Sen. Mark Kelly called Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth a racist and misogynist on national television — the latest escalation in the Democratic Party's all-out war on the man President Trump chose to run the Pentagon.
Kelly, the Arizona Democrat and former astronaut, didn't hedge or soften it. On national television, he went straight at Hegseth's character — the kind of attack that says less about its target than about the desperation of the people launching it.
Hegseth has been a lightning rod since taking over the Department of Defense, driving the administration's warrior-ethos reforms and its crackdowns on everything from DEI bureaucracy to cartel operations. Democrats have opposed him at every turn — and when the policy arguments fail, the personal smears begin.
"Racist" and "misogynist" are the last refuge of a party with no answer for a Pentagon that is finally focused on lethality instead of lectures. Kelly's outburst is the sound of that frustration.