'All the way to the death penalty': GOP candidate pushes Hegseth to punish Mark Kelly

Don Brown, a Republican Senate candidate from North Carolina, argued that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could "go all the way to the death penalty" to punish Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) after he participated in a video urging troops not to follow illegal orders.

During an interview on Wednesday, MAGA influencer Benny Johnson asked Brown, a former Navy JAG officer, how Hegseth would punish Kelly.

"Mark Kelly, he's a Navy captain, and the UCMJ, which is the criminal code for the military, adopted and signed in 1950 by President Eisenhower, passed by Congress, allows Mark Kelly and anyone else who is a retiree to be brought back up, investigated, and prosecuted for violations of the UCMJ," Brown remarked. "And there are about five or six here. So I'm glad to see my friend Pete Hegseth take action here. I hope that we're going to see more substance of that."

"Could you explain what Mark Kelly would be facing?" Johnson wondered.

"Theoretically, for sedition, you could go all the way to the death penalty," Brown noted, echoing President Donald Trump's remarks. "That wouldn't happen here, but it is, it is possible. He could also be prosecuted for treason."

"But he could be called back up, forced back in uniform, and face charges on this," he added. "And I think, you know, we need to at least get this process in motion. You just can't have members of the Congress trying to undermine a valid, you know, order from the president."

Brown speculated that Democratic lawmakers were trying "to isolate the Republicans, the Democrats against Republicans on a nuclear submarine, on a Trident-class submarine."

"And if you start like decaying order, then you'll kick off a world war real fast," he insisted. "It's among the most irresponsible acts I've ever seen members of the United States Senate engage in."