Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) sounded the alarm about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth running the military as an unserious person in one of the most important jobs in the United States.
During a press briefing Monday, Kelly said he was concerned about U.S. service members taking orders from Hegseth, who’s under fire for allegedly greenlighting a second-strike on a drug boat off the coast of Venezuela.
“I was talking about this from the beginning of this operation [in the Caribbean], that the thing I’m most concerned about is the very difficult situations that this Secretary of Defense is going to put service members into. And it’s because this guy is so unqualified for the job!”
Kelly continued:
I mean, think about this: he runs around on a stage talking about “lethality,” and “warrior ethos,” and “killing people.” We have the most confident, capable military this planet has ever seen by far — that’s not the message that needs to come from the secretary of Defense. The message should be about what’s our mission, and accountability, and the rule of law, and training, and “Let me make sure you are equipped to do really hard jobs. Let me give you all the tools you need to do something that often is an impossible mission.”
And instead, he runs around on a stage like he’s a 12-year-old playing army. And it is ridiculous. It is embarrassing. I cannot imagine what our allies think looking at that guy in this job — one of the most important jobs in our country in my view. After the president of the United States, it is the next most important job. He is in the national command authority for nuclear weapons.
Kelly then expressed his disgust at a children’s book meme Hegseth posted on social media.
“Last night, he is putting out on the internet, turtles with rocket-propelled grenades — I mean, have you seen this? This is the Secretary of Defense! This is not a serious person. He should have been fired after Signalgate, and then every single day after that.”
Hegseth, a former weekend Fox News morning show host, has threatened Kelly with court-martial for a video put out with other Democratic lawmakers reminding troops not to follow “illegal orders” if they come from the administration.
Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.
