Mark Kelly questions ‘not reasonable’ military funding requests for war with Iran: Full interview

[0:00] And joining me now is Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. [0:03] Senator Kelly, welcome back to Meet the Press. [0:08] Good to be on. Thank you, Kristen. [0:10] Thank you so much for joining us. [0:12] I do want to start where I left off with Ambassador Mike Waltz on Iran, of course. [0:17] Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week that the U.S. is still open to a diplomatic resolution to the war. [0:24] He also described the president's approach as, quote, a head for an eye. [0:30] As someone who has flown combat missions during the Gulf War, Senator, do you think that's the right approach? [0:36] Well, I think these guys are flailing, and this thing is completely stuck because this president got into this without a strategic goal, [0:47] despite what Mike Waltz said about that they had a strategic aim in mind. [0:53] At first, remember, Kristen, this was about regime change. [0:56] Then it became about nuclear weapons, then about ballistic missiles, then about the Navy. [0:59] They are flailing here. [1:03] And, I mean, the head for the eye thing, I mean, this is – you hear this stuff out of the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, [1:10] running around on a stage about maximal lethality and killing people and setting records with the number of targets hit. [1:17] I mean, when you were talking to him about munitions, of course we've used a lot of munitions. [1:22] We hit a lot of targets, 14,000, as of the last time I heard Pete Hegseth talk about this. [1:29] So this thing has been a disaster, and it's been a disaster for the American people. [1:33] In a time when they couldn't afford their lives, this president gets us into this war, [1:39] and costs then continue to skyrocket. [1:43] The price of gas, $4.50 a gallon here in Arizona, over $4 a gallon across the country. [1:50] People can't afford groceries and rent. [1:53] I mean, this thing has been a disaster, and they do not know what to do. [1:57] Senator Kelly, I want to drill down with you on that point about munitions. [2:02] Let me read you some of NBC's exclusive reporting. [2:04] U.S. military commanders have been picking and choosing which Iranian missiles to intercept [2:10] amid an effort to preserve the Pentagon's diminishing supply of weapons. [2:16] What is your response to that report? [2:23] Well, it's pretty obvious to people. [2:25] Well, when you're in a conflict now for five months and you're flying, in some cases, [2:30] hundreds of sorties a day, attacking targets just to drive the numbers up. [2:38] I mean, Pete Hegseth talked about this a lot. [2:40] And by the way, the guy doesn't know what he's doing. [2:43] He's incompetent. [2:44] He should have never had this job, and he should be fired. [2:47] But they were all about the numbers. [2:50] You know, a conflict that, you know, he was talking about setting records, [2:53] going over 10,000 targets, 12,000, 14,000. [2:57] Most of those targets are hit with multiple weapons. [3:02] So, of course, I mean, we've expended tens of thousands of weapons. [3:06] And it takes, as Pete Hegseth said in the committee hearing, when I asked him this question, [3:11] it's going to take years to replenish these. [3:13] This is by their own making. [3:15] They're not keeping track. [3:17] They're, they, at this point, this president and the people around him are incompetent. [3:23] Given the dwindling munitions which you're referencing, [3:28] Secretary Hegseth, as you well know, asked for an additional $67 billion more for the war with Iran. [3:36] He said it's necessary to sustain military readiness. [3:40] Will you vote to approve that $67 billion, Senator? [3:44] Do you see that as necessary? [3:45] Kristen, they're also asking for $1.5 trillion for the defense budget this year and a supplemental. [3:54] When I got to the Senate just five and a half years ago, the defense budget was $740 billion. [4:01] It's more than doubled in five and a half years. [4:03] We're now approaching numbers of, like, what the rest of the world combines spends on defense. [4:10] I mean, do we really feel that we're that threatened and we need to spend these sums of money for our defense? [4:19] We've got programs that this administration is going to spend money on that aren't going to work and things that we don't need. [4:27] If we had some competent people running this department, you could figure out, how do you defend our nation in a way and give the troops what they need within a reasonable budget? [4:39] What they're asking for is not reasonable. [4:40] So just to be very clear, are you a no on approving that $67 billion? [4:46] You won't approve it? [4:46] Hey, I haven't made a final decision yet, you know, on that specific vote, right? [4:56] But as I said, they're asking for $1.5 trillion. [5:00] This war was a mistake. [5:01] He got into this without a strategic goal. [5:04] He got into this without thinking about the consequences to the American people and to our troops. [5:09] We have 18 killed service members at this point. [5:14] So I haven't made a final decision on how I'm going to vote on that. [5:17] But what the way they've managed this so far has been a disaster. [5:22] Well, and of course, Iran is the backdrop to the midterm elections now just 100 days away. [5:28] I do want to ask you about the midterms on Saturday. [5:31] Democrats in Maine nominated Troy Jackson to replace scandal plagued Graham Plattner on the ballot. [5:38] You said yourself, Senator, the path to winning back the Senate runs through Maine. [5:43] Maine, do you think that Troy Jackson is the strongest person to unseat Senator Susan Collins? [5:51] I think he's a strong candidate. [5:53] And I think we have an opportunity. [5:54] And I think Senator Collins has backed this president on all his stuff, right? [6:01] Every time it's mattered, and we could have used her vote to really put a check on this president, [6:06] she stood with Donald Trump. [6:07] I think we have an opportunity here. [6:09] Maine's very important. [6:10] We have other states, Ohio, Alaska, we have an opportunity, Texas, Iowa. [6:16] Hey, even in South Carolina, you know, right now, Annie Andrews is running a great campaign. [6:22] So we have an opportunity to win there as well. [6:25] Florida. [6:25] So the map, it's tough. [6:28] We're going to have to work really hard. [6:29] That's why I've been traveling across the country to all these states. [6:33] And I'm going to continue to do that until November to make sure we have every opportunity to win back the Senate. [6:39] Well, do you think your progressive colleagues, like Senator Bernie Sanders, for example, [6:44] made a mistake by endorsing and standing by Graham Plattner for so long, [6:50] despite scandal after scandal, given the importance of this seat that you just laid out? [6:56] Well, it's pretty obvious that Graham Plattner wasn't vetted well enough. [7:00] He was not the right person to do this. [7:02] And he had a background, you know, that didn't allow him to continue in a race. [7:06] But that doesn't matter at this point. [7:08] You know, what matters is getting Troy Jackson the resources to run a good campaign and get him across the finish line. [7:14] Okay, you'll be out on the trail with Troy Jackson. [7:16] Can we expect to see you there in Maine with him? [7:21] I don't have my entire schedule finished. [7:24] Maine is not yet on my calendar. [7:26] But I have every intention to work as hard as I can for the races that I think we can win. [7:31] And that is one of them. [7:32] I think we can win in Maine. [7:33] We can win in Alaska, Ohio. [7:36] So, yeah, I mean, I'm certainly going to consider it. [7:38] All right. [7:39] Well, I want to, speaking of the progressives in your party, ask you about one of the big conversations right now. [7:44] This week, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani put out a video where he again referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal and called for him to be arrested. [7:55] Take a look. [7:56] My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. [8:07] It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant. [8:12] The federal government, however, does. [8:15] And I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant. [8:19] Do you agree with Mayor Mamdani that Prime Minister Netanyahu is a war criminal who should be arrested by the federal government? [8:25] Hey, I'm not happy with the decisions that the prime minister of Israel has made through over the last few years. [8:37] The way they conducted the operations in Gaza, there were a lot of mistakes made. [8:43] That being said, Israel is an ally of ours. [8:47] We support the Israeli people. [8:49] I'm going to always stand by Israel as a nation. [8:51] They have an election coming up on October 27th. [8:54] The best way to resolve this issue with a prime minister that, just like our president, is not doing the job they were hired to do is for him to be defeated at the ballot box. [9:06] So that's coming up pretty soon here. [9:09] You know, and I hope the Israeli people rally around a candidate that will take Israel in a better direction. [9:14] Let me ask you a couple of other questions related to this one. [9:19] This week, the DNC Rules Committee voted to make South Carolina, as you know, the first state to vote in the Democratic presidential primary in 2028. [9:32] Do you believe that was the right move? [9:34] Should South Carolina be the first state to vote in 2028? [9:40] You know, I don't get a vote on this. [9:42] This is for the DNC, the members of the DNC, to decide which state comes first. [9:48] When you look at the five states they put up front, I think that represents the Democratic Party across the country. [9:55] And, you know, South Carolina has always been, you know, a state that's been a critical component of this, not just the state. [10:02] Congressman Jim Clyburn has been critical to this. [10:06] We also have opportunities to win elections, not only the Senate race with Annie Andrews, [10:11] but Nancy LaCour, who's a veteran, who has an opportunity here to win a critical House seat. [10:19] So I'm not going to weigh in on, like, what the order should be because I don't get a vote there. [10:26] But South Carolina has been always been an important part of the discussion. [10:31] All right. [10:31] Let me ask you about something you do have a vote in. [10:34] Of course, a lot of buzz about whether you are going to run for president in 2028. [10:39] This week, your wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, was asked if you should run. [10:43] She said, go for it. [10:45] You've been very open that you're seriously considering it. [10:48] Senator, what would get you to a yes that you will run in 2028? [10:54] Yeah, I think we've got to see, you know, what are the issues that we're facing after we get on the other side of November here. [11:00] It's really critical that Democrats win back the House and the Senate and put a check on a president who is so corrupt. [11:08] There's there's nothing to compare him to. [11:11] I mean, he spends most of his time trying to figure out how to enrich himself and his family members and his friends. [11:17] It is corruption that we've never seen before. [11:20] And it's hurting the American people. [11:23] People can't afford their lives. [11:25] So this is a discussion I'm going to continue to have with my family. [11:28] But we've got plenty of time. [11:30] All right, Senator Mark Kelly, thank you so very much for joining us. [11:33] We really appreciate it. [11:37] Thank you for having me on.