Senate Republicans are growing increasingly uneasy with the Pentagon’s investigation into Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced his office is escalating its probe into him.
The Defense Department announced Monday that the review of Kelly has risen to an “official Command Investigation,” intensifying the feud between the two sides over Kelly’s role in a video he and other congressional Democrats made to remind service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders.
Kelly has been under fire by the administration for nearly a month after he, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Democratic Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.) and Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) appeared in the video that set off the series of comments.
Trump also called for the execution of the half-dozen lawmakers — a remark he walked back.
Days after the Democrats released the joint video, the Defense Department said it received “serious allegations of misconduct” against Kelly and that it kicked off a “thorough review” of the allegations. Hegseth ordered the Navy to finish the review and submit it to the Defense Department by Dec. 10.
The Navy submitted the report on potential punishments against Kelly to the department’s Office of General Counsel last week. The content and the scope of the report are unclear.
What isn’t being walked back is the probe, which some Senate Republicans believe likely does not have merit.
“I’m not,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said when asked whether she is comfortable with the expansion of the probe. “He is protected by the speech and debate clause.”
Hegseth appeared Tuesday on Capitol Hill alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio to brief lawmakers on the administration’s targeting of boats near Venezuela. Hegseth and Kelly got into a “long back-and-forth” during the briefing, according to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).
According to one Senate Republican, the spat started with a reasonable question on Kelly’s end but eventually turned into a protracted discussion with GOP members complaining he was “filibustering” during a classified briefing when other attendees had questions.
Kelly said Hegseth brought up “talking points” about the video when he was asking the Pentagon chief about the strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
Kelly told reporters following the briefing that the Pentagon still has not reached out to him about the investigation and argued the department is targeting him “for something I said that was lawful.”
