NBC host asks Kelly whether he would refuse orders if he was still in uniform

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., was pressed on whether he would refuse orders if he was still in uniform on Sunday after the senator – along with five other Democratic lawmakers – encouraged service members to “refuse illegal orders” from the Trump administration.

“You were a pilot yourself, you flew 39 combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait. You are asking officers in the field to make really tough calls about the legality of what they are being asked to do. So I want to put the question to you, if you were still in uniform, if you received an order to strike suspected drug boats overseas and kill everybody on board, would you refuse that order in real time?” NBC host Kristen Welker asked Kelly during “Meet the Press.”

Kelly, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., Reps. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H., Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., all appeared in a video encouraging members of the military to refuse “illegal orders” earlier this month. The video was called out by President Donald Trump, who accused the lawmakers of seditious behavior.

Kelly said he sank two ships during his service and added, “never once did I question whether those orders were legal or illegal.”

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“People can tell the difference, should be able to tell the difference, between something that is unlawful and something that is lawful. And if I was ever given an unlawful order, I would refuse, if you have time, you can certainly go to the judge, advocate generals, the lawyers and have a discussion about it. If you don’t have time, you just say simply, I’m not going to do that. That’s against the law,” Kelly said.

Welker said it put a lot of burden on military officers to make those decisions in real time.

“It’s a tremendous amount of burden on officers in the military, but that is their responsibility and they can figure out, a reasonable person can tell something that is legal and something that is illegal,” Kelly said.

Welker asked Kelly again if he would refuse the orders to strike drug boats if he was still in uniform.

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“The difference between the initial strike, and what’s being reported as a second strike, and those things are different. I think the administration has tied themselves in knots, the explanations that we’ve received on how this is all legal, and I was saying weeks ago, my concern is with the service members, that we are going to put these individuals in a really tough place,” he responded. 

Kelly said the members of the military might find out down the road that they did something “illegal.”

“It is not fair to them. That’s why we need president and secretary of defense who understand the Constitution, who understand the rule of law and have more respect for the Constitution and the country and service members, than the whims of the president,” he added.

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Kelly has doubled down on his stance, telling late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that he wasn’t backing down. 

“You can’t keep track of this guy and what he says. I’ll tell you this though, I’m not backing down. We said something very simple. Members of the military need to follow the law. We wanted to say that we have their backs. His response, kill them,” Kelly told the late-night host, referring to the president.