The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, that aired on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on Nov. 23, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And we’re joined now by Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who joins us from Tucson, Arizona. Welcome back to Face The Nation, senator.
SEN. KELLY: Thank you for having me on.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to pick up where we left off on this topic of political violence. I know your family has suffered because of it, very, very directly. And then this past week, the president called that video. You participated in, “sedition.” You heard me read what he said again this morning, “sedition at the highest level and a major crime.” Have you- do you have credible threats? How concerned are you about your security at this point?
SEN. KELLY: Well, Margaret, what the President said is very serious. I didn’t think he would step over the, over that line calling for the execution of members of Congress, and his words carry tremendous weight, more so than anybody else in the country, and he should be aware of that. And because of what he says, there is now an increased threats against us. I’m not going to get into details on my personal security, but as the husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, we- I understand what political violence is. The president should as well. Just like Gabby, somebody tried to assassinate him, and he should understand that his words, have you know, could have serious, serious consequences.
MARGARET BRENNAN: And I remember just weeks ago, hearing from the president and other Republicans about the need to dial back the rhetoric after the tragic shooting of Charlie Kirk. When it comes to your–
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, what happened to that? I mean, that was two months ago. Where are they now? We’ve heard very little, basically crickets, from Republicans in the United States Congress about what the President has said about hanging members of Congress.
MARGARET BRENNAN: That’s what I wanted to ask you. Why aren’t we hearing from your Republican colleagues and in terms of your security, I understand there was a request for you to get a boost in Capitol Hill security support. Are Republican members on board with that?
SEN. KELLY: I don’t know. I’ve heard them say, you know very little about this. I think you know the President tries to intimidate them. He tries to intimidate Congress. He looks at government accountability as a nuisance. And I think it’s really important for people to understand, Margaret, that the message he sent a couple days ago was, he declared that loyalty to the Constitution is now punishable by death. Those are serious words coming from the President of the United States. He’s trying to intimidate us, but Margaret, I’m not going to be intimidated. You know, you just heard Jason Crow. He’s not going to be intimidated either. We both served our country. We swore an oath. All we said is we reiterated what basically is the rule of law that members of the military should not, cannot follow illegal orders.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, on that point, in terms of lawful and unlawful orders, it gets complicated for rank-and-file to understand. I understand and other networks have reported that the senior judge advocate down at SOUTHCOM raised serious doubts about the legality of the strikes on those alleged drug votes, but was contradicted by lawyers at the executive branch. Have you spoken to the SOUTHCOM commander? Do you- are you hearing that there are unlawful orders being given?
SEN. KELLY: Well, we’re hearing the same thing that you are. The administration hasn’t shared much information with us. I read the legal analysis. It was just like the briefs. They’re tying themselves in knots trying to explain why what they’re doing with regards to these drug boats is legal and it’s, it’s questionable at best. Our- one of our biggest allies, the United Kingdom, recently stopped sharing intelligence with us in the Caribbean because they question whether this is legal or not. We’ve been asking for more briefings from the right people. We have not received them, but the information that you just shared with me is the, is the public information. I don’t have much more beyond that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and the French government has said it’s a violation of international law and the law of the sea. That’s what our allies are saying about those strikes that are happening there. But, is that why–
SEN. KELLY: But, Margaret getting back to–
MARGARET BRENNAN: –you made this video?
SEN. KELLY: No. The reason why we made this video is a couple things. This president, from before he was in office as he was a candidate, to the time he was in office in his first administration, has said things that cause us great concern. There is a trend here. When he was running for president, the first time he talked about he wanted the military, he said he would, he would- the military should be killing the families of terrorists. And when he was told that that was illegal, this was on a debate stage, he basically said that the military will not refuse to follow my orders, that they will carry out his orders regardless of what they were. Shooting protesters in the legs is something he brought up in his first administration and thankfully, Mark Esper, his Secretary of Defense, and Mark Milley, you know, basically told him, you cannot do that. If they weren’t there, think of what possibly could have happened. So, we’re concerned–
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, I need- yeah, I’m sorry. I just want to make sure I get to you on Ukraine, because there’s so much happening, and I know you’re such a big supporter of Ukraine. There are three prominent U.S. senators who have gone on the record now, including Republican Mike Rounds, who said yesterday, Secretary of State Rubio told them he was unaware of a threat to cut off U.S. support to Ukraine if they don’t accept this proposed plan that’s on the table. Here is how Senator Rounds described it.
SEN. MIKE ROUNDS SOT: What he told us was that this was not the American proposal. This was a proposal which was received by someone who has identified and they believe to be representing Russia in this proposal. It was given to Mr. Witkoff.
MARGARET BRENNAN: So since those remarks were made and backed up by multiple senators, I’ve received phone calls from Senior White House officials from, from senior U.S. officials saying, no, no, no, that’s not at all what, what Secretary Rubio said. What version of events do we believe here in terms of what America is putting forward?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, they’ve got to clear this up. You have Rubio talking to my Senate colleague, saying one thing. The spokesperson for the State Department saying another. Your conversations with the White House contradict what the Secretary of State and, by the way, the National Security Adviser, same guy, has said about this. They’ve got, they’ve got to figure this out and get the message out and explain to the American people what’s going on. I will say this, that, that, that plan, that’s Putin’s plan. That is a very good deal for Russia. It is a horrible deal for Ukraine, for our allies and even for our own national security. If Putin gets the chance with that deal to, you know, rearm, rebuild his economy and gain territory, by the way, that’s what he wanted. Then the Baltics, Poland, Romania, all those other countries down the line are at threat.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, the U.S. keeps emphasizing it is a working document, so it may be in a different state than what was leaked by an anti-Zelensky politician, but Ukraine’s Ambassador did tell us there’s a separate security guarantee document. What, what needs to be in there that would actually protect Ukraine? Does that need to go for a vote before the U.S. Congress?
SEN. KELLY: Well, it depends on what it is, but Congress should be involved. If there is a treaty with Ukraine on their own security, it’s something that we would want to have some say in. And ultimately we would vote on in the United States Senate we would send to the president, but they need to be talking to us about this, on both sides of the aisle. Often the path they’re going on recently is to just share information with the Republicans and even my Republican colleagues don’t seem to like that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: No.
SEN. KELLY: But, that’s what this White House is, is doing, and it’s because they don’t want congressional oversight in, in any way, whether it’s on Ukraine, Venezuela, or any, any issue.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, we got to leave it there, senator, but to your point, a number of very fiery statements from Republican senators in the past few hours. We’ll be right back with a lot more Face the Nation. Stay with us.
