After six Democrats encouraged military personnel to refuse orders deemed unlawful or unconstitutional, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled them as “seditious.” He even suggested that Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, a retired Navy captain, might have violated military code. However, newly surfaced video footage of Hegseth’s 2016 statements has led Democrats to point out what they see as his apparent double standard.
“I do think there have to be consequences for abject war crimes,” Hegseth, who is currently battling himself, said nine years prior, during Barack Obama’s presidency. “If you’re doing something that is just completely unlawful and ruthless, then there is a consequence for that. That’s why the military said it won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander-in-chief.”
Hegseth continued, stating, “There’s a standard, there’s an ethos, there’s a belief that we are above what so many things that our enemies or others would do.”
Hegseth, a veteran, was a Fox News contributor and had received an award from the veterans advocacy group Concerned Veterans of America earlier that year when he made the initial comments.
Kelly, on Tuesday, voiced his agreement with Hegseth’s 2016 stance. “It’s exactly what we said,” Kelly asserted. “But when we said it, Pete Hegseth … says what we said was false and reckless. And I think it begs the question, ‘What has changed?’ And it’s pretty obvious what has changed is we have an unqualified Secretary of Defense who only cares about sucking up to this President.”
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D, Mich.), another member of the group Hegseth called the “Seditious Six,” posted a video comparing Hegseth’s 2016 statement with the Democrats’ recent one. “Watch for yourself,” Slotkin urged, quoting both Hegseth from 2016 and her own words from 2025.
Rep. Jason Crow (D, Colo.), also part of the group of Democrats, shared the video and posed the same question as Kelly: “What changed, Pete? Our Secretary of Defense is an unqualified and unserious person.”
“Take it from Pete Hegseth: no one can force American servicemembers to follow unlawful orders,” Rep. Chris Deluzio stated, while fellow Pennsylvania Democrat Rep. Chrissy Houlahan remarked: “Thanks for the clarity, Secretary Hegseth.” Both representatives were also among the “Seditious Six.”
In a statement to , Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson seemed to defend Hegseth’s 2016 comments, while distinguishing them from the Democrats’ video. “As Secretary Hegseth said last week and prior to holding office, the military already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders,” Wilson explained. “The orders being given to our military under President Trump are lawful, and the despicable video of the ‘Seditious Six’ urging our troops to defy their chain-of-command was a politically motivated influence operation by elected officials aimed at sowing distrust and chaos in our Armed Forces.”
Anna Kelly, a White House deputy press secretary, also communicated to CNN that Hegseth’s statements were consistent. She, too, reinforced the claim of wrongdoing by the Democrats: “These lawmakers sowed doubt in a clear chain of command, which is reckless, dangerous, and deeply irresponsible for an elected official.”
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