Hey there Beacon readers. Mariah Thomas here with your Daily Roundup — and today, we’ve got a focus on U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Montana, who weighed in this week on Sen. Mark Kelly’s, D-Ariz., demotion and reduction in pension from his Navy service by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.
The disciplinary action Hegseth took against Kelly came over a video in which several Democratic lawmakers who are veterans told servicemembers they didn’t have to follow unlawful orders. The video was a response to U.S. strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs off the coast of South America.
Since Sept. 2, the U.S. government has been carrying out military operations and calling for maritime strikes against Latin American drug cartels. In the past four months, it has completed at least 35 strikes, killing 115 people. Legal experts have said the operations measure up to murders or war crimes, as the military isn’t allowed to target civilians who don’t pose an imminent threat of violence, even if they are suspected of criminal activity. The White House claims the strikes and killings are lawful. On Saturday, the U.S. also conducted a strike against Venezuela and took President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, onto a U.S. warship and to New York, where they now face criminal charges for narco-terrorism, marking a ramp-up in the ongoing conflict.
Support for the action — and critiques of it — have largely fallen along partisan lines. Montana’s all-Republican congressional delegation supported Saturday’s activities, while Democrats have questioned the legality of the government’s actions.
In the Democratic lawmakers’ November video — the one at-issue for Hegseth and Zinke — Kelly said, “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.”
Kelly, a Navy veteran and former astronaut whose wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, survived an assassination attempt while serving in Congress in 2011, was joined in the video by Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, along with Reps. Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Goodlander, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow. All five of the other lawmakers who appeared in the video had either served in the military or in intelligence roles, too.
Zinke, along with 16 other veteran House members, sponsored a December resolution denouncing “dangerous and seditious rhetoric by Members of Congress and expressing condemnation” of the lawmakers. Zinke served as a Navy Seal prior to his service in Congress and wrote a 2016 memoir titled “American Commander: Serving a Country Worth Fighting For and Training the Brave Soldiers Who Lead the Way.” The memoir’s hook, in part, was Zinke’s reflections as the lone Navy Seal serving in Congress at the time.
On Monday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on X that Sen. Kelly was being demoted and would receive a reduction in pension for his part in the video.
“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 wrote. “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.”
Hegseth’s statement said Kelly had 30 days to submit a response. Zinke commended Hegseth’s action against Kelly Monday, dubbing the lawmakers who released the video the “Seditious Six.”
“Our resolution condemning Democrat lawmakers for releasing that seditious video was intended to hold them accountable for their actions,” Zinke said. “Secretary of War Hegseth is taking the next necessary step fulfilling his sworn duty to uphold discipline, the cornerstone of military service.”
Kelly fired back on X that Hegseth and the president were trying to make an example out of him to send the message to retired servicemembers “that if they say something he or Donald Trump doesn’t like, they will come after them in the same way.”
“My rank and retirement are things that I earned through my service and sacrifice for this country,” Kelly wrote. “I got shot at. I missed holidays and birthdays. I commanded a space shuttle mission while my wife Gabby [Giffords] recovered from a gunshot wound to the head — all while proudly wearing the American flag on my shoulder.”
Kelly also promised he would fight the demotion.
We’ve jumped right into things in 2026… But for now, let’s just focus on jumping into the rest of the Daily Roundup.
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