseth comments

CNN's K file unearthing comments from Pete Hagseth saying that the military won't follow on lawful orders, which of course is part of what he's been attacking six Democrats for saying in a video. Well, it's also the same

thing Hagseth is investigating. Senator Mark Kelly for threatening to court martial him over it. Here's what K file found from Hagseth in 2016.

I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes. 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. 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.

He's talking about not following unlawful orders. Does that sound familiar?

Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.

You can refuse illegal orders.

You must refuse illegal orders.

No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.

That is, of course, the video. Six Democrats released two weeks ago, saying that the military can refuse on lawful orders, which Trump said was seditious behavior, punishable by death when it came out.

Senator Mark Kelly will join me in just a moment to respond, but first K files. Andrew Kaczynski is out front. So Andrew, I mean, incredible reporting that you've done here. A stunning video you uncovered. This is Hagseth

talking about unlawful orders as the Democrats that he's now accused, accusing of being seditious.

What have you found here? Yeah, well, Aaron, this video of Pete Hagseth is from 2016 when he was a Fox News contributor. And it's important because it shows him saying the military would refuse unlawful orders from a president. And this is the very idea he is now attacking Democrats for repeating. Now, Aaron, if that was a core military value in 2016, the question is why is promoting it suddenly being portrayed as sedacious

by Hegseth in 2025? Military law obviously has not changed. What has changed here is the politics around it. There's a different commander-in-chief then it was Barack Obama and back then in that same event Hegseth was actually very very critical of Obama with Hegseth arguing that Americans deserved a commander in chief, talking about Obama. That was befitting of the military's loyalty.

Listen to him here.

But I've heard veterans say, hey, I don't want my kids to join this military today. I can understand under Barack Obama, in some ways, with the rules of engagement and the culture, but I still want to believe and hope that there are plenty of Americans who understand what this country represents that

are willing to put their lives on the line and families that understand the importance of that to encourage their son or daughter. I just hope we get a commander-in-chief befitting of

that loyalty.

Andrew, I know you reached out to the White House, you reached out to the Defense Department, or as they now call themselves, the Department of War, about this video. What did they tell you?

Yeah, Erin, we did reach out to both the White House and the Pentagon about this newly surfaced video that we found. Now, Kinsley Wilson, that's a Pentagon spokesperson, told us that Hagseth has been clear and made clear there are already procedures for unlawful orders telling CNN quote the orders being given to our military under President Trump are on the despicable video of seditious six urging our troops to defy their chain of command was a politically motivated influence

operation by elected officials aimed at sowing distrust and chaos in our armed forces. We also reached out to the White House, Aaron, and in a lengthy statement to CNN, Anna Kelly, that's a White House spokesperson, said that Hagstead has been entirely consistent in his position then and added that Democrats

are trying to deliberately manufacture doubt where none exists. They told us, quote, these lawmakers so doubt in a clear chain of command, which is reckless, dangerous and deeply irresponsible for an elected official. It's asinine that CNN cares more about the secretary's uncontroversial remarks than those of elected officials who are putting military service members in harm's way by telling them

to disobey their commander in chief. Erin.

All right, Andrew Kaczynski, thank you very much. Up front now, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly as promised and Senator Kelly. I want to play again for you what Andrew Kaczynski found an unearthed here. Exactly what Pete Hegg Seth said. Here he is.

And I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes. If you're doing something that is just completely unlawful and and 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. 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.

So, Senator, what do you think of that?

Well, Erin, I think he's correct. And it's exactly what we said. But when we said it, Pete Hegseth now, 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? 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. What we said was uncontroversial. The White House sort of confirmed that. They said his uncontroversial remarks, they were the same as ours. I mean, this is so ridiculous. And what the president wants to do now is intimidate us and stop us from talking, which is not

consistent with our Constitution. And beyond that, Erin, he said we should be hanged for what we said, executed for what we said. And what we said was exactly the same thing that Pete Hegseth said in 2016.

Of course sedition, right, can be punishable by death. I just want to note the Pentagon spokesperson today in the response to Andrew Kaczynski said, referred to you as the despicable video of the seditious six urging troops to defy their chain of command. That's how it was described today. And Secretary of Hegseth is investigating you over it now. I think it's the Secretary of Navy has until

early next week, right, to finish the investigation into you. I mean, have they, has anybody reached out to you? Have they tried to talk to you or interview you for this

investigation? They have not. The only notification I've received about this was Pete Hague says tweet, which says everything you need to know about this was Pete Hegseth's tweet, which says everything you need to know about this guy. He's not serious. He cares more about views on his Twitter account than the law about process. He is an unserious and unqualified individual who should never have been allowed 1,000 yards

from the White House or from the Pentagon. And now he's the Secretary of Defense. And you see the consequences of that. We're seeing that in how this operation is being handled in Venezuela. There are serious consequences when you put

unqualified people in very important positions.

So, you know, the talk of sedition and, you know, obviously Congressman Crowe had, you know, played some of the horrible threats that he has received as a result of this. You know, what you, I know that you and your wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords,

have seen a real surge in threats because of the response from the Trump administration to this video. What kind of threats are you getting? What things are you hearing?

Well, we get more threats now in a single day than we would get in months. And they're graphic, they're violent, they're not only against me, but they're against Gabby. And we're no strangers to political violence. She was shot in the head meeting with her constituents.

And Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, he should know. And he called out political violent rhetoric and said it should stop. And he didn't even make it to Thanksgiving before he's calling for us to be hanged. Have we ever heard a president of the United States

calling for the execution of members of Congress? And Aaron, we can't normalize this. That's one of the problems here, is that Donald Trump is so singularly unqualified for this job as president of the United States, and the things he says is so ridiculous,

people are starting to get comfortable with it. And he does it for a reason. He wants to shut people up, but he's not gonna shut me up. I'm not gonna be intimidated by him or Pete Hegseth and his threats to court-martial me. I mean, the only way this ends is for them to turn around

and try to focus on the things that matter for the American people. The president should be focused on things like, you know, costs and the cost of healthcare and groceries, the things that are affecting everyday Americans that they need some help with.

And what he did today, of course, as you point out though, was talk about these strikes that he announced he's doing in Venezuela. Hasn't done them yet, but he announced that he is doing them as a de facto reality. Also said maybe in Colombia.

And we've heard the changing story on the strike and the boat in the Caribbean and what Pete Hegseth knew from September 2nd when he went on Fox News and said he watched the strike and he was so confident and now he's saying actually there's a lot of other things to do and he didn't have time to watch the whole strike.

What are you hearing about Hegseth standing within the military right now?

Well, I can't imagine it's good. And it's his stock is certainly going way down with Republicans in the United States Senate. You know, he said he watched the whole video. He made like he was in charge of the whole strike until things started going sideways. And then he decides his best way out is to throw the admiral under the bus.

That isn't leadership. But I'm not surprised. I mean, this guy is not a leader. He is by far the least qualified secretary of defense we've ever had. He runs around the stage talking about lethality and warrior ethos and hunting and killing people.

That is not the words of a responsible Secretary of Defense. He should be focused on equipping people and training them, making sure people follow the rule of law. And he is in every way the opposite of the person we want in such a position of responsibility. I mean, this guy is in the command authority for the release of nuclear weapons. I mean, this guy is in the command authority for the release of nuclear weapons.

And, you know, he spends half the day tweeting memes.