Mark Kelly: Hegseth 'doesn't want to be held accountable' for Trump's failures

President Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is in potentially hot water because he “doesn’t want to be held accountable” for the failures of his wars, according to a senator currently in Hegseth’s crosshairs.

“I think it comes down to the fact that he doesn't want to be held accountable,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said to MS NOW’s Jake Tapper in response to a question about why Hegseth is investigating him. “They've expended an enormous amount of munitions, and I think the only investigation we need — the one we need right now — is: after 15,000 strikes, all we got out of this is 13 dead Americans. We have the Strait of Hormuz closed, gas prices in Arizona are $4.80 a gallon and seem to be heading up.”

He added, “And we have a Secretary of Defense who is not only ill-prepared, unprepared, and unqualified for this job — he doesn't want to be held accountable for the actions.”

Earlier in the interview Kelly explained that “munitions are depleted” as Americans go through weapons like Tomahawks, ATACMs, SM-3s and Patriot rounds. For this reason, the Iran war does not appear to be as easily winnable to the Trump administration as its earlier foray into Venezuela. These were not Kelly’s first criticisms of Hegseth’s defense policies; he is also being targeted for prosecution by Trump and Hegseth for participating in an advertisement urging service members not to follow illegal orders.

“Nothing I said was classified,” Kelly explained when describing the Trump administration’s harsh reaction to his criticisms. “We had this discussion in an open hearing. When you are going to hit 15,000 targets, you're going to use a lot of munitions — things coming off of airplanes, missiles being shot. You know, they're responding with ICBMs, which we have to take out with air defense systems. It's not classified. I mean, 15,000 strikes consume an enormous amount. And by the way, he's asking for $25 to $50 billion to replenish these munitions, and he said it's going to take years. So again, what he's trying to avoid is accountability. This thing is not going the way they expected.”

Kelly continued, “They went into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline. Now they have no exit strategy and they're flailing. And when somebody like me starts asking questions — whether I make a point on a show like yours or in an open hearing — they don't want to give specific answers. Because at this point, they probably realize they've made a number of mistakes.”

Finally Kelly told “The Lead with Jake Tapper” that he is suing Trump’s administration for violating his First Amendment rights because “this is not about me. This is about 2 million retired service members. And for anybody who listened to that hearing last week, one of the really interesting parts was at the end when Pete Hegseth's lawyer — which is a DOJ lawyer — said that if any service member like myself, who served 20 or 25 years in the military, wants their First Amendment rights, they should give up their retirement, give up their pension, give up their healthcare, and then they would be free to speak out. How un-American is that?”

In addition to suing the government for allegedly violating his First Amendment rights, Kelly is also reaping political hay from being targeted by the administration. According to a recent report by Politico, “Kelly has turned his fight with Trump into a fundraising windfall, raking in a staggering $25 million-plus over the last six months even though he’s not on the ballot this year. And he’s leveraged the media attention into a megaphone while growing his online following. Regardless of how the appeals court rules, the case is likely to end up before the Supreme Court either just before the congressional midterms or in the months after, as candidates sharpen their 2028 message over Trump’s improper and potentially illegal use of the military.”

Kelly is not alone in being outraged about Hegseth’s prosecution. Earlier this month former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told The New York Times that “this week, I heard something that shocked me. In a federal appeals court … the secretary of defense argued that military retirees were subject to freedom of speech restrictions because of their connection to the military, and that if they didn’t like those restrictions, retirees could forfeit their pension and benefits. Let that sink in.”

He added, “The Trump administration expects the people who have put their lives on the line for America to cede one of their basic rights, or forfeit the retirement pay and benefits they have earned over decades of service.”

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