(The Center Square) – An Illinois lawmaker and Air Force veteran says U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly’s call for troops to refuse “illegal orders” undermines the chain of command, as the Defense Department moves to downgrade his retirement rank and pay over the remarks.
State Rep. David Friess, R-Red Bud, said former military and intelligence officials understand better than most the importance of discipline and lawful obedience in the armed forces.
“As members of the military or intelligence agencies, they understand the chain of command and what that means,” Friess said. “You follow orders. And the implication they were putting out there was that President [Donald] Trump was giving illegal orders.”
The Pentagon’s investigation centered on a social media video in which Kelly and other Democratic lawmakers urged service members to disobey unlawful orders, a message critics say implied illegal directives from President Donald Trump or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, without citing any specific order.
Kelly, D-Arizona, a retired U.S. Navy captain, has rejected that characterization and downplayed the seriousness of the Pentagon’s actions.
“I repeated something every service member is taught,” Kelly said, calling the investigation politically motivated and saying it does not appear “very serious.”
The Pentagon is giving Kelly 30 days to appeal their punishment.
Friess said the military already draws clear lines when it comes to unlawful orders, such as executing prisoners of war, but warned that broad, unspecific messaging can undermine discipline and create confusion in real-world operations.
“If you’re told to execute a prisoner of war, that’s an illegal order, and everyone knows you don’t follow it,” Friess said. “But that’s not what was laid out here. They’re making broad statements and implying illegal orders without saying what those orders are. If you have people questioning authority in the middle of operations, things get unorganized very quickly.”
Kelly has defended his remarks in a separate social media video, accusing Trump and Hegseth of abusing their power by escalating the matter into a formal Pentagon Command Investigation.
“It should send a shiver down the spine of every patriotic American,” Kelly said, arguing the probe threatens the Constitution and the rule of law.
Because Kelly retired from the Navy rather than fully separating, the Pentagon has said he remains subject to military jurisdiction, which allowed the Department of War to pursue the investigation and ultimately issue a punishment, authority that does not apply to the other lawmakers featured in the original video.