Hegseth is going to cut Seanator Kelly's military retirement pay

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/pentagon-mark-kelly-video-hegseth.html

Sen. Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat, will have his military retirement pay cut as part of a disciplinary action over a video he made that told service members they have the right to refuse to execute illegal orders.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also issued a formal letter of censure against Kelly.

Hegseth called Kelly’s statements on the video “seditious.”


“Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth said in a statement on X.

“As a retired Navy Captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice,” Hegseth said.

Kelly has 30 days to file a response to the decision to cut his retirement pay, according to Hegseth’s tweet.

[spanone]

1. Hegseth, one big stinking POS.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

2. Yes

[Ritabert]

3. That's why Trump picked him.

[surfered]

4. A decision he obviously made at 2AM in a DC bar.

[drmeow]

5. Hegseth belongs

in a North Korean prison as an inmate.

[dem4decades]

6. I hope Kelly responds and destroys him in court.

[kysrsoze]

7. Lawsuit. He'll lose.

[Rob H.]

8. Hegseth has two tattoos associated with Christian nationalist groups,

one of which is also associated with white nationalist groups and both of which he got while in the military, and he has the nerve to talk about "good order and military discipline"?

Kelly was reminding soldiers of their duty under the UCMJ to refuse to follow illegal orders. I hope his response to Kegbreath is the written equivalent of a curb stomp.

[Just Jerome]

9. What a li'l

drunk ass punk.

[Nanjeanne]

10. Again I have to ask --- is our democracy so fragile that these things can happen without any recourse?

[wolfie001]

12. It's because of the 6 pieces of shit on the Supreme Court

💩💩💩💩💩💩= 6 pieces of shit.

[cpamomfromtexas]

11. This is malicious, he can be sued as

This is not a normal activity in the scope of Hegseths job description.

[SunSeeker]

13. Disgusting. All Kelly did was restate the military code. It is Hegseth who is being "seditious."

[Sane1]

14. Tme to cut Whiskey Pete's Booze Budget!!

Make this clown take a breathalyzer test before entering the situation room.

[Paladin]

15. MotherFUCK this shit. (nt)

[Puppyjive]

16. The repercussion of this action will be swift

When the Trump regime falls, Hegseth will find himself locked up for life. If they don't have to follow the rules, neither do we.

[bluestarone]

17. I would like to see Kelly file numerous lawsuits.

The big one against ASSHOLE hegseth!! I want him fucking DESTROYED!!

[a kennedy]

18. They're ALL SO GAWD DAMN IMMATURE AND VINDICTIVE.

EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM, but of course, they’re just following the greatest immature & vindictive piece of shit EVER. 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬

[LetMyPeopleVote]

19. When Senator Kelly sues, he will have fun using these statements from Hegseth and Bondi

If the administration intends to investigate Democratic veterans in Congress, it should prepare equal treatment for members of the White House Cabinet.

In prior remarks, Hegseth and Bondi also said troops must disobey illegal orders - MS NOW

apple.news/AtPlYxgM_Q1S...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2025-12-09T17:49:00.527Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/in-prior-remarks-hegseth-and-bondi-also-said-troops-must-disobey-illegal-orders

CNN reported last week, for example, that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who’s helped advance the partisan offensive against the Democratic veterans, delivered remarks in 2016 explaining that U.S. military personnel “won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief” and described the refusal of illegal commands as a part of the military’s ethos and standards.

CNN also found that, as Election Day 2016 drew closer, the former Fox News host told viewers that service members are “not going to follow illegal orders.”

That is to say, eight years ago, the future Pentagon chief delivered the same message he and Trump are now condemning.

Evidently, Hegseth is not alone. The New York Times reported:

Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said the same thing as the [Democratic] lawmakers last year in a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court as a lawyer for the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank that represented three former military leaders.

In the legal brief, which is available online through the high court’s website, Bondi wrote, “Military officers are required not to carry out unlawful orders.” The Florida Republican added, “The military would not carry out a patently unlawful order from the president to kill nonmilitary targets. Indeed, service members are required not to do so.”

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that the Trump administration won’t launch sedition investigations into the incumbent president’s defense secretary and attorney general, but if officials continue to pursue Democratic veterans in Congress, they should probably prepare an answer to a straightforward question: “Why aren’t you also pursuing cases against the president’s defense secretary and attorney general?”

[LetMyPeopleVote]

20. MaddowBlog-'I'm never going to back down': Mark Kelly pushes back against Hegseth's intensifying crusade

The Pentagon chief is moving forward with plans to demote the senator’s military rank. The secretary may not be prepared, however, for what happens next.

‘I’m never going to back down’: Mark Kelly pushes back against Hegseth’s intensifying crusade - MS NOW

apple.news/A8Ld_5ONZSbu...

— (@oc88.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T15:20:46.352Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/mark-kelly-demotion-pete-hegseth-010626

In mid-December, the Pentagon announced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “escalating” his crusade against Sen. Mark Kelly, launching an “official Command Investigation” into the Arizona Democrat. It was, as The Washington Post noted soon after, “an unprecedented use of the military justice system to investigate a political adversary.”

Three weeks later, the beleaguered Cabinet secretary, who presumably has more important matters on his plate, took the next step down a radical path. My MS NOW colleague Erum Salam reported:

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. […]

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.

For those who might have lost sight of the transgression that prompted the secretary’s crusade: Several Democratic military veterans appeared in a video, released in November, in which they urged service members to reject illegal orders. A week later, Hegseth announced an investigation into Kelly, a decorated Navy veteran. (The Arizona Democrat is the only member of the group who retired as a captain and served long enough to receive a military pension.)....

Kelly’s pushback: If Trump’s Pentagon expects Kelly to back down in the face of absurd bullying, that’s apparently not going to happen. “Here’s the thing, Rachel: I’m never going to back down from these guys,” the senator said Monday on MS NOW. “I’m going to continue to speak out. I’m going to continue to do my job and, as much as I can, highlight how wrong these people are and how outrageous this is and how dangerous.”......

Endgame: As part of the existing process, Kelly has 30 days to respond formally to Hegseth’s letter, but just as notably, assuming his demotion happens, the senator will have the option of taking the matter to the courts, to the Board for Correction of Naval Records or to both.

“If the executive branch were to move forward in any forum — criminal, disciplinary, or administrative — we will take all appropriate legal action on Senator Kelly’s behalf to halt the Administration’s unprecedented and dangerous overreach,” Kelly’s lawyer wrote in a letter to Secretary of the Navy John Phelan in December.

[DFW]

21. How incredibly petty.

As if Hegseth had ever done anything that ever served the country.

Speaking of countries, if Hegseth has not yet established a second residence in a country that has no extradition treaty with the United States, he is even more of a fool than I thought he was. At least Dick Cheney kept a house on the island of Kish. During his time as VP, he changed the registration from his name to Halliburton, but it was always his, and Kish is less than an hour’s flight from the new Halliburton HQ in Dubai.

[CTyankee]

22. CLASSIC DICK MOVE by a shitheaded asshole!!!

Sickening. Sometimes I sputter I am so angry. This is one of those moments .....