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Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing to become the next Homeland Security secretary soon became a battleground of old grudges as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky used the occasion to relitigate Mullin’s past criticisms of him.
Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security Committee, opened the hearing by raising remarks Mullin made earlier this year when he called Paul a “freaking snake” and suggested he understood why the senator had been physically assaulted by a neighbor years ago in an attack that broke several of his ribs.
Paul recounted his assault and his extensive injuries, describing his pain as “that of a thousand knives.” The senator said that Mullin “never had the courage” to look him in the eye and tell him that the attack on him was justified and challenged him to do so.
Before Mullin gave his own opening statement, he said he needed to address Paul’s comments “calling me a liar.” The Oklahoma senator said that he’s known for being blunt and has no problem saying anything directly to someone’s face. Mullin then proceeded to double down on his comments about Paul as the chairman looked on. “I work around this room to try to fix problems. I’ve worked with many people in this room. Seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us,” Mullin said.
Mullin suggested that the pair’s animus toward one other doesn’t preclude him from being able to lead the Department of Homeland Security. “You have spent millions of dollars in my campaigns against me because we just don’t get along. However, sir, that doesn’t keep me at all from doing my job,” he said. “I can have difference of opinions with everybody in this room. But, as secretary of Homeland, I’ll be protecting everybody including Kentucky as much as I will my own backyard in Oklahoma.”
But things became even more tense as Paul began his questioning as Mullin indicated that he had no intention of apologizing for his remarks against him.
Paul also raised an incident from 2023, when Mullin threatened to fight Teamsters president Sean O’Brien during a different Senate hearing, asking if that kind of behavior set a good example for the employees of DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Mullin responded by noting that he and O’Brien had since made amends and that the labor leader was currently in the room, supporting his nomination.
Paul continued to press Mullin on whether he was in favor of political violence, which prompted Mullin to accuse the senator of “character assassination.”
Mullin was also confronted with past comments following his dust-up with O’Brien where he suggested that Congress should bring back caning, an apparent reference to slaveholder and South Carolina congressman Preston Brooks’s brutal beating of Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner on the Senate floor in 1856 after the abolitionist gave an anti-slavery speech that insulted Brooks’s cousin.
Mullin likely has votes to pass through the committee and onto the full Senate thanks to support Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. Fetterman, who serves on the committee, has already signaled he was inclined to back Mullin’s nomination and seemed unbothered by his back-and-forth with Paul. “My experience with you has been consistent kindness and professionalism,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune appeared confident that Mullin will ultimately get confirmed, despite any bad blood with Paul. “Those two obviously have some history, and it’s, you know, personal stuff,” he said, Politico reports. “They’ve got to work through it. I mean, in the end, this is about the job, and it’s about making sure that we got the right person there. I think Markwayne is the right person for the job.”
But it’s safe to say that at least one Republican vote will remain out of his grasp. “I think he’s unfit. I think his temperament is not suitable. I think his anger issues are a problem. So, I won’t vote for him, but I’ve promised to at least get an expeditious vote,” Paul told reporters following the hearing, per Semafor.
