- Sen. Mark Kelly criticized the Trump White House's way of notifying him of an investigation.
- Politically-motivated violent threats against Kelly and his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, have increased due to Trump's remarks, he said.
- Kelly's press coverage is enhancing his profile as a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
Sen. Mark Kelly slammed the Trump administration during a solo press conference on Monday afternoon.
Kelly said he “was notified of a potential court martial through a tweet by the Secretary of Defense.”
“How ludicrous is that, that’s the only notification that we have received to date,” he said, of Secretary Pete Hegseth’s social media post.
Last week, the Pentagon confirmed in a social media post that it is investigating Kelly for a video message he and other Democratic lawmakers made that was targeted toward members of the U.S. military.
In the video message, the group of lawmakers — Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, and Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania — urged members of the military and intelligence community not to follow “illegal orders.”
The lawmakers said a service member’s oath is to the Constitution, not to a leader and said threats can arise “from within.”
President Donald Trump called the Democratic lawmakers “traitors” who “should be arrested and put on trial” in one post.
In another post, he said the video was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
While Trump and the Pentagon are receiving pushback for their reaction to the video, the message has also received criticism for its potentially destabilizing influence on American troops.
Kelly’s military career includes serving as a pilot in the Navy, as a combat veteran and NASA astronaut. Kelly, elected in a swing state, has largely stayed away from major controversies, unlike other Democratic politicians, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has regularly engaged in battles with the federal government.
The White House’s investigation into Kelly attracted a stir, elevating his name on the long list of people who earn attacks from Trump. There is also an upside: should Kelly hold ambitions for higher office, the national-level attention is a bonus ahead of 2028.
Sen. Mark Kelly’s fight with White House
During the Monday press conference, Kelly spoke about the increasing threats he and his wife Gabby Giffords have received.
Giffords, a former congresswoman, was nearly killed in an assassination attempt in 2011. This attack prompted Kelly to become a staunch gun control advocate.
“Gabby and I are no strangers to political violence,” Kelly said.
“(Gabby) gets threats on her life more so today because of what Donald Trump said about me 10 days ago; that I should be hanged, that I should be executed,” he said. “The threats on us have obviously gone up.”
According to HuffPost’s Igor Bobic, Kelly now has a security detail, which has become the norm for many members of Congress.
Although several lawmakers participated in the video directed at the troops, Kelly has been in the national spotlight.
He is leveraging the media attention, appearing in interviews on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” MS Now’s “Morning Joe” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union,” as Salon reported.
In most of these interviews, he criticizes the Trump White House’s actions, which, he argues, set the wrong precedent.
“What he is doing is sending a very chilling message across our entire nation,” Kelly told CNN’s Dana Bash. “Who’s going to speak up and say anything if they see something that’s unlawful or see something — waste, fraud and abuse? Why would anyone speak out if they can go and prosecute a U.S. senator?"
He also took aim at Hegseth over a follow-up strike on a drug boat off the coast of Venezuela. According to a Washington Post report, the second attack struck two men who survived the initial strike.
Kelly wants an inquiry into the strikes, which he says potentially breached military law.
In a social media post, Hegseth labeled the reports “fake news,” adding it was carried out “in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”
Democratic hopefuls for 2028
Aside from taking on the federal government and making headlines, Kelly is one of many Democrats who have traveled to early battleground states in the past few months.
Kelly joined Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., on the campaign trail in October.
In September, he passed through South Carolina for a private meeting and Nevada for a town hall. Kelly also plans to visit Iowa in November. He also visited Utah in November.
Kelly wouldn’t be the only high-level Democrat positioning himself ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
His Arizona colleague, Sen. Ruben Gallego, also made recent headlines as he came to Kelly’s defense over his video message to the military. As of late, Gallego also visited Iowa, Kentucky, Nevada, and Pennsylvania.
Other presidential hopefuls include Newsom, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, California Rep. Ro Khanna, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.