Sen. Mark Kelly is ‘absolutely frustrated’ Donald Trump has a chance to win presidential election

PHOENIX – Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona on Monday said he is “absolutely frustrated” Donald Trump has a chance to win the presidential election.

“Absolutely frustrated that this guy’s back and has a chance. He shouldn’t have a chance. There’s something he says at certain times that resonates with people. I think they like that. He doesn’t sound like a politician,” Kelly told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce and Gaydos.

“Those folks need to consider while he wasn’t a politician — he is now — but he’s also a convicted felon and somebody who has a total lack of respect for those of us who served in the military. And I think it’s fair to say even some contempt.”

Kelly served in the Navy from 1986 until 2011 while Trump has never served. When Trump was elected in 2016, he became the first U.S. president without any military or government experience.

“I mean to the way he has characterized 1,800 dead Marines at Belleau Wood as ‘suckers’ or World War One veterans who are buried in the cemetery in Europe, by the way, didn’t even get to come home after being deceased as a bunch of ‘losers,'” Kelly said.

Kelly also referenced Trump calling late Sen. John McCain a “loser.”

“And for Donald Trump to say he’s a loser because (McCain) got shot down. I mean, this is a guy who tried to avoid, or did avoid, being drafted and had something made up about bone spurs,” Kelly said. “And now, he won’t release his medical records.”

Trump received five military deferments, four times for college and once for bone spurs.

Have voters turned to Trump to give them someone different?

When asked if he thinks Trump has been successful because he is an outsider amid recent political gridlock, Kelly saw how that could have initially appealed to voters in 2016, but he doesn’t believe voters got anything out of Trump’s presidency.

“Well, if you’re a billionaire, you got a big giant tax cut,” Kelly said. “If you’re basically anybody else, you got screwed.

“I mean, if you’re every day or working-class people, you didn’t get a good deal under Donald Trump. You got a botched response to COVID. You have the president of the United States telling you to inject bleach into your body.

“And if you care about National Security, a lot of our alliances were basically shredded, made us less safe. And if you’re a woman, you got your reproductive healthcare rights stripped away from you.”

Mark Kelly believes border issues fall on Congress, not the President

“I think it’s important for people to remember that it’s the responsibility of Congress to pass laws and to change immigration and border security policy,” Kelly said.

Kelly referenced the bipartisan border security legislation that Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), Chris Murphy (D-CT) and himself were “days” away from passing before he claimed Trump shot it down.

“We had the votes, and it was going to raise border patrol pay and we were going to have money to hire more border patrol agents, build infrastructure,” Kelly said. “Fentanyl detection machines. There was going to be money there to buy more of these machines to detect illicit fentanyl across the border. So that’s the way this is supposed to be done. Not through presidential action.

“This was going to be another big piece of bipartisan legislation where both Democrats and Republicans and the whole country could have kind of celebrated that we did this thing. The way it’s supposed to be done together to the benefit of the nation, and one guy killed it.

“Donald Trump, he told Senate Republicans that were about to vote for this … he told them they couldn’t vote for it because he needed this for the election. It’s the most hypocritical thing I think I’ve seen any politician in my lifetime do.”

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