Trump’s Vile Attack on Mark Kelly Backfires as Harsh Retort Goes Viral

Last year, Senator Mark Kelly and five other Democrats posted a video with a stark message: Military service members and officials are not obliged to carry out illegal orders. This infuriated Donald Trump, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reprehensibly bringing disciplinary action against him as a retired Navy man. But this is backfiring: Kelly has now offered a striking new response in a second video, and it’s powerful stuff. Kelly speaks emotionally about his family’s commitment to the military and to the country, and absolutely humiliates Trump over his disregard for military service and disdain for free speech. Indeed, the attack on Kelly will likely fail and will keep making Trump look worse; meanwhile, Kelly has been all over the airwaves pushing back. We talked to legal expert Leah Litman, author of the book Lawless, about the Supreme Court. She walks us through the legal ins-and-outs of this dispute, explains why the case against Kelly represents its own abuse of power, and reflects on how this saga captures Trumpworld’s deeper contempt for public service. Listen to this episode here.