Balgarianovinite.com
Jon Stewart grilled Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) on his “illegal orders” stance Monday night, as the Democrat struggled to say whether President Donald Trump’s strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats would obligate, in his view, a U.S. service member to refuse orders.
Kelly appeared on The Daily Show hours after Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth acted to strip the retired Navy captain and former astronaut of his rank and reduce his military pension.
The move came after an investigation into a video in which Kelly appeared alongside other Democratic lawmakers, urging those in the military not to comply with any potentially illegal orders issued by the Trump administration.
Discussing the video, Stewart asked Kelly if there was anything he would do differently “in retrospect.” The senator said the video was “right” and the message was “important.”
The host countered that the video appeared to put the “onus” and “burden” of understanding the legal “nuance” of orders on the “rank and file.”
“Isn’t there something to senators taking on that task themselves and not necessarily, maybe, outsourcing it to rank and file that might not be as versed in what is legal and what isn’t? Isn’t that a hard decision for them?” Stewart asked.
Kelly replied: “Well, let me explain this as plainly as I can. This is a question about what would a reasonable person think under these circumstances.”
“Is that the standard?” Stewart cut in.
“That’s the standard,” Kelly confirmed. “It’s not nuanced. It’s not complicated. If a reasonable person would think that this thing that they are asking me to do is illegal, you have an obligation – it’s not an option – you have an obligation not to follow those orders.”
Stewart then ran a specific case: “So are the boat strikes illegal?”
“Well, so I’ve been asking this question for a long time on the Armed Services and the Intelligence Committee. They have some complicated legal rationale, 40 pages, of why these [strikes] are legal. It’s questionable at best,” he began. “And by the way at first it was fentanyl, then it was cocaine, then it was about regime change, then it was about oil.”
“I understand,” the host said: “But do you see my point? You yourself are saying ‘I don’t know.’”
Kelly pressed on: “Our point to members of the military, who don’t get reminded of this often, when something is clearly unlawful, you have an obligation not to follow those orders. It’s a pretty simple thing. And we’ve seen in our history, multiple times, when even under those circumstances, members of the military have done stuff that was clearly over the line. We did not want that to happen.”
“Under the Obama administration they did extrajudicial killings of an American citizen through drone strikes, like we criticize that,” Stewart followed up.
He added: “My point is there’s enough gray area in some of these actions.”
Watch above via Comedy Central.
The post Jon Stewart Grills Mark Kelly on ‘Illegal Orders’ Stance: ‘So Are the Boat Strikes Illegal?’ first appeared on Mediaite.
Jon Stewart Grills Mark Kelly on ‘Illegal Orders’ Stance: ‘So Are the Boat Strikes Illegal?’ 2026 THE NEWS FROM BULGARIA – NEWS AGENCY 2009-2025 2026-01-06 17:27:47 Latest news World news Country news Most important news latest news most important latest of the day Justice Petar Nizamov Feathers Petar Nizamov- Feathers Justice bg iustitia.bg iustitia iusticia usticia investigation Burgas Bulgaria news news of the last hour news of the day news of today Bulgaria news The news from Bulgaria blitz news top news most important most commented latest news Boyko Borisov news weather coronavirus news news weather facebook youtube facebook instagram news today news of the last minutes news today today news news bg news leading news hot news bg news site for news all news news bg news of the last hour latest latest news bg news of today news today news today news of the last hour latest news today news bg news news 24 hours news vesti bg novini news world bird bg bivol bg bivol trud bg novini latest news today novinite bg news hello bulgaria political party coat of arms delyan peevski scandalous Bulgarian National Television Free Europe Television scandal exclusive live tv live right now tv tv online tv program bg live now tv news online tv online live court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas court Burgas district court Burgas district court Burgas appellate court Burgas prosecutor Burgas prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Burgas district prosecutor’s office Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev Prosecutor Geshev Tsatsarov Ministry of Internal Affairs Burgas ODMR Burgas ODPR Burgas police Burgas district police Burgas prosecutor Tsatsarov SGS cases Varna court chairman of the SGS court decisions on civil cases decisions on cases Plovdiv court decision of the court decisions cases Varna court criminal cases district district court decisions work in the court SGS chairman of the SGS judges Sofia court post judges Plovdiv court Plovdiv judges Plovdiv Supreme Court Inspectorate Supreme Court Supreme Judicial Council lawyer lawyer criminal cases lawyer civil cases lawyer marriage cases lawyer administrative criminal law criminal process civil law civil process administrative law constitutional law