Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona expressed concern over civilian deaths in Gaza and suggested conditioning future aid to Israel based on the Israeli leadership’s ability to prevent these casualties. He emphasized the importance of avoiding innocent deaths and mentioned the need for more targeted munitions for the Israeli military to reduce civilian casualties. Kelly also highlighted concerns from aid groups about the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza, including famine in certain areas. He stressed the importance of ensuring that aid reaches innocent Palestinians and called on Israel to improve its actions on the battlefield to facilitate this.
In addition to his concerns about civilian casualties in Gaza, Kelly addressed the issue of abortion access in Arizona, where a historic abortion ban was recently repealed by legislators and the governor. He placed the blame for the ban on former President Donald Trump and called for national legislation to protect women’s rights to make decisions about their bodies. Kelly expressed willingness to repeal the filibuster to codify abortion rights into federal law, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Despite his confidence in Democrats maintaining control of the Senate, Kelly expressed concern about the possibility of Trump attempting to overturn election results, particularly in Arizona. The state’s attorney general recently indicted several former Trump aides for their alleged involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona. Kelly expressed trust in the judicial system to handle the situation fairly and emphasized the importance of accepting the outcome of the legal process, regardless of personal preferences.
In his interviews, Kelly emphasized the need for Israeli leadership to improve their actions to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza and to address humanitarian concerns in the region. He also highlighted the importance of national legislation to protect women’s abortion rights and expressed a willingness to repeal the filibuster to achieve this goal. Despite his optimism about Democrats maintaining control of the Senate, Kelly acknowledged the potential challenges posed by efforts to overturn election results and the need for trust in the legal process to resolve such issues.
