Sen. Kelly says death threats have increased since Trump called for his execution
Sen. Mark Kelly said Monday he and his family have seen threats to their lives increase since President Trump called for the Arizona Democrat and a group of other Democratic lawmakers to be executed after they urged service members to refuse illegal orders.
Kelly told reporters during a press conference that he and his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.), have received an uptick in threats since Trump’s comments and the Pentagon announced that it is investigating him and other Democrats in the video.
“I’m no stranger — Gabby and I are no stranger to political violence. We get a lot of threats already. She continues to get threats. She has threats on her life, more so today, because of what Donald Trump said about me 10 days ago,” Kelly said when asked if he has stepped up his security since the remarks were made.
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“The threats on us have obviously gone up,” Kelly continued, declining to get into specifics about their personal security. “We take these threats very seriously, and I take the threats from this president seriously.”
The Arizona senator added that he has not heard anything further from the Department of Defense or others in the administration outside the public social media postings by the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The Defense Department said at the time it was investigating “serious allegations of misconduct” by Kelly, a retired Navy captain.
Kelly appeared alongside Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Democratic Reps. Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Maggie Goodlander (N.H.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.) and Jason Crow (Colo.) in the video that set off the series of comments and angered Trump and Hegseth.
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The senator said the recent targeted killings of drug traffickers on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific had not prompted the Democratic video.
Instead, he said it was scores of remarks by the president dating back nearly a decade.
“It wasn’t about this specific event,” Kelly said.
“I was really surprised that he responded at all,” Kelly added, noting he and the other lawmakers had released a similar video previously.
He also said he became aware of Trump’s comments while sitting next to Slotkin in a sensitive compartmented information facility during a briefing. An aide passed Slotkin a note detailing that Trump had called for her execution.
“She leaves the room. Five minutes later, she comes back [and] she says to me, ‘He’s called for your execution, too.’ That was not the response we expected.”
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