Senator Mark Kelly said: “Donald Trump and Pete Hehsett are not going to silence me… I swore an oath to the Constitution… they don’t care about it anymore.” true or false

1. What Kelly actually said — the record from NPR

NPR’s account of Sen. Mark Kelly’s Nov. 18 appearance records him criticizing President Trump’s reaction to a video sent to service members and saying Trump (and Fox host Pete Hegseth) “don’t understand the Constitution,” and that Trump’s response amounted to “declaring that loyalty to the Constitution is punishable by death” ^[1]. Those are the direct claims NPR attributes to Kelly; the network reports Kelly’s view that the senators’ message — reminding troops not to follow illegal orders — was appropriate and that the president’s rhetoric was extreme ^[1].

2. The query’s sentence vs. the reporting — true, false, or unverified?

The exact sentence you provided—“Donald Trump and Pete Hehsett are not going to silence me… I swore an oath to the Constitution… they don’t care about it anymore.”—does not appear in the NPR coverage or affiliated republications in the provided search results. Because the available sources do not include that exact wording, the claim as phrased is unverified by the supplied reporting ^[2]. NPR does document similar themes (Kelly saying Trump and Hegseth “don’t understand the Constitution” and accusing Trump of effectively threatening constitutional loyalty), but not the precise quoted lines in your query ^[1].

3. Context: what prompted Kelly’s remarks

NPR explains the remarks came after senators released a video telling active-duty military personnel they must not follow illegal orders and after the White House criticized that video as “seditious behavior, punishable by DEATH” — language the report says the White House later walked back ^[1]. Kelly framed his comments as a defense of the Constitution and as a reaction to what he called the president’s dangerous rhetoric toward lawmakers who urged troops to follow the law ^[1].

4. Competing perspectives in the reporting

The supplied pieces record both Kelly’s accusation and the White House’s subsequent retreat from the “punishable by death” phrase, but they do not include a direct on-record rebuttal from Trump or Hegseth within these excerpts ^[1]. NPR’s framing highlights Kelly’s view that the president’s remarks were tantamount to declaring loyalty to the Constitution punishable; the White House response — walking back the phrasing — is noted but not elaborated on in the provided snippets ^[1]. Available sources do not mention direct quotes in reply from Hegseth in these excerpts ^[2].

5. How to treat paraphrase vs. direct quotation

Journalistic best practice distinguishes between paraphrase and quotation. NPR’s reporting provides direct quotes for Kelly’s “punishable by death” formulation and for “don’t understand the Constitution” ^[1]. The query’s longer sentence appears to be a paraphrase or amalgam of Kelly’s themes (defiance, oath to the Constitution, critique of Trump/Hegseth). Because the supplied reporting does not present that exact language, you should treat the specific quoted sentence as not verified by these sources ^[2].

6. Bottom line for your true/false question

False if you mean “Did Kelly literally say that exact sentence?” — the supplied reporting does not show him saying those exact words ^[2]. True in the broader sense that Kelly publicly declared he would not be intimidated, defended his oath to the Constitution, and accused Trump (and Hegseth) of not respecting the Constitution — NPR quotes capture those themes and a strongly worded charge that Trump’s rhetoric made loyalty to the Constitution seem punishable ^[1].

Limitations: this analysis relies solely on the NPR article and affiliate reposts provided; other outlets or full transcripts might include different or additional phrasing not found in these sources ^[2].