ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel welcomed Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly to his Tuesday show to talk about the firestorm Kelly kicked off when he filmed a video with five other Democrats urging the military to disobey illegal orders from President Trump despite never providing an example of such an order. Naturally, Kimmel didn’t want to focus on that. Instead, the duo claimed that Trump was encouraging violence against Kelly and that this isn’t a military chain of command issue but a free speech one.
After Kelly said his family has experience with political violence, Kimmel elaborated, “Your wife, Gabby Giffords, who is a great person and was a congresswoman from Arizona. I assume most people know, and that's why it is galling to hear him say something like this about you, was the victim of an assassination attempt. She was shot and five other people—”
Earlier, during his monologue, Kimmel mocked Trump for claiming he wasn't actually threatening to execute the group, but that is what happened in "the old days." However, he never mentioned Trump's clarification to Kelly himself.
Nevertheless, Kelly replied, “Six people killed. No, six people killed. Twelve others shot. She shot in the head. She's in the hospital for six months. That’s political violence. The president, when he says these things, there are consequences. And by the way, I mean, isn't this the guy two months ago that said we have to stop this, like, political violence issue. He didn’t even make it to Thanksgiving.”
Again, it should be noted that the man who shot Giffords was a paranoid schizophrenic of no discernable political ideology except that things like grammar are government conspiracies.
Still, Kimmel retorted, “It's almost like he does not mean anything he says. It is almost as if he’s a hypocrite in some ways.”
Kelly kept rolling, “I mean, you can't keep track of this guy and what he says, and I’ll tell you this though: I’m not backing down. I mean, we said something very simple. Members of the military need to follow the law. We wanted to say that we have their backs. His response: Kill them.”
Later in the interview, Kimmel worried about the effect of the blowback against Kelly and his fellow Democrats, “Because the overall effect is that people are now a little more careful before they speak out. People are worried about speaking out. People don't want to say things that they need to be saying and that's flat-out un-American, isn’t it?”
Of course, Kelly agreed, “It is how democracies die. It is right out of the playbook. You know, the playbook of authoritarianism. That’s what they do. They try to suppress speech. Every one of us has First Amendment speech rights, and I think the president is infringing on those, and he is sending a pretty strong message: you don't want to cross him, and your loyalty should be to him. It should not. It should always be to the Constitution.”
Part of that constitution is that the president is the commander-in-chief. Therefore, at some point, Kimmel should have demanded an example of an illegal order because nobody believes politicians would just make an innocent public service announcement about the general principle of disobeying illegal orders without any context.
Here is a transcript for the November 25-taped show:
ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!
11/26/2025
12:25 AM ET
JIMMY KIMMEL: Your wife, Gabby Giffords, who is a great person and was a congresswoman from Arizona. I assume most people know, and that's why it is galling to hear him say something like this about you, was the victim of an assassination attempt. She was shot and five other people—
MARK KELLY: Six people killed. No, six people killed.
KIMMEL: Six people, right.
KELLY: Twelve others shot. She shot in the head. She's in the hospital for six months. That’s political violence. The president, when he says these things, there are consequences. And by the way, I mean, isn't this the guy two months ago that said we have to stop this, like, political violence issue. He didn’t even make it to Thanksgiving.
KIMMEL: It's almost like he does not mean anything he says. It is almost as if he’s a hypocrite in some ways.
KELLY: I mean, you can't keep track of this guy and what he says and I’ll tell you this though: I’m not backing down. I mean, we said something very simple. Members of the military need to follow the law. We wanted to say that we have their backs. His response: Kill them.
…
KIMMEL: Because the overall effect is that people are now a little more careful before they speak out. People are worried about speaking out. People don't want to say things that they need to be saying and that's flat-out un-American, isn’t it?
KELLY: It is how democracies die. It is right out of the playbook. You know, the playbook of authoritarianism. That’s what they do. They try to suppress speech. Every one of us has First Amendment speech rights, and I think the president is infringing on those, and he is sending a pretty strong message: you don't want to cross him, and your loyalty should be to him. It should not. It should always be to the Constitution.
