Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) ignited backlash Friday after invoking the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk while accusing President Donald Trump of encouraging political violence — a claim critics say is not only inflammatory, but deliberately misleading.
During an appearance on MS NOW’s Morning Joe, Kelly referenced the September 10 killing of Kirk, who was shot on the campus of Utah Valley University, and suggested Trump’s social-media posts criticizing Democrats could inspire similar attacks.
“It was just two months ago that Charlie Kirk was assassinated,” Kelly said, before claiming Trump’s recent comments amounted to “calling for our execution.”
Kelly was reacting to Trump’s criticism of six Democratic lawmakers — including Kelly — who appeared in a viral video instructing military members not to follow “illegal orders.” Trump called their message “dangerous” and “seditious,” arguing the lawmakers were undermining the chain of command.
Democrats seized on Trump’s post, noting that sedition can be “punishable by death,” suggesting he was inciting violence. Trump rejected that interpretation in an interview with Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade, saying, “I’m not threatening them, but I think they’re in serious trouble… In the old days, if you said a thing like that, that was punishable by death.”
The White House rapid response team escalated the rhetoric further, calling Kelly a “total scumbag” on X for “sowing distrust within the military” and failing to cite a single example of Trump issuing an illegal order.
Republicans argue Kelly is exploiting a national tragedy — Kirk’s murder — to score political points, while ignoring the volatile effect of Democrats publicly telling troops to question the Commander-in-Chief.
