State of the Union: Interview With Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ)

Interview

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Well, let me start by saying, Jake, we're a country of laws, and nobody's above the law.

I think it's very important for the Manhattan DA to look into this thoroughly. If they come to the conclusion that he should be charged, I mean, the former president has some constitutional rights, and this is a process that's going to need to be worked out between him and his lawyers.

I would hope that, if they brought charges, that they have a strong case, because this is -- as you said, it's unprecedented. And there are certainly risks involved here. But, again, nobody in our nation is or should be above the law.

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Yes, sure.

I mean, I was there that day on January 6 in the Senate chamber. But the president's supporters, they have First Amendment rights, and they should be able to exercise those peacefully. I think it's going to be important for law enforcement to pay attention to protests and make sure it doesn't rise to the level of violence.

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Well, I don't think we should be intimidated by the Russians or deterred from what we think is the right operational approach to this.

We shouldn't pull back our MQ-9s that are flying in the area. But let me reiterate that the Russians here have shown how reckless they are, how incompetent they are. I flew with Russian pilots in the back seat of my NASA jet for decades. I flew in space with Russians.

I'm not surprised by this. I mean, I flew with Russian pilots, fighter pilots who couldn't fly formation. And I watched this video, and it's pretty obvious what happened. He lost sight of it, and he crashed into it. He didn't do it intentionally, but it was reckless, and it's incompetence that we see on the battlefield every day in Ukraine.

And that's why the losses that the Russians are suffering right now are really high. At this point, I mean, the best choice for Vladimir Putin would be to say, hey, this isn't working, and he's got to stop this illegal invasion.

And, I mean, it's horrific what is going on in Ukraine with war crimes, and he's killing women and children.

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I was shocked.

I think it's stunning for the Florida governor, who's running for president, to say this. I mean, what is he saying it for, to get votes? I mean, what happened to Ronald Reagan's peace through strength?

I mean, we need to show Vladimir Putin that he -- it's unacceptable for him to invade a neighbor. This is in our national security interest for him to lose. We can't allow him to be successful. If he's able to take Ukraine and win a war in Ukraine, who's going to be next? It's going to be one of our NATO allies.

And then we're going to be putting U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines in harm's way. We're not -- we don't have to do that right now. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins this thing and Vladimir Putin and his cronies are held accountable for this.

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I mean, I think it's unfortunate that they have made this political and it's about an election.

And, really, what it should be about is our national security -- national security and our allies and what's right, morally and ethically right. I mean, Putin is a war criminal, committing crimes against humanity, killing, intentionally targeting and killing women and children.

It -- I mean, I haven't seen this -- we haven't seen this in our lifetimes, Jake. And we can't allow them to be successful. And I don't get my colleagues -- there's very few of them.

By the way, let me -- let me just say, in the United States Senate, the Republicans in the Senate and Democrats, we're pretty much on the same page on this, I mean, most of us, that this -- we need to give the Ukrainians the support they need to be successful. We're doing that.

We're providing them with the weapons and weapon systems. We have got to look to do more. I mean, I just led a letter to Secretary Austin on this about F-16s. What are the steps we should take to get to the point where we can make a decision to provide these airplanes, to give them that next piece of edge to be successful?

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Well, it's a crisis. It's been a crisis on the Southern border for years, not just during this administration, but before this.

And Border Patrol has such a hard time handling the numbers. The numbers are down because some of the steps the administration has taken. And I have worked with the administration. I have worked with Secretary Mayorkas on this to make some changes. I have successfully added border wall to close some gaps south of Yuma.

I was on the phone with Doug Nicholls, the mayor of Yuma, just this week. And he acknowledged that the numbers are down. It's allowing Border Patrol to focus more on fentanyl. So the steps that have been taken are positive.

There's still that -- there's still more that needs to be done. I don't agree with some of my Democratic colleagues on this. I mean, this is a really -- this is very challenging for border states. And if you're a small town on the Southern border in Arizona or Texas or California, this has been a real struggle, and we have got to do more.

At the same time, we need comprehensive immigration reform in our country. I mean, it's good for our economy. It'll help us grow our GDP. And I really get incredibly frustrated, Jake, with -- that we haven't been able to provide a pathway to citizenship for dreamers, as American as my own two kids.

So, there's a lot we need to do. There's -- I have traveled to the border many times, most recently with a bunch of my Republican colleagues, bipartisan trip where we have come up with some bipartisan ideas about how to make our border more secure and, at the same time, do it in a way where we're treating people in accordance with our morals and our ethics.

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Well, I'm not going to get ahead of Senator Sinema. She hasn't made an announcement.

What she has said is, she doesn't want to be focused on politics right now. I have worked with her very closely over the last two years, I mean, really in a very positive way. She's very effective in the United States Senate. We have got a lot done. And I look forward to doing that over the next months and the rest of this year.

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Well, I took a look at it the other day.

I mean, Jake, is this spacesuit, like, for the dark side of the moon? I mean, you fall behind a rock and a shadow, are they going to be able to find you? So, I imagine that they're going to go through some iterations.

I will tell you what I'm excited about, though, not so much the suit. And I'm sure the suit, operationally, is going to be very, very effective and protect my former colleagues. It's exciting that we're taking these steps to go back to the moon, and then one day onto Mars.

So I'm really excited about that. Unfortunately, now I'm -- I'm out of that business, and I'm in the United States Senate. And we have got a lot more work to do, including making sure NASA has what it needs to be successful.

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Thank you, Jake. Thank you.

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