Hegseth orders US Navy secretary to investigate Arizona senator Mark Kelly for ‘potentially unlawful comments’ in video
Donald Trump’s defense secretary, the former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, escalated his attack on Arizona senator Mark Kelly on Tuesday by ordering the secretary of the US Navy, former Trump donor John Phelan, to investigate “potentially unlawful comments” made by Kelly in a social media video.
In the video, Kelly, a retired Navy captain and astronaut, joined five other Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds in reminding serving soldiers and intelligence officers that they have the right to refuse unlawful orders.
The video, posted on 18 November, came as many Democrats have questioned the legality of US military strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean and Trump’s ongoing effort to deploy soldiers in support of immigration sweeps in states run by Democrats.
Hegseth’s order came in the form of a memorandum to Phelan, the founder of private investment firm with no prior military experience, posted on a Pentagon social media channel.
The memo asks Phelan to review Kelly’s comments in the video posted online last week and brief Hegseth on the outcome of his review no later than 10 December.
Hegseth’s memo comes after conservative media, including his former employer, stirred Republican outrage over the video message from the Democrats, who all served in the military or intelligence services.
The Democrats’ video was posted online the same day that the Senate passed the Epstein Transparency Act, requiring the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than 15 years. Rather than focus on the uproar over Epstein, Fox and other rightwing outlets devoted more attention to the video.
The media uproar resulted in enraged social media messages from the president, an obsessive Fox viewer, including two calling for the execution of the Democratic lawmakers for simply reminding troops that they are not required to follow unlawful orders.
Key events
Wisconsin supreme court orders review of state’s congressional maps before 2026 midterms
Wisconsin’s elected supreme court issued two orders on Tuesday appointing a pair of three-judge panels to hear two lawsuits that argue the battleground state’s congressional maps must be redrawn before the 2026 elections because they unconstitutionally favor Republicans.
The two lawsuits, filed in July by liberal law firms, come after failed attempts to redraw the state’s congressional districts, which are currently skewed in favor of Republicans, so that the closely divided state is currently represented in Congress by six Republicans and just two Democrats.
The court’s minority conservative justices criticized the creation of the three-judge panels as a partisan ploy designed to benefit Democrats. It is unclear whether new districts could be ordered in time for the 2026 midterms as some Democrats want.
Both of the pending redistricting cases in Wisconsin argue that the state’s congressional maps, first adopted in 2011, are an unconstitutional gerrymander favoring Republicans.
Law firms that brought the pending cases in Wisconsin had argued over objections from Republicans that the cases should be heard by three-judge panels as required under a 2011 law passed by a Republican-controlled legislature and signed by a Republican governor, Scott Walker.
Any decisions by those panels can be appealed to the Wisconsin supreme court, which is now controlled 4-3 by justices elected with the support of Democrats.
In a lengthy social media post, Donald Trump wrote on Thuesday that his attempt to hold on to the House through gerrymandering ahead of the 2026 midterms is not yet done.
“It looks like the Indiana Senate Republicans will be coming back in two weeks to take up Redistricting,” Trump reported.
He went on to threaten any state lawmakers who fail not support the effort to tilt the electoral map in Indiana more in favor of Republicans with primary challenges.
“I am glad to hear the Indiana House is stepping up to do the right thing, and I hope the Senate finds the Votes. If they do, I will make sure that all of those people supporting me win their Primaries, and go on to Greatness but, if they don’t, I will partner with the incredibly powerful MAGA Grassroots Republicans to elect STRONG Republicans,” the president wrote on his social media platform.
Interior secretary announces new $250 annual fee for international tourists to visit US national parks
Interior secretary Doug Burgum announced today the new cost of an annual national parks pass for international tourists.
For US residents, the cost of a yearly pass (which grants access to 63 of America’s national parks) will stay at $80. But for those visiting, they’ll have to fork out $250.
When visiting any of the 11 most visited parks, non-residents will also pay a new $100 per person fee (in addition to the usual entry fee). There will also be five extra “fee free days” for US residents.
DC mayor, Muriel Bowser, announces she won’t seek re-election
Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, said today she would not seek re-election. Instead, she will finish out the remainder of her third term and leave office in January 2027.
Bowser, once a vocal critic of Donald Trump, found herself complying when he returned to the White House in January, launched a federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, and deployed national guard troops to the district earlier this year. While critics blamed Bowser for acquiescing to the administration, supporters felt she exercised tactical soft-power given the legal limitations of leading the nation’s capital.
In a video posted to social media, Bowser noted that her administration “brought our city back from the ravages of a global pandemic, and summoned our collective strength to stand tall against police who threaten our very autonomy while preserving home rule that is our North Star.”
Bowser added that she’s “cherished the opportunity” to serve her hometown for 10 years, and has “happily given all my passion and energy to the job that I love”. Notably, she did not say which candidate she would endorse to succeed her.
In September, I reported on how Bowser had to navigate her political summer stand-off with Trump.
Sam Levine
Donald Trump may have inadvertently pardoned any citizen who committed voter fraud in 2020 when he granted a pardon to Rudy Giuliani and other allies for their efforts to overturn the election, legal experts say.
The pardons of Giuliani and others who participated in the fake elector scheme earlier this month were largely symbolic since the federal government dismissed its criminal cases once Trump was elected. Many of those pardoned have faced criminal charges at the state level.
But, the federal pardon could wind up having a big effect on people like Matthew Alan Laiss, who is accused of voting in both Pennsylvania and Florida in the 2020 election. According to a federal indictment handed down in September, Laiss moved from Pennsylvania to Florida in August of 2020 and voted first with a mail-in ballot in Pennsylvania and then in person in Florida on election day. Both votes were for Trump, Laiss’ lawyers wrote in court documents. He has pleaded not guilty.
The case is still in its early stages. Last week, Laiss’ lawyers, public defenders Katrina Young and Elizabeth Toplin, argued that the charges should be thrown out because Trump had pardoned him.
They argued that Trump’s 7 November pardon was sweeping. It applies to any US citizen for conduct relating to the advice, creation, organization, execution, submission, support, voting, activities, participation in, or advocacy for or of any slate or proposed slate of presidential electors, whether or not recognized by any state or state official, in connection with the 2020 presidential election.” And while it lists a number of people the pardon specifically applies to, it also says the pardon is not limited to those named.
That language is so broad, lawyers for Laiss wrote, it also applies to their client.
Elissa Slotkin, one of the two Democratic senators in the video to troops, said today she was aware that the FBI’s counterterrorism division “appeared to open an inquiry” into her.
She wrote:
The President directing the FBI to target us is exactly why we made this video in the first place. He believes in weaponizing the federal government against his perceived enemies and does not believe laws apply to him or his Cabinet. He uses legal harassment as an intimidation tactic to scare people out of speaking up.
A reminder that after the video was published online, Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of “seditious behavior, punishable by death” in a post on Truth Social. He also re-shared several comments from other users calling for the arrest, trial and execution of the Democratic members of Congress.
For her part, Slotkin remained resolute today. “This isn’t just about a video,” she said in her statement. “This is not the America I know, and I’m not going to let this next step from the FBI stop me from speaking up for my country and our Constitution.”
‘We will not be bullied’: House Democrats confirm FBI requests for interviews over video to troops
Four Democratic members of the US House, who appeared in a video telling service members to “refuse illegal orders”, confirmed that the FBI has requested interviews with them. All of the lawmakers in the video are former members of the military or intelligence community.
Today, the representatives issued statements, saying that Donald Trump is using the FBI “as a tool to intimidate and harass” them.
“We swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. That oath lasts a lifetime, and we intend to keep it. We will not be bullied. We will never give up the ship,” representatives Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio wrote.
Senior congressional Republican critiques possible peace plan to end war in Ukraine
Mitch McConnell, the Republican senator from Kentucky and former majority leader, has critiqued a possible US co-authored peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, which might require land concessions.
“The most basic reality on the ground is that the price of peace matters. A deal that rewards aggression wouldn’t be worth the paper it’s written on,” he lawmaker wrote in a post on X. “America isn’t a neutral arbiter, and we shouldn’t act like one.”
Last week, McConnell said that Vladimir Putin has “spent the entire year trying to play President Trump for a fool”. He added that the president “ought to find new advisors” if administration officials are “more concerned with appeasing Putin than securing real peace”. In response, vice-president JD Vance said that every criticism of the peace deal “either misunderstands the framework or misstates some critical reality on the ground”.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
It’s almost 1:30pm in Washington, and here’s were things stand today.
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As he prepared to pardon two lucky turkeys, Waddle and Gobble, the president said he thought a peace deal on Russia’s war in Ukraine was getting very close but gave no other details. “We’re going to get there,” Donald Trump said. Earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “tremendous progress” had been made towards a deal. In a post on X, she added that “a few delicate, but not insurmountable” details remain and “will require further talks between Ukraine, Russia, and the United States”.
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The FBI has requested interviews with the six Democratic members of Congress who took part in a video where they told members of the military to “refuse illegal orders”, according to Reuters. Citing an unnamed justice department official, Reuters reports that the FBI is asking for interviews with senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin, as well as House representatives Maggie Goodlander, Jason Crow, Chrissy Houlahan, and Chris Deluzio. The FBI declined to comment when the Guardian reached out about the latest report.
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For his part, senator Kelly called the Pentagon’s announcement that it is investigating the him for possible breaches of military law for taking part in the video as an act of “intimidation”. In an interview with Rachel Maddow on MS NOW, Kelly added: “I don’t think there’s anything more patriotic than standing up for the constitution. And right here, right now, this week, the president clearly is not doing that.”
Trump says getting ‘very close’ to deal on Ukraine
In his remarks before the pardoning just then, Trump also said he thought a deal on Russia’s war in Ukraine was getting “very close” but gave no other details. “We’re going to get there,” he said.
“I think we’re getting very close to a deal, we’ll find out … I think we’re making progress,” he added.
My colleagues over on the Europe blog report that a short while ago Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to move forward with a US-backed peace deal, and that he was prepared to discuss its sensitive points with Trump in talks he said should include European allies.
In a speech to the ‘coalition of the willing’, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, the Ukrainian president urged European leaders to hash out a framework for deploying a “reassurance force” to Ukraine and to continue supporting Kyiv for as long as Moscow shows no willingness to end its war.
Gobble is officially pardoned. Along with Waddle, he’ll live out the rest of his days in North Carolina.
