Sen. Mark Kelly avoids saying Maduro arrest and Venezuela strikes were ‘illegal’

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who previously appeared in a viral video urging service members to reject what he called “illegal orders,” hesitated Tuesday to join fellow Democratic lawmakers in calling the U.S. military strikes in Venezuela “illegal.”

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump announced a successful military operation in Caracas that involved capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. 

In the aftermath of the attack, several progressive Democrats condemned Trump’s operation as illegal and potentially an impeachable offense.

Kelly, however, stopped short of agreeing with those assessments during an appearance on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

“So, what we were talking about in the video is about a service member being given a specific order and having to make a decision about whether this is lawful or not,” Kelly answered.

“And this is like the reasonable person theory. What you‘re getting at is constitutional questions. Can a president try to do a law enforcement action on a head of state, but use 150 airplanes and the full force of the U.S. military to do that? So, these are two different things.”

“Now, Maduro is a bad guy, and it‘s good that he‘s gone. It seems like this president, because he had no plan beyond removing Maduro, has now installed Maduro‘s No. 2 person in Delcy Rodriguez. You know, that‘s what we call, in the Navy, fleeting up when the executive officer becomes the commanding officer. That‘s the situation we have in Venezuela right now. And it‘s because I don‘t think they had a plan of what was going to come next.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Kelly’s office for comment.

Kelly was one of six Democratic lawmakers who took part in a viral video telling service members, “You can refuse illegal orders,” or “You must refuse illegal orders.”

The lawmakers, including Kelly, have not given examples of orders that they believed were illegal.

On Monday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that Kelly will receive a formal censure letter and that he has directed Secretary of the Navy John Phelan to review the retired Navy captain’s retirement rank and pay and provide a recommendation in 45 days.

“Six weeks ago, Senator Mark Kelly — and five other members of Congress — released a reckless and seditious video that was clearly intended to undermine good order and military discipline,” Hegseth said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

“As a retired Navy captain who is still receiving a military pension, Captain Kelly knows he is still accountable to military justice. And the Department of War — and the American people — expect justice.”