Kelly: Trump comments prompted Democrats' video reminding military not to follow illegal orders

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly said President Donald Trump’s own comments are what prompted him and other Democrats to put out a video reminding service members not to follow illegal orders.

Kelly is a former naval captain. After he and other lawmakers who served in the military and intelligence operations released their video last month, Trump suggested their actions were punishable by death.

Kelly is also under investigation by the Department of Defense over the video.

Kelly said Monday at a press conference that the response was unexpected.

“According to the law of armed combat, we stated something pretty simple. Every service member doesn't hear these reminders as frequently as other service members. so we felt it was important to say under the circumstances,” Kelly said.

As for what made the lawmakers want to issue the video reminder, Kelly referred to comments Trump made over the years as indications he may be willing to issue illegal orders and expect the military to carry them out.

In 2016, Trump said during a debate that he would order the military to kill terrorists’ families and torture people.

At the time, dozens of foreign policy experts signed on to a letter pledging not to support Trump because of certain campaign promises.

“Experts have said that when you ask the U.S. military to carry out some of your campaign promises, specifically targeting terrorists’ families and also the use of interrogation methods more extreme than waterboarding, the military will refuse because they've been trained to turn down and refuse illegal orders. So, what would you do as commander in chief if the U.S. military refused to carry out those orders?” moderator Bret Baier asked.

“They won’t refuse. They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me,” Trump answered.

He then doubled down, saying that the U.S. should go “tougher” than waterboarding and “the wife knew exactly what was happening” in reference to one of the men who hijacked a plane and flew into the World Trade Center on 9/11.

It’s unclear who Trump was referring to as none of the 9/11 terrorists had wives who had ever been to the United States.

Trump did amend his statement shortly after the debate and said he would not order military officers to disobey the law.

Kelly also referred to former Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s book, “A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times.” Esper claims in the account that Trump asked if his administration could just shoot protesters during the 2020 demonstrations after George Floyd’s death.

“We reached that point in the conversation where he looked frankly at [Joint Chiefs of Staff] Gen. [Mark] Milley and said, 'Can't you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?” Esper wrote of Trump.

And this year, Kelly highlighted Trump’s comments regarding deploying the U.S. military in American cities and using them as “training grounds.” He said America is facing a war “from within.”

“I told Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military,” Trump said in September about his current Defense secretary.

“That means using the American people for the military to train on. So, we were looking forward — to try to head something off at the pass that could have been really, really bad,” Kelly said.

He added that Trump’s comments send a chilling message, not just to Democrats or politicians, but to the entire nation.

“This isn’t about me, this is about what he will do next. Who's he going to go after next? What’s he going to do next?” Kelly said.