Arizona Senator Mark Kelly accused Pete Hegseth Monday of “playing army,” after the defense secretary posted a juvenile meme making light of his military’s extrajudicial executions.
Speaking at a press conference, Kelly nailed precisely what’s so disturbing about Hegseth’s lackluster leadership of the Pentagon: he’s like a little kid playing dress up.
“I mean think about this, he runs around on a stage talking about lethality and warrior ethos and killing people. We have the most competent, capable military this planet has ever seen by far. That’s not the message that needs to come from the secretary of defense,” Kelly said.
Instead of focusing on the military’s mission “he runs around on a stage like he’s a 12-year-old playing army. And it is ridiculous, it is embarrassing,” Kelly said. “And I can’t imagine what our allies think of looking at that guy in this job, one of the most important jobs in our country.”
Kelly was referring to Hegseth’s outrageous summit in September, where he invited droves of top military personnel to listen to him lecture about how much he hates the way overweight men with beards make him feel.
The Arizona senator seems to be fighting back after becoming a target for the Trump administration. Last week, Hegseth threatened to court-martial Kelly, a former astronaut and U.S. Naval officer, after he appeared in a video alongside fellow Democratic lawmakers to urge members of the U.S. military and intelligence community not to follow illegal orders.
Kelly also slammed Hegseth for posting an AI image of the popular children’s character Franklin the Turtle extrajudicially blowing up “drug boats,” just days after it was revealed the secretary potentially committed a war crime of his own.
“He is in the national command authority for nuclear weapons and last night he’s putting out on the internet turtles with rocket-propelled grandes. I mean, have you seen this? This is the secretary of defense, this is not a serious person. He should have been fired after Signal Gate, and then everyday after that,” Kelly said.
Kelly noted that the threats on his family’s lives had “obviously” increased since President Donald Trump accused him of sedition “punishable by death” last week. Hegseth also accused Kelly of sedition—though even pro-Trump legal experts say that claim falls flat.
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