Speaking to reporters after filing, Rep. Thomas Massie says one article accuses Hegseth of abusing his powers to intimidate Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran, despite First Amendment protections. Massie notes the irony: Hegseth attacked Kelly for saying troops don't have to carry out illegal orders, and Massie says six of his articles are for Hegseth carrying out illegal orders.
The receipt
- Who
- Rep. Thomas Massie
- Where
- briefing - remarks to reporters after filing articles of impeachment against Def
- Original footage
- ABC News · watch the full video from this moment
- Length
- 59 seconds, unedited within the cut
Read the transcript
Hegseth, abused his powers to go after Senator Mark Kelly. He tried to put the military and the executive branch above the judicial branch. He tried to intimidate a sitting U .S. senator in spite of First Amendment protections. By the way, who's also a veteran. So this is a bad precedent for millions of veterans to say that you don't have First Amendment rights when you leave the military. You can't say what you think that they're going to call you back in to the military and put you in front of a tribunal. So in doing that, Hegseth raised the military and the executive branch or tried to above the judicial branch and above the legislative branch. Now the irony of it is he was attacking Senator Mark Kelly for saying you don't have to carry out illegal orders. Well that's the consequence of this, of Hegseth ignoring Senator Kelly's advice The case is six of these articles of impeachment are for him carrying out illegal orders.
Machine transcript of the clip's audio; names are checked, small words may differ.