In an interview on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, senior Arizona Democrat Senator Mark Kelly threatened ‘young service members’ with prosecution for following President Donald Trump’s orders to attack drug boats in the Caribbean Sea.
Kelly made the threat in comments to host Martha Raddatz, saying the Trump administration was “putting young service members at great, legal jeopardy.”
RADDATZ: OK, I want to talk about Venezuela. The Pentagon is now sending a carrier strike group. You know the massive amount of firepower on a carrier strike group. What is your take on what is happening with these suspected drug boats. Is it legal?
KELLY: It’s questionable. And the White House and the Department of Defense could not give us a logical explanation on how this is legal. They were tying themselves in knots trying to explain this. We had a lot of questions for them, both Democrats and Republicans. It was not a good meeting. It did not go well. They have a secret list of 20 something — 24 organizations that they have now authorized to use — use kinetic action against without the normal approach that we have for law enforcement. Hey, we don’t want drugs in this country, especially fentanyl. But all these drugs, we — we should be working really hard to interdict them and prosecute the individuals that are smuggling drugs, not putting young service members at great, legal jeopardy.
Note: ABC omitted Kelly’s word “jeopardy” from the transcript even though it was clearly audible in the broadcast.
Complete interview queued to Kelly’s threat:
Is Kelly, a veteran who served as a Navy pilot in the Gulf War and as a NASA astronaut, trying to encourage mutiny within the ranks to get service members to refuse orders for fear of prosecution by a future Democrat administration?
Raddatz did not follow up.
Meanwhile, Kelly’s fellow Arizona Democrat Senator Ruben Gallego, a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war, called the Trump administration’s strikes on the drug boats “murder” on Meet the Press. Gallego also warned Trump’s orders are “dangerous” for service members:
“It’s very dangerous what he’s doing…to these men and women who have to make these calls for a president who has zero understanding about the responsibility someone has when it comes to having to make life and death decisions.”
Gallego: “It’s murder. It’s very simple. If this president feels they are doing something illegally, then he should be using the Coast Guard. If this is an act of war, then you use our military and then you come and talk to us first. But this is murder … it’s disgusting.” pic.twitter.com/YUxpnXxoDx
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 26, 2025
Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, a lawyer who served as an Air Force JAG officer for over three decades (active duty, Guard and Reserves) including wartime service in Iraq and Afghanistan, responded to Gallego on Face the Nation.
A Democrat Senator said today that the men and women in uniform protecting us from narco-terrorists are committing murder.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Our military is doing exactly what they should: Following lawful orders to protect Americans from narco-terrorists… pic.twitter.com/OGsd4YZU9l
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) October 26, 2025
“Senator Gallego, on another network, accused President Trump and our military of committing murder by attacking these drug boats. To our men and women in uniform, you’re not murdering anybody. You’re making America safer by going after a narco-terrorist. You’re following lawful orders. When President Bush, 41, took Ortega (sic, Panama’s Manuel Noriega) out in Panama, Reagan went into Grenada to deal with the Cuban influence from Grenada in our backyard, he has all the authority in the world. This is not murder. This is protecting America from being poisoned by narco-terrorists coming from Venezuela and Colombia.”
More from Graham:
…MARGARET BRENNAN: But there seemed to be a number of issues wound up in here. I know you personally used to serve as a judge advocate in the Air Force. We looked at the JAG manual: preventative self defense employed to counter non imminent threats is illegal under international law. So if we are not at war and these suspected criminals pose no threat of imminent violence, isn’t this potentially a war crime to be killing the people on these boats and then to be taking out a leader?
SEN. GRAHAM: No, not at all. I don’t know what manual you’re referring to, but I know what President Bush, 41 did. He took down Ortega ([sic, Noriega), the leader of Panama, because he was involved in drug trafficking threatening our country. Venezuela is now partnering with Hezbollah. Hezbollah is running out of money because Iran is weak.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s not new.
SEN. GRAHAM: Partnering with drug cartels in Venezuela. No, it should have stopped. Here’s what, here’s what’s new. You got a commander-in-chief’s not going to put up with this crap. We’re not going to sit on the sidelines and watch boats full of drugs come to our country. We’re going to blow them up and kill the people that want to poison America, and we’re now going to expand operations, I think, to the land. So please be clear about what I’m saying today. President Donald Trump sees Venezuela and Colombia as direct threats to our country, because they house Narco terrorist organizations. The leader of Venezuela is an indicted drug dealer in American courts. So yeah, the game is changing when it comes to drug traffickers and drug cartels. We’re going to use military force like we have in the past to protect our country. That’s the new game we’re playing, and I’m glad we’re playing that game, and if I were Maduro, I’d find a way to leave before heat goes down.