‘I Want The President To Know He Was Unsuccessful’: Mark Kelly Explains Why He’s Not Boycotting Trump’s Speech

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) told CNN’s Dana Bash he hopes President *Donald Trump *will see him sitting front and center at Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, just weeks after the Department of Justice failed to indict him and five other Democrats for telling service members to disobey illegal orders.

Bash caught up with Kelly inside the Capitol’s Statuary Hall on Tuesday night, which was buzzing in anticipation of the president’s speech.

“Senator, a lot of your fellow Democrats are boycotting, but you are intentionally going to be in the chamber tonight. Why?” Bash asked.

“Well, it’s a different decision for me,” Kelly said. “The president tried to indict me like three weeks ago. He wanted to send me to jail, so I’m going to make a point that I’m still here — I’m doing my job despite the fact that he’s trying to violate my Constitutional rights and the Constitutional rights of…two million retired service members that we’re not going to stand for it.”

Kelly continued:

The Grand jury said no to him. The DOD is still, you know, trying to demote me for something I said, but I’m going to be there because, you know, it’s my job. But I understand my other colleagues

[who don’t want to be there]. This president is, you know, it’s unprecedented, the stuff he is doing. The American people are poorer and less safe because of him and when you consider what’s happened in L.A. and Minnesota, we’ve got a couple dead Americans. We’ve got other people that their rights have clearly been violated.

Bash responded, “And you were telling me beforehand, you’re not just going to be there. You’re actually going to look for a good seat in the front so that you can make eye contact.”

“I want the president to know that he was unsuccessful,” Kelly said. “You know, he’s got a lot of stuff to pay attention to. I’m sure he told the Department of Justice to prosecute, try to prosecute me and indict me. But I want to make sure he sees me sitting right there.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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