Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is standing up for his colleague Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), whom the Pentagon is investigating over alleged breaches of military law after he and five fellow Democratic veterans urged active service members not to obey unlawful orders.
“Mark Kelly is a patriot,” Gallego said in a self-recorded video Monday on Instagram.
He continued, “There’s no reason why they’re going after him. He was doing his duty and just reminding people about their rights as service members. And [Defense] Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, all these guys, fuck you guys. You’re not going to be able to scare us.”
Gallego appeared later that day on CNN to discuss the matter on “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” whose host asked what he would say directly to Hegseth if the outraged senator had the chance. Gallego, a former U.S. Marine who served in Iraq, once again spoke freely.
“I think, No. 1, you will never, ever, ever even be half the man that Sen. Kelly is,” Gallego said directly into the camera Monday. “You, sir, are a coward, and the fact that you are following this order from the president shows how big of a coward you are.”
He continued, “And I can’t wait till you no longer are the Secretary of Defense.”
Kelly had reminded military members in a video last week, alongside Reps. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo.) and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), that “no one has to carry out orders that violate the law.”
Trump decried this on social media as “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
The Defense Department announced “a thorough review” Monday into Kelly’s participation. Hegseth, who is currently shepherding the agency’s rebrand into the “Department of War,” then insulted Kelly from his own personal account on X, formerly Twitter, the very next day.
Gallego reminded Hunt that the six Democrats had merely echoed the military’s own official code in noting only lawful orders must be executed, and said the Trump administration is “trying to intimidate” members of Congress to distract from their own failures.
He cited the impending release of files on late child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein and the lack of a Republican health care plan as examples. When asked why the polarizing video message was needed, Gallego said Americans are “seeing things that aren’t very normal.”
“You have the Marines who are walking around Los Angeles, you have National Guardsmen coming from different states into other states,” he said. “You have a politicization of the military that has never been seen before until this president has done it.”
Gallego continued, “And let’s not forget the fact that they’re droning and killing people outside the coast of Venezuela without declaring war and/or giving us enough information for us to make a determination if they’re even justified attacks.”
The Trump administration has engaged in a series of U.S. military strikes against suspected drug smugglers and their boats in Pacific and Caribbean waters since early September, killing more than 70 people without due process or congressional authorization.
Gallego on Monday torched the Pentagon on X, writing: “Fuck you and your investigation.”