WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that he will issue a letter of censure to Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona over the lawmaker’s participation in a video calling on troops to resist illegal orders.

Hegseth said the censure was “a necessary step” in proceedings that could result in a demotion from Kelly’s retired rank of U.S. Navy captain.

The move comes more than a month after Kelly participated in a video with five other Democratic lawmakers calling for troops to defy “unlawful orders.” President Donald Trump accused lawmakers of sedition “punishable by DEATH” in a social media post days later.

In November, Kelly and the other lawmakers — all veterans of the military and intelligence community — called on the U.S. military to respect the Constitution and defy “unlawful orders.”

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) speaks to reporters in the Senate subway on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) speaks to reporters in the Senate subway on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025.

Tom Williams via Getty Images

The 90-second video was first posted from Senator Elissa Slotkin’s X account. In it, the six lawmakers — Slotkin, Kelly, and Reps. Jason Crow, Chris Deluzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan — speak directly to U.S. service members, who Slotkin acknowledges are “under enormous stress and pressure right now.”

Trump later accused them of sedition “punishable by DEATH,” reposting others’ messages about the video and amplifying it with his own words.

Kelly, along with some of the other Democrats in the initial video, have sent out fundraising messages based on the Republican president’s reaction to their comments, efforts that have gone toward filling their own campaign coffers and further raising their national profiles.