Good morning. It is Sunday, January the 11th, and we begin this hour with the two most

consistent elements of Donald Trump's mercurial presidency, retribution and control. The Trump

administration has gone after adjutants of the president, new and old,

freezing grants for states controlled by Democrats and investigating perceived enemies from his first term.

But this week, the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesith, issued a censure letter to Arizona

Senator and retired Navy Captain Mark Kelly, opening up a process that could potentially see Kelly's rank

lowered retroactively and his retirement benefits docked as a result. In writing, the administration

has said that it is doing this because Mark Kelly said some things that they did not like.

Mark Kelly is the United States Senator, a former astronaut, and a smart guy.

Even if he sees his retirement benefits docked, he will be fine.

But the president's retribution campaign against one man will reach far beyond Mark Kelly,

and it's designed that way.

The fight between Hegseth and Kelly kicked off after Kelly appeared in a video alongside

five other Democrats who had served in the

military or in intelligence to broadcast a simple, broadly accepted truth that members of the military

are not obligated to follow illegal orders. How true is that? It is so true, in fact, that Hegsuth was

saying the exact same thing when Donald Trump was a new candidate for office and Hegss was a new contributor for Fox News back in 2016.

Donald Trump's answer on what if the generals will listen to you when you say, take out the vote?

He'll listen. That's really not the answer.

No, I got some response from Vets on that saying you're not just going to follow that order if it's

unlawful. You're not just going to follow that order if it's unlawful. Public statements made on

several occasions on national television aside, Secretary Hegseth was incensed enough by the Democrats

...