Pete Hegseth vows legal review for Mark Kelly after ‘babbling’ about classified Pentagon briefing

WASHINGTON, DC: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth accused Sen Mark Kelly of revealing details from a classified Pentagon briefing during a televised interview, saying the Department of War’s legal counsel would now examine whether the Arizona Democrat crossed a line.

Hegseth unloaded on Kelly in a late-night post on X after Kelly appeared on CBS’s 'Face the Nation.'

“‘Captain’ Mark Kelly strikes again,” Hegseth posted. “Now he’s babbling on TV (falsely & dumbly) about a CLASSIFIED Pentagon briefing he received.”

Hegseth added, “Did he violate his oath…again? [The Department of War] legal counsel will review.”

The remarks came after 'Face the Nation' moderator Margaret Brennan highlighted comments Kelly made about a classified briefing tied to the Iran conflict and what he described as the strain on America’s weapons stockpile.

Mark Kelly warns US weapons stockpiles are depleted

During the interview, Brennan said Kelly told her it was “shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines” after hearing details during the Pentagon briefing about the Iran war and its “impact on US weapons stockpiles.”

Brennan did not mention Kelly’s immediate follow-up criticism of President Donald Trump, in which the senator argued Trump “got our country into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline.”

She also noted Kelly said US supplies of Tomahawks, ATACMS, SM-3 missiles, THAAD rounds, and Patriot rounds had been “hit hard,” adding that Kelly believed it could take “years” to rebuild the arsenal.

“The American people are less safe,” Kelly said during the broadcast. “Whether it’s a conflict in the Western Pacific with China or somewhere else in the world, munitions are depleted.”

Kelly also questioned what the United States was gaining from the Iran conflict while criticizing the Trump administration’s massive proposed defense budget. 

Mark Kelly calls Trump defense budget ‘outrageous’

Kelly called the administration’s proposed fiscal year 2027 defense package “outrageous,” arguing the spending request had ballooned far beyond what was necessary.

“The $1.5 trillion request from this administration, it’s outrageous,” Kelly said. “When I got to the Senate 5 1/2 years ago, the defense budget was just over $700 billion. Now they’re asking for twice as much money. It’s nearly the amount that the rest of the world pays for its defense.”

The Department of Defense unveiled the proposed $1.5 trillion budget in late April. It marked a $500 billion jump from the $1 trillion budgeted in 2026 and was the largest defense proposal in US history. The plan also does not include costs tied to the Iran war.

Kelly stopped short of explicitly saying he would oppose the budget, though he openly questioned major projects inside the proposal, including Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense plan.

“There’s stuff in there, like the Golden Dome, the physics on that stuff is really, really hard,” Kelly said. “I’m very confident we’re going to spend a lot of money, and we’re going to get a system that doesn’t work. There are other things in there we do not need. They need to submit a defense budget that makes sense for the moment we’re in.” 

The clash is only the latest chapter in the ongoing feud between Hegseth and Kelly. Last fall, Hegseth accused Kelly of “seditious” behavior after the senator and five other Democrats released a video urging military personnel to “refuse illegal orders.