'He needs to go': Mark Kelly unleashes on Trump’s 'disaster' Pentagon chief

On Tuesday, Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) revealed something “quite ironic” about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s statement earlier in the morning, in which President Donald Trump’s embattled Pentagon chief asserted that he was only acting under the orders of his commander in chief. As Kelly told CNN’s Dana Bash, if Hegseth – who faces calls for impeachment from within his own party – had only taken Kelly’s advice, things might have turned out differently for him.

Kelly was appearing on CNN the morning after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced eight articles of impeachment to the House. According to Massie, Hegseth had committed “high crimes and misdemeanors,” like illegally launching the Iran war and killing hundreds of civilians in boat strikes against alleged drug-smugglers in the Caribbean. “Many of those articles, I think six out of the eight, are about him following illegal orders,” noted Kelly. “Which I find quite ironic. If Pete Hegseth would have just watched our video, listened to what we had to say, and maybe internalized it a little bit, he wouldn't find himself in this situation.”

This was in reference to a video Kelly and other lawmakers who had served in the U.S. armed forces released early in Trump’s second term, in which they called on military service members to refuse illegal orders. At the time, Hegseth accused Kelly – a retired Navy captain and former astronaut – of sedition, while Trump suggested he could be put to death. Under Hegseth’s direction, the Pentagon initiated the process of retroactively reducing Kelly’s rank and retirement pension, an effort that was slapped down by a federal judge in February. Hegseth vowed to appeal, but the matter faded from the spotlight.

But now, Hegseth finds himself under fire, with growing support for his impeachment from within the GOP. On Tuesday morning, he delivered the first Pentagon press briefing in six months, where he went on a rambling defense of what he characterized as his “military success” – including in Iran – asserting that every operation was "ordered by the commander in chief, then ordered by myself, notified to Congress.” As many have noted, Hegseth’s comments repeatedly attempted to shift responsibility from himself to the president in a way that amounted to the old “just following orders” refrain.

On CNN, Kelly was asked whether Hegseth’s claims that he’d notified Congress about various conflicts were true. “I'm on the Armed Services Committee and the Intelligence Committee -- I was not notified,” said Kelly, adding that he was “confident” no other ranking member was notified either. Kelly didn't hold back with his assessment of the Defense Secretary's leadership, saying, "Pete Hegseth has been a disaster as secretary of defense. He has botched this war in Iran, a war we should have never gotten into. He's firing senior admirals and generals who are valuable members of the department, because, as we found out just the other day, he didn't like it that they attended a conference or said something about vaccines." As Kelly intimated, new reports have shown that Hegseth has barred the promotion of military leadership of career senior officers based on factors like race, gender, and political views. "At every turn, this secretary of defense has just been a disaster," Kelly declared. "I think he needs to go.”