Glenn Beck’s fiery response to Mark Kelly’s tantrum over Hegseth’s Franklin meme

On November 28, the Washington Post published an explosive report accusing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of war crimes connected to the Trump administration’s controversial military strikes on alleged drug trafficker boats in the Caribbean — a claim even the New York Times refuted with five official sources.

Hegseth then trolled his critics by posting an AI-generated meme parodying the children’s book franchise “Franklin the Turtle.” The image depicts Franklin dressed in military gear firing a rocket launcher from a helicopter at drug-smuggling boats, the fake book cover reading, “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.”

The meme infuriated military veteran and Democrat Senator Mark Kelly (Ariz.). In a press conference on December 1, he accused Hegseth of acting like “a 12-year-old playing army.”

“It is ridiculous; it is embarrassing; 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,” he spat.

“He is in the National Command Authority for nuclear weapons, and last night, he’s putting out on the internet turtles with rocket-propelled grenades killing,” he continued.

Glenn Beck finds Kelly’s remarks a bit ironic. Kelly is, after all, currently under Pentagon investigation for contributing to a video put out by six Democrat lawmakers urging active-duty military and intelligence personnel to “refuse illegal orders” — an act President Trump labeled “seditious behavior.”

“Let me ask you, where were you on the leadership of the Pentagon when they pulled out of Afghanistan? Were you saying, ‘What are our allies thinking about that?’” Glenn fires back.

He then brings up Biden’s secretary of defense, Lloyd Austin, who in January 2024 secretly underwent prostate cancer surgery and was hospitalized for complications without informing President Biden, the White House, or his deputy for days, sparking a major scandal over transparency and national security risks in the chain of command.

“You want to talk about being in line with the nuclear weapons?” Glenn scoffs.

“More importantly, Mr. Kelly, let me ask you: What do you think our allies thought about the health of our nation when several Democratic senators got together and, for the first time in American history, pulled a Venezuela and questioned the military and said, ‘We will hold you responsible for any crimes against humanity. By the way, we’re not telling you what those are. We’ll judge when we get back into power. And don’t listen to the commander in chief’?” Glenn asks, referring to the traitorous video Kelly helped create.

“If people in the Duma would have made that exact same video and said, ‘Question the authority of Putin,’ … how would we analyze that? Would we think that Putin was strong? Would we think that their society is strong? Would we think that they’re a nation that can defend itself, will defend itself, is willing to go to war?” he continues, pointing out the glaring irony of Kelly’s criticism of Hegseth.

Hegseth’s Franklin meme, whether you agree with it or not, isn’t the scandal the left desperately wants it to be. But the video put out by the “seditious six,” which Glenn says is clearly “trying to collapse the United States, make our enemies stronger, and foment a color revolution.”

“So, please don’t preach to me about how embarrassing it is that he’s putting a cartoon out,” he continues.

To hear more of Glenn’s scathing commentary, watch the clip above.

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