{"id":300385,"date":"2025-11-22T00:55:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T00:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300385\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T00:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T00:55:06","slug":"senator-whose-wife-was-shot-fears-for-safety-after-trump-sedition-accusation-us-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/300385\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator whose wife was shot fears for safety after Trump sedition accusation | US Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator Mark Kelly \u2013 whose wife, Gabrielle Giffords, narrowly survived an attempted assassination while she was in Congress in 2011 \u2013 says he is worried about \u201cincreased threats\u201d to his family\u2019s safety after Donald Trump accused<\/a> him and other Democratic lawmakers of \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of language is dangerous, and it\u2019s wrong,\u201d Kelly said<\/a> on Friday on MS NOW\u2019s Morning Joe, with political violence one of the top topics in the US\u2019s public discourse. He continued: \u201cI\u2019m not going to get into my specific security arrangements, but it would be irresponsible for me not to consider that [Trump\u2019s] words result in increased threats to myself, even to my staff, to my family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a rather irresponsible thing for us not to consider this seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Arizona senator\u2019s remarks came after he appeared in a video on Tuesday alongside five other federal Democratic lawmakers who have previously served in the military or in intelligence roles \u2013 and who all told active US service members that they should refuse illegal orders.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur laws are clear,\u201d the senators and US House members in question say in the video. \u201cYou can refuse illegal orders. You must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump<\/a> reacted furiously to the video, writing on his Truth Social platform that Kelly and the others had engaged in \u201cSEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH\u201d. The president also reposted another Truth Social user who wrote, in part, \u201cHANG THEM\u201d.<\/p>\n

Active military members in the US \u2013 whose oath is to the constitution rather than the president \u2013 can indeed face execution for the crime of sedition. Civilians, meanwhile, can be fined and imprisoned for up to 20 years for seditious conspiracy.<\/p>\n

The US Manual for Courts-Martial in any event states<\/a> that the military requirement to obey orders \u201cdoes not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

Generally, allies of Trump have supported his response while his philosophical opponents have lambasted it.<\/p>\n

Kelly on Friday criticized Trump\u2019 by alluding to how Giffords<\/a> \u2013 whom he married in 2007 \u2013 was seriously injured in a January 2011 shooting at a constituent meeting in Tucson in which six people died.<\/p>\n

He also referred to the two<\/a> assassination attempts<\/a> Trump survived while successfully running for a second presidency in 2024. Those attempts on Trump\u2019s life preceded the firebombing<\/a> of the official residence of the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, the fatal shooting of the former Minnesota state house speaker Melissa Hortman<\/a> and the slaying of the conservative political activist Charlie Kirk<\/a> \u2013 all between April and September.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy family has suffered from political violence,\u201d Kelly said on Morning Joe. \u201cMy wife \u2026 was nearly assassinated \u2013 shot in the head at a political event. We have rising political violence in this country, even the president \u2013 two assassination attempts. He should understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retired astronaut and US navy member won his Senate seat in November 2020, when Trump\u2019s first presidency ended in defeat to Joe Biden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump addressed his supporters before a 6 January 2021 congressional session meant to certify Biden\u2019s victory and \u2013 among other things \u2013 told them to \u201cfight like hell\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many of Trump\u2019s supporters then attacked the US Capitol<\/a> while unsuccessfully demanding the hanging of his vice-president at the time, Mike Pence<\/a>, who had indicated he intended to fulfill his duty of overseeing the certification of Biden\u2019s election win.<\/p>\n

The attack on Congress \u2013 which was linked to several deaths, including the suicides of law enforcement officers who defended the building \u2013 delayed the certification session by several hours but ultimately did not impede Biden\u2019s presidency.<\/p>\n

Then in January, in one of his first acts after retaking the Oval Office, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of all linked to the Capitol attack.<\/p>\n

Kelly on Friday said Trump\u2019s \u201cwords have significant weight with the American people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople react to things that he \u2026 says,\u201d Kelly added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senator Mark Kelly \u2013 whose wife, Gabrielle Giffords, narrowly survived an attempted assassination while she was in Congress…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-300385","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}