Hegseth Reignites War With Democratic Senator Who Bruised His Ego

“And that means the American people are less safe. Whether it’s a conflict in the western Pacific with China or somewhere else in the world, the munitions are depleted.” These comments triggered Hegseth, who promptly took to X to make that known. “‘Captain’ Mark Kelly strikes again. Now he’s blabbing on TV (falsely dumbly) about a *CLASSIFIED* Pentagon briefing he received,” Hegseth wrote on Sunday evening. “Did he violate his oathagain? @DeptofWar legal counsel will review.” While Hegseth emphasizes that Kelly’s report came from a classified congressional briefing, it’s not like the U.S. wasting munitions in this war is some big secret. In fact, Kelly even reminded Hegseth that it was something they discussed very publicly just days ago. “We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago and you said it would take ‘years’ to replenish some of these stockpiles. That’s not classified, it’s a quote from you,” Kelly replied. “This war is coming at a serious cost and you and the president still haven’t explained to the American people what the goal is.”We had this conversation in a public hearing a week ago and you said it would take “years” to replenish some of these stockpiles. That’s not classified, it’s a quote from you. This war is coming at a serious cost and you and the president still haven’t explained to the American https://t.co/q3wX9AjRzO pic.twitter.com/5q7Gg81Xtg— Senator Mark Kelly (@SenMarkKelly) May 11, 2026This beef was incited months ago, when Hegseth had Kelly censured and tried to reduce his pension after he appeared in a video message with other former servicemembers in Congress advising military personnel to refuse to follow illegal orders from the Trump administration. A federal appeals court last week appeared unlikely to allow Hegseth to punish Kelly for that basic statement, perhaps fueling the defense secretary’s current campaign against his fellow veteran.