CNN ran crisis comms for Senator Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on Tuesday’s Situation Room after the Department of War opened an investigation into his part of the "illegal orders" video. Co-host Pamela Brown and global affairs commentator Sabrina Singh never closely scrutinized Kelly or provided a differing perspective to balance their analysis.
Singh, a former deputy Pentagon press secretary for Biden, touted Kelly’s undeniable patriotism by touting his extensive public service career:
He was a combat pilot. He was an astronaut. He is someone that has served multiple tours of duty overseas, you know, put his line on the life for his country. You saw him talk about how he had something explode by an aircraft that he was flying. This is someone that has decades of service and that has done something to protect Americans overseas.
Shouldn’t someone that familiar with following orders know better than to incite disobedience?
Singh then fear-mongered over the possibility of a new precedent being set: “Something like this, I think, is what is making the […] former veterans very concerned because we have nearly 2 million people in our country that have served. And what does that mean if they speak out against this administration? Are they gonna be court-martialed and called back in? It's just — it would really be a scary precedent to set if this administration does this.”
Please.
Neither Singh or Brown bothered to mention how Kelly has capitalized on the controversy by turning his supposed “political persecution” into a fundraising opportunity.
Brown then featured an X post made by the left-wing media’s go-to Republican, retiring Representative Don Bacon (R-Neb.):
Amateur hour once again at the Department of Defense. I thought the video by six Dems was unnecessary and foolish. But the threats of sedition charges and courts martial in response are also crazy. Let's show some common sense and restraint.
Apparently, Bacon has been so allergic to the President that he wanted to resign in protest of the pending peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Sad!
Singh, of course, agreed with Bacon’s take: “You know, I think he's right. You might not agree with the video, you might not agree with the timing of the video, but everything that they said in there it's truthful and it's protected by their own free speech.”
The most infamous quote from the video was when the six Democratic Congressmen stated that service members can and must refuse “illegal orders.” However, a potentially more damning moment (which the mainstream media has conveniently ignored) came right before:
We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now. Americans trust their military. But that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens.
How is that truthful, exactly? Senator Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) even admitted she wasn’t aware of any specific orders issued by Trump to be illegal.
Singh also attributed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s absence from the Russia-Ukraine negotiations as evidence of him “playing to an audience of one, Donald Trump, and he knows he has to reassert relevancy and he's doing it through his actions with Mark Kelly.”
Regardless of whatever validity their message had, it begs the question of why the “Seditious Six” would come so close to crossing that line in the first place.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" read:
CNN The Situation Room
November 25, 2025
10:20:49 a.m. EST
WOLF BLITZER: I'm curious, Sabrina, what went through your mind when you first saw the news from the Defense Department that it may recall Senator Kelly to active duty to face a court martial or what they call administrative punishment?
SABRINA SINGH: Well, you know, it's not a surprise that Donald Trump is using different levers of the government to go after his so-called perceived political enemies. You know, we've seen that with the Department of Justice and now with DOD using the Uniform Code of Military Justice to justify these actions.
So, while it wasn't a surprise, I think if Hegseth does follow through with this threat, it would be unprecedented. I mean, we have nearly 2 million veterans in this country and they have to be fearing for potential retribution of, you know, speaking out against this administration. What does that mean for them as well?
So, it would be unprecedented for the military to do this, and it would certainly send a ripple effect, not just with veterans, but I think throughout the military community.
BROWN: And as I just reported, an official told me that they're looking at reducing his rank and pension —
SINGH: Yeah.
BROWN: — payment if he's not court-martialed. It was interesting because Pete Hegseth, the DOD Secretary — or Secretary of War, should we say, on X said — called him commander and not captain.
SINGH: Yeah.
BROWN: Commander is a rank down.
SINGH: Right.
BROWN: But Mark Kelly was a captain in the Navy.
SINGH: He was a combat pilot. He was an astronaut. He is someone that has served multiple tours of duty overseas, you know, put his line on the life for his country. You saw him talk about how he had something explode by an aircraft that he was flying. This is someone that has decades of service and that has done something to protect Americans overseas.
And so, you know, what Hegseth is doing by calling him commander, I mean, of course that was a very intentional by Pete Hegseth to put that out there, but what he's doing is he's saying that what Mark Kelly said in his video citing — literally citing the Uniform Code of Military Justice, hauling him back in under those same provisions, it's just like a circular logic, it just doesn't make sense and I don't think a court is going to uphold that. But, of course, this is gonna have ripple effects, I think, for this country.
And that's why you're seeing so many people speak out. Even if you didn't agree with the video that those six lawmakers put out, it's still free speech. They still have the right to do that. And so, their rights are protected by our Constitution.
BLITZER: Let's take a step back for a moment, Sabrina, while I have you. Explain why and in what circumstances a former service member who's no longer in active duty could be recalled to active duty status to face a court-martial.
SINGH: Well, that's why this would be something so unprecedented. I mean, he's been a United States Senator for many years now. Actions taken — you know, they're claiming that actions taken by this video would allow him to be recalled back in. But that's only during if he committed some type of crime during service.
So, again, something like this, I think, is what is making the military — former veterans very concerned because we have nearly 2 million people in our country that have served. And what does that mean if they speak out against this administration? Are they gonna be court-martialed and called back in? It's just — it would really be a scary precedent to set if this administration does this.
BLITZER: They're going to lose some of their pay too —
SINGH: Right.
BLITZER: — if they continue —
SINGH: Exactly.
BLITZER: — receiving even when they're not in active duty.
BROWN: Yeah. And on that note about the veterans —
SINGH: Yeah.
BROWN: — another veteran in Congress, Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska, wrote on X, quote, “Amateur hour once again at the Department of Defense. I thought the video by six Dems was unnecessary and foolish. But the threats of sedition charges and courts martial in response are also crazy. Let's show some common sense and restraint.”
SINGH: You know, I think he's right. You might not agree with the video, you might not agree with the timing of the video, but everything that they said in there it's truthful and it's protected by their own free speech. I think it is a bit of amateur hour that we're seeing yet again from Pete Hegseth, and, I mean, it's notable that Pete Hegseth, the timing of this when he's doing it, his Army Secretary is overseas negotiating a, you know, potential peace deal with Ukraine. Hegseth has been broadly sidelined from those negotiations.
So, he's playing to an audience of one, Donald Trump, and he knows he has to reassert relevancy and he's doing it through his actions with Mark Kelly.
BLITZER: That's interesting cause the Secretary of the Army is —
SINGH: Yeah.
BLITZER: — in Abu Dhabi meeting with Russian officials —
SINGH: Right.
BLITZER: — on this potential Ukrainian deal. Let’s see what happens on that front. But you make an important point.
