US senator fights back against Trump in 'illegal orders' row

The US senator Mark Kelly has said it was “noncontroversial” for him and other Democrats to advise military personnel to “refuse illegal orders” from the Trump administration - hitting back at accusations of “serious allegations of misconduct” levelled against him by the Pentagon.

- Edward Helmore

“I said something that was pretty simple and noncontroversial - and that was that members of the military should follow the law,” the Arizona Democrat told MS Now on Monday.

Kelly, a former US navy officer and astronaut who flew on four space shuttle missions between 2001 and 2011, noted how the president had gone on social media to claim he and his colleagues had engaged in “seditious behaviour, punishable by death” while also republishing a user’s post that said “hang them”.

“Donald Trump said I should be executed, I should be hanged, I should be prosecuted,” Kelly told the talkshow host Rachel Maddow. He added: “If this is meant to intimidate me and other members of Congress from doing our jobs and holding this administration accountable, it won’t work.

“I’ve given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the constitution.”