By Suzanne Downing 
Sen. Lisa Murkowski is criticizing the Department of War for its review of allegations involving retired Navy Capt. and Sen. Mark Kelly, calling the inquiry “frivolous” and accusing federal authorities of wasting their time.
Her reaction comes after the Department of War announced it was examining whether Kelly’s public statements about military obedience and “illegal orders” may have crossed legal lines for a retired officer still subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Murkowski issued a statement defending Kelly, saying he “valiantly served our country as an aviator in the U.S. Navy before later completing four space shuttle missions as a NASA astronaut,” and that accusing him or other lawmakers of “treason and sedition” is “reckless and flat-out wrong.” She added that the Department of Defense and FBI “surely have more important priorities than this frivolous investigation,” signaling her view that the review should be dropped.
What Murkowski did not address is the essence of the concern: Kelly used his political platform to tell active-duty service members they could refuse orders from their superiors, framing those hypothetical orders as “illegal.” Under military law, servicemembers must obey lawful orders, which are presumed lawful unless determined otherwise by proper authority, not by individual soldiers or by political figures offering public encouragement.
The Department of War has not accused Kelly of treason or sedition, but it has acknowledged it is evaluating whether his comments, delivered publicly and amplified widely, could constitute interference with military discipline. Retired officers remain subject to the UCMJ, and military retirees have been recalled before to face review or disciplinary action when their conduct raised questions of good order and discipline.
Murkowski’s response places her once again at odds with the Trump administration. While Republican lawmakers around the country have defended the Department’s review as necessary to protect the chain of command, the senior senator from Alaska has positioned herself on the opposite side, echoing narratives that dismiss the concerns outright.
The Department of War has said little beyond confirming that a review is underway and that due process will be followed. The matter now sits in the hands of military legal officials, but Murkowski’s rapid defense of Kelly ensures the issue remains politically charged, a dynamic familiar to Alaska voters who have watched her repeatedly break with the administration on high-profile issues.
Of course Murkowski condemned Hegseth’s tantrum – she’s intelligent and has a grasp of morality (though she has made some gawd-awful decisions in Trump’s second sortie over America.)Even a MAGA cultist can weigh the merits of Hegseth and Kelly and defend, likely reluctantly, the grand gap between the honor, sacrifice and commitment of Kelly v the hardship of curtailing drinking and groping by Hegseth.
Wow! The light bulb never came on in your cave!
I am blown away by people such as yourself. You know, Judas was an apostle who helped to spread the Gospel…until he betrayed Jesus. That may seem like a drastic comparison, but the concept is the same: doing good in the past does not give you license to do wrong. It is wrong to encourage a service member to rebel against authority when there is no evidence of wrongdoing by that authority. Learning to obey orders is a protective measure. That skill alone will allow numerous inexperienced soldiers to live. Military service is not a game you play in order to get to travel and get a college degree. It is a service to your country, and you take an oath to defend your country and obey your superiors. Just like a disobedient child, a disobedient soldier, sailor, airmen, or Marine will come to no good end. Enough of this whole ‘we don’t like Trump, so let’s just undermine everything around us’. It’s time to use our little brain cells to make decisions based on what is right and not on our personal biases.
That’s a bad-ass betrayal of logic.
The man made a video that was posted far and wide publicly and was basically sedition. Lisa seems to have lost her moral bearings.
One cannot lose something one never possessed …. Yes, this is sedition by the seditious 6. Mark Kelly left his brain in space and Elon Musk declined to use Space X to go retrieve it.
Call Kelly to active duty status and court martial him. If found guilty apply the appropriate sentence. I’d suggest 3 years in a federal prison and of course removal from the Senate! Furthermore Mark needs to apologize for his TDS, and for his wrong headed sedition. Apologize to our military men and women for being a total ass!
And Lisa, you’ve screwed us for way too long, please simply go away so we can start cleaning up after you!
Greg, Your presentation is as close to perfect as one can transmit. Thanks for being on and over the target. Were the “Princess” in the military at one time, she too should be recalled and added to the General Court Marshall anticipated. Cheers
Sen Murkowski does represent Alaskans; she’s gullible
She would believe him
Maybe Princess should also be investigated to see if she had any part in this considering her current and prior statements and criticisms of President Trump, being a leader in the resistance, and resisting the President..
Already forgotten by the media matrix is the Seditious Six included the intelligence agencies in their call to revolt. The video was profoundly irresponsible. They crossed the line, they knew this. And now they’re playing the victims.
If it weren’t so deadly serious it would be laughable
Yep. The video draws attention to how deeply politicized the “intelligence” agencies have become. I view the agencies now as playgrounds for entitled, obnoxious careerists from Amherst, Princeton, Brown and Georgetown that didn’t have the guts to serve in the military. And the games they play use other people’s money for ends that provide little benefit to the country. Americans: We have serious problem with the rot in the Northeast; too many there place private gain ahead of public service.
Lisa’s opinion could be taken seriously, if she had expressed her outrage over those that asserted that the President of the United States was a Russian agent.
Only a MAGA cultist would call a statement of documented and foundational truth seditious.
The longer after the Seditious 6 video we go, the more it appears to be an op, likely born out of the intel community (Slotkin is former CIA) in an attempt to build toward a color revolution so well used by them in other nations. Here’s how it works.
One of Trump’s strengths is that he is a counterpuncher. And when he does, he always takes the strongest possible response. The video was bait intended to trigger a typical Trumpian over the top response, which it did. The video was bad. So was the response. This was an attempt to put Trump in a box, not unlike multiple gotcha questions during various debates in 2020 and 2024. Problem is that Trump doesn’t stay in a box. Worse, is that he always has a response that is better.
One of them is DoW investigating Kelly, who was silly enough to post a photo of him in his Navy uniform afterwards. But his medals were in the wrong order, a rookie mistake for a retired Navy Captain. If the boy isn’t smart enough to put his uni together, how can he possibly be an expert in what is and is not a lawful order?
I’ve seen some speculation that this video was a hysterical response to the failure of the shutdown and the Epstein response that got no traction against Trump. Looks like Trump is in the process of grabbing their new shiny weapon and turning it on them. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people (and I use that term loosely). Chers –
multiple veterans and uniform-regulation experts pointed out that the photo circulating online was horizontally flipped, which naturally makes the ribbon rack appear backward.
Lisa is back at it again. Kissing the hind end of Democrats. Mark Kelly was a fake astronaut and a big government stooge. Hope he enjoys his time in Leavenworth. Lisa is just hopeless. Nancy and I are now drafting disinheritance codicils. We don’t want to end up like Liz Cheney’s old man.
Murkowski needs to go away!