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Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., sided with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on lifting the suspension of the flight crew involved in a helicopter flyover at Kid Rock’s Nashville mansion over the weekend and said he didn’t want to see the pilots punished.
“Thank you Kid Rock,” Hegseth posted on X Tuesday afternoon. “US Army pilots suspension lifted. No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots.”
The U.S. Army aircrew was previously suspended from flight duties pending an investigation into Saturday’s helicopter stunt.
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MS NOW host Willie Geist asked Kelly, a veteran Navy pilot, to react to the move by Hegseth on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe.”
“I’m not a Kid Rock fan. You know, I — at the same time, I mean, I don’t see why we would, you know, punish these guys,” Kelly said. “Some, you know, young pilots in — whether it’s an Apache or there were times, you know, I did stuff in airplanes that probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Kelly told Geist he disagreed with Hegseth on most things but said the pilots shouldn’t be punished.
“So, I — and I generally do not agree with Pete Hegseth, you know, on anything, and I don’t agree with his post. He should let the Army deal with this,” Kelly said. “But I would hope guys, you know, doing something like that — that’s just kind of a dumb thing to do, flying close to, you know, people’s homes, even when it’s Kid Rock’s. They know they’re not supposed to do that.
“But I would not want to see them punished,” he continued. “I mean, these are patriots that are serving their country and taking a lot of risks with their own lives.”
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington March 19, 2026. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo)
The Department of War pointed Fox News Digital to Hegseth’s initial statement on X announcing that the suspension was lifted.
Kelly and Hegseth have traded barbs in the last few months after the Democratic senator had taken part in a video — alongside other Democratic lawmakers — in which they urged members of the military to refuse to carry out “illegal” orders under the Trump administration.
Kelly sued Hegseth and the Department of War in January over efforts to demote him and cut his retirement pay for participating in the video.
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Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., speaks to members of the media outside federal court in Washington, D.C., Feb. 3, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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A federal lawsuit filed in Washington D.C., names Hegseth, the Navy, the Department of Defense — now renamed the War Department — and Navy Secretary John Phelan as defendants.
Hanna Panreck is an associate editor at Fox News.