ICYMI: Kelly Highlights How Hegseth’s Incompetence Puts Servicemembers at Risk

“This is the result of incompetence at the highest level.”

In case you missed it, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly joined CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper and MS NOW’s Morning Joe to discuss the follow-up strike on a vessel in the Caribbean and highlight the dangers of Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon. 

Sen. Kelly speaks on The Lead with Jake Tapper.

Watch the full The Lead with Jake Tapper interview here and the full Morning Joe interview here. See key excepts below: 

From The Lead with Jake Tapper, on the consequences of confirming Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense… 

“This is what happens when you put an incompetent individual in perhaps the second most important job in our country. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, had no business being nominated. Republicans in the Senate should not have confirmed him. And he’s been there for less than a year now—maybe seven or eight months—and this is the result of incompetence at the highest level.” 

From Morning Joe, on the lack of transparency coming from the White House… 

“This president has said they’re going to be the most transparent White House, and Pete Hegseth has said DoD is going to be transparent, but then he kicks out or requires members of the press to leave. We need to shine a pretty bright light on what happened here and get to the bottom of it and people need to be held accountable.  

“I feel awful for members of the United States Navy. I served in the Navy for 25 years. I’ve been involved in operations like this. I’ve sunk two ships myself, in the first Gulf War. Stuff like this should not happen. It’s pretty obvious that you do not execute survivors who are clinging on to a side of a ship.” 

Sen. Kelly speaks on Morning Joe.

From Morning Joe, on how Hegseth’s incompetence puts servicemembers at risk… 

“Rules of engagement are what the U.S. military lives by. This stuff is not new. The Geneva Conventions specify how we have to treat survivors. So, the U.S. Navy got into this situation because of the incompetence of Pete Hegseth. 

“There is no reason why you execute survivors in the water. That is against the law.”