Sen. Mark Kelly Taunts Trump on MSNOW After Censure News: ‘I Hurt His Ego’

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) taunted President Donald Trump after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced he will seek the censure and demotion of the lawmaker over Kelly’s reminder not to obey unlawful orders, saying he had hurt Trump’s “ego.”

The Pentagon announced a probe into Sen. Kelly in November over his appearance in a video that reminded intelligence and military personnel that they are obligated not to follow “illegal orders,” which prompted a barrage of execution-themed responses from Trump.

Hegseth announced the punishments he will seek on Monday, to which Kelly responded on Monday night’s edition of MS NOW’s The Rachel Maddow Show.

Kelly called the president “dangerous” and promised never to be “silenced”:

MADDOW: I’m — I’m struck by the way this does and doesn’t fit the pattern of other acts taken by the Trump administration in this past year. They have taken different types of acts of retribution against people who they see as their political opponents or their political rivals or their critics running the gamut. Everybody from members of the board of the Fed, to other elected officials, to indictments of former Trump administration officials. And so, it seems to fit that sort of pattern in one way.

But with you, there’s also the substance of the matter, which is why they’re going after you, by their own admission, which is advising service members that they do not need to and indeed they must not disobey illegal orders.

Do you think this is part of something they are trying to fundamentally change in the military, in terms of the way the president uses the military, the way he orders them to act, and the kinds of expectations we have for ethical and lawful behavior by U.S. service members?

KELLY: Well, could be — could be partly that. I think the bigger thing here is Donald Trump didn’t like what I said, and he was so struck by it. And in some ways, you know, maybe I, you know, hurt his ego in a way that, you know, he now is starting to understand that, you know, members of the military don’t have blind loyalty to him.

He should know this. He’s the commander in chief. He’s been president before. The loyalty is to the Constitution, not to a person.

And, you know, he — he didn’t like that. And, you know, he — he did what he normally does, which is opens his mouth before he thinks and then doubles down on it.

And these are dangerous words, because if he can get me to shut up — I mean, I’m a U.S. senator. I was an astronaut. I spent, you know, four trips in space. I flew 39 combat missions.

If he’s successful in getting me to not speak out against him or the government or Pete Hegseth or whoever and not do my job — I mean, what does — you know, what does that say to all these other retired and ex-service members? What rights do they have anymore?

And this extends even beyond that. I think if they’re successful in — and by the way, Rachel, they’re not going to be successful in ever shutting me up. That doesn’t mean — I could — they could go as far as they possibly can go with that. That’s not going to happen.

But if they can, you know, punish me in a — in a significant way, that’s going to silence other critics of the government. And that is a foundational problem for our constitutional democracy.

Watch above via MS NOW’s The Rachel Maddow Show.