Mark Kelly’s ‘Sedition’ Scandal Deepens After New Development
Sen. Mark Kelly is facing a political firestorm after the Pentagon launched a formal investigation into his appearance in a video urging military and intelligence personnel to reject what he called “illegal orders” from the Trump administration. What Kelly framed as a “constitutional reminder” has quickly been viewed as an unprecedented call for potential insubordination inside the U.S. armed forces.
Kelly, a retired Navy captain and Arizona Democrat, joined five other lawmakers in the November video, directly addressing active-duty service members. The message accused threats to the Constitution of coming “from right here at home,” rhetoric critics say was deliberately aimed at undermining the incoming Trump administration before it even begins its next mission.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth forcefully condemned the lawmakers’ stunt, saying it “brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately.” Because the Uniform Code of Military Justice still applies to retired officers, Pentagon investigators are now determining whether Kelly and the others crossed legal lines that no responsible leader should approach.
President Trump delivered his own blistering response on Truth Social, calling the group “TRAITORS” and reposting comments labeling their behavior “SEDITIOUS.” And while the corporate press wrote off Trump’s outrage as typical bluntness, the reaction inside military circles has been far more serious. Veterans and officers from across the spectrum warned that any suggestion that troops should decide on their own which orders are valid is a fundamental threat to discipline and national stability.
As the sedition controversy escalates, Kelly is also grappling with renewed scrutiny over his past business ties to China. Kelly co-founded World View Enterprises, a high-altitude balloon company that accepted $8.1 million in funding from Tencent, the massive Chinese tech conglomerate with well-documented links to the CCP. That fact, once politically inconvenient, is now politically explosive.
Critics are seizing on the China angle, arguing that a senator under Pentagon investigation for encouraging resistance within the ranks should not also have lingering ties to foreign-funded balloon technology — the same kind of technology Beijing used when its surveillance balloon violated U.S. airspace in 2023. Even though Kelly distanced himself from the company years ago, the optics are difficult to ignore.
A viral post reignited the firestorm: “Seditious Mark Kelly ‘started spy balloon company funded by China.’ He’s not for America or Americans.” World View insists no sensitive U.S. technology transferred overseas, but national security experts note that accepting Chinese investment is itself a major vulnerability. For Kelly, the perception alone is damaging — and now it’s resurfaced at the worst possible time.
Kelly’s defenders argue that the senators’ video was merely a reminder that troops must follow lawful orders. But the backlash intensified when Sen. Ruben Gallego responded to critics with profanity — an outburst that Republicans blasted as embarrassingly unprofessional. CNN’s Jeffrey Toobin even admitted the lawmakers created a “straw man,” since no one has issued any illegal orders.Adding to the political pressure, both Kelly and Gallego voted against paying U.S. troops during the October 2025 government shutdown. That record undercuts their sudden claim that they are standing up for military ethics. Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who broke with his party to support troop pay, has avoided the blowback — leaving Kelly squarely in the crosshairs.
Conservatives say the combination is disastrous for Kelly: a Pentagon investigation into a video encouraging potential military resistance, and an old China-funded balloon controversy revived just as national security threats are again front-page news. Commentator Glenn Beck summed up the concern on his radio show: “Once the military begins to decide on its own which orders are legitimate… you no longer have a republic.” The political damage for Kelly may only be beginning.Ex-Biden White House spokesman says he only saw 46th president twice in two-plus years ofservice
WASHINGTON — Former White House spokesman Ian Sams spoke face-to-face with his boss, President Biden, on just two occasions during his more than two years in the administration, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters Thursday.
This was a huge interview today, and I think it contradicts everything that the former Biden people are saying with respect to the president’s mental fitness,” argued Comer, describing Sams’ appearance as “one of the most shocking” sit-downs yet.
The two interactions, which the chairman described in a subsequent statement as “very limited,” were in addition to a virtual meeting Sams joined involving the 46th president and a phone call with Biden.
The House investigation into the purported cover-up of Biden’s mental state is in full swing.AP
“In fact, [former special counsel] Robert Hur spent more time with Joe Biden than Ian Sams,” added Comer, in reference to the prosecutor’s two-day interview with the president while investigating whether Biden “willfully” kept national security documents.
Sams, who sat for a little more than three hours with committee staff and departed without answering reporter questions, had characterized the Hur report as “false” and including “inappropriate personal comments.”
Hur determined that Biden, now 82, deliberately retained sensitive files from his vice presidency and Senate career — but declined to bring charges, in part because he believed jurors would view the president as an “elderly man with a poor memory.”
One Biden White House colleague who worked with Sams throughout his employment there found it credible that he had virtually no access to Biden— noting both that Sams’ office was in the next-door Eisenhower Executive Office Building rather than the West Wing, and that he typically interacted with intermediaries such as communications chief Anita Dunn and White House counsels Staurt Delery and Ed Siskel.
Another Biden alum said Sams appeared to get his “marching orders” from Dunn and that the two face-to-face meetings Sams testified to were “more than I thought.”
“He [Sams] had zero contact with him [Biden],” this person added.
Sams served as a spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office from mid-2022 to August 2024, when he left to serve as a senior adviser to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Former spokesman Ian Sams says he only saw the president twice in two years of service.Getty Images
“It raises serious concerns and serious questions about who was calling shots at the White House,” Comer alleged.
“If the White House spokesperson was being shielded from the president of the United States, who was operating the Oval Office?”
In their tell-all tome on the Biden White House, journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson quoted one source familiar with its inner workings as saying: “Five people were running the country, and Joe Biden was at best a senior member of the board.”
The “Original Sin” co-authors said those aides — including senior adviser Mike Donilon, counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti and deputy White House chief of staff Bruce Reed — as well as first lady Jill Biden and first son Hunter Biden formed a sort of “politburo” for undertaking big decisions.
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Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain and former senior adviser to the president Annie Tomasini were also at times part of the inner circle, Thompson and Tapper noted.
Thursday’s interview was the 11th with a former Biden aide centered on the purported cover-up of the 46th president’s decline, which Republican investigators believe may have involved the improper wielding of executive authority.
“There were very few people around Joe Biden, especially at the end,” Comer said, “and that’s when the majority of the pardons and executive orders were signed with that autopen.”
Oversight lawmakers have already interviewed Donilon, Ricchetti, Reed and Klain as part of their investigation.
