Mark Kelly: Musk has only sworn 'an oath to his checking account'

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) slammed Elon Musk for calling him “a traitor” for visiting Ukraine, comparing his track record to the billionaire's, who Kelly said has only sworn an “oath to his checking account.”

“I served in the United States Navy for 25 years. I spent 15 years at NASA, risking my life flying the space shuttle,” Kelly said during a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.”

“And the only oath I can think of that maybe Elon has sworn is an oath to his own checking account, to his pocketbook, an oath, maybe, to ruining the lives of veterans,” he added.

Musk has come under growing criticism for his efforts to slash staffing and spending within the federal bureaucracy, under the authority of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

DOGE has overseen mass firings at USAID, the country's foreign aid arm, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and health agencies. But perhaps its most divisive move yet is cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, where Secretary Doug Collins announced last week plans to cut 80,000 jobs, adding to the removal of probationary employees in recent weeks.

“I had veterans in my office last week who, after really good performance reports, found out that Elon Musk fired them for poor performance. He has ruined these people’s lives,” Kelly told Maddow.

“They were serving our country again in very valuable roles, and they did not deserve to get fired by an email from an unelected billionaire,” he added.

Musk drew the ire of Kelly and other Democrats when he responded to a post from the senator reflecting on his weekend trip to Ukraine.

“You are a traitor,” Musk wrote under the post from Kelly.

In that post, Kelly said the trip had proved to him that the U.S. can't give up on Ukraine.

“Everyone wants this war to end, but any agreement has to protect Ukraine’s security and can’t be a giveaway to Putin,” he wrote in the post.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) was among the Democrats who jumped to Kelly's defense.

“It is really unspeakable. It really is,” Sanders said of Musk's criticism. “I think the American people are sick and tired of the wealthiest guy in the world running the United States government and calling, in this case, a guy who put his life on the line to defend us a traitor. That’s beyond the pale.”