# Mark Kelly U.S. Senator from Arizona (Democratic), elected 2020 in a special election and reelected 2022. Retired Navy combat pilot (39 missions in [[Operation Desert Storm]]), retired NASA astronaut (four Space Shuttle missions, including commanding the final Endeavour flight in 2011). Husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived an attempted assassination in Tucson in 2011. Co-founder of the gun-violence-prevention group Giffords. ## Why he's in the KB Kelly is in this vault as a target of right-wing eliminationist rhetoric, not as a right-wing actor himself. On November 18, 2025, he and five other Democratic veterans/intelligence-community lawmakers (Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Reps. Jason Crow, Pat Ryan, Chrissy Houlahan, Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio) released a video reminding active-duty service members and intelligence officers that they are not legally required to follow unlawful orders — a basic restatement of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Nuremberg Principle IV. Two days later, on November 20, 2025, Trump responded on [[Truth Social]] calling the lawmakers "TRAITORS" and their conduct "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!" Trump also reposted a Truth Social user's post stating "Hang them [[George Washington]] would." See [[Donald Trump - seditious behavior punishable by death]]. The Department of Defense subsequently opened a "review" of Kelly under the UCMJ, an extraordinary action against a sitting senator. Legal experts across the political spectrum rejected the sedition framing. ## Notable Quotes _(no Quote files yet — Kelly is a target/subject in others' quotes, not a primary speaker recorded here)_ ## See Also - [[Donald Trump]] — issued the death-penalty threat - [[Violence Inversion Rhetoric]] — collection