Markwayne Mullin’s Senate Confirmation Hearing Was a Total Insanity Fest
Charles P. Pierce (Esquire)
Once again, we must remind the congregation of the blog’s five-minute rule regarding any member of the Paul family of Kentucky. Be it Daddy Ron or spalpeen Rand, they will begin to speak, and, for five minutes, you will think, “Hmmm, that makes some sense to me.” However, at approximately the 5:01 mark, Daddy Ron or spalpeen Rand will say something so transcendentally loopy as to make you wonder if you’ve drifted off to Tralfamadore or Rivendell or Oz.
Anyway, on Wednesday morning, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee heard from Senator Markwayne Mullin, the administration’s choice to replace Kristi Noem, and her marketing budget as secretary of homeland security. Mullin, of course, was an undistinguished member of the House who was elected to be an even more undistinguished senator. He was most famous for an episode in 2023 challenging Teamsters president Sean O’Brien to throw down during a Senate hearing, forcing Bernie Sanders into the role of Carlos Padilla. On Wednesday, Rand Paul decided to ask him about it. But first, Paul had a personal ax to grind.
Paul: Later that year, a Trump-hating felon attacked me from behind in my yard. I was just straightening up from picking up a tree limb. I was wearing noise-cancellation headphones. Never saw him coming. … I was struck in the back. The force of the blow sent us through the air nearly ten feet down the hill until his shoulder impaled me as we hit the ground. Six of my ribs were broken. Three of the ribs were completely separated such that, for weeks, the ends of the ribs would grind upon each other. My lung was damaged. For weeks I could inhale but not have the rib strength to exhale. I developed two bouts of pneumonia. The pain was such that I could only sit up in bed by tying a rope to the foot of the bed and pulling myself up. But even then, the pain was that of a thousand knives. Over the year of recovery, I began to cough up blood and had a removal of part of my lung. …
Recently, Senator Mullin, if you have time to listen, you were confronted by constituents that were angry because you voted against my amendment to stop all funding for the refugee-welfare programs. Instead of explaining your vote of continuing these welfare programs for refugees, you decided to transfer the blame. You told the media that I was a “freaking snake” and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted. I was shocked you would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain and my family so much pain.
I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits of the proper use of force. You might argue you were mad and upset about being confronted by your constituents. Senator Mullin, your constituents are justifiably upset with you. By now, most of America knows the Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota stole over $9 billion. … Instead of defending your vote you chose to lash out on me. You went on to brag that you had already told me to my face you completely understood and approved of the assault. Well, that’s a lie. You have a chance today. Today I will give you that chance to clear the record. Tell it to my face if that is what you believe. Tell it to me today. Tell the world why you believe I deserved to be assaulted from behind and have six ribs broken and a damaged lung. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it. And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents. Explain to the American public how a man who has no regrets about brawling in a Senate committee can set a proper example for 250,000 men and women who work at the Department of Homeland Security.
Well, that certainly got us off to a flying start, didn’t it? Mullin, of course, when it was time for his opening statement, had some butter he’d like to melt in his mouth.
Mullin: I think before I start with my opening statement, I have to address the remarks the chairman made calling me a liar. Sir, I think everybody in this room knows that I am very blunt and direct to the point, and if I have something to say, I will say it to your face. If you recall back in my House days, we actually did have this conversation because of the remarks that I’ve made. You were in a room. I simply addressed that I said I could understand, because of the behaviour you were having, why your neighbour did what he did. As far as my terms of a snake in the grass, sir, I work around this room to try to fix problems. I’ve worked with many people in this room. It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us. I did address those remarks and explain your gimmicks by the amendment you put forth. And as far as me saying that I invoke violence, I don’t. I do not think anybody should be hit by surprise. I don’t like that. But if I do have something to say, everybody in this room knows I’ll come straight to you. I will say publicly, and I’ll say it privately, but I will never say it behind your back. So for you to say that I’m a liar, sir, that’s not accurate. And I got proof to say that because you’ve spent millions of dollars on campaigns against me, because we just don’t get along. However, sir, that doesn’t keep me at all from doing my job. I can have a difference of opinions with everybody in this room, but as secretary of homeland, I will be protecting everybody, including Kentucky, as much as I will my own back garden in Oklahoma.
Later, Paul and Mullin got into it again. This time, though, history reared its ugly—if hilarious—head. Mullin pointed out that Sean O’Brien, the Teamsters president and current administration suck-up, and he had made nicey-nice with each other. (O’Brien was in the audience Wednesday supporting Mullin.)
Mullin: As you could notice over my shoulder here is my good friend Sean O’Brien. Both of us have had conversations. Both of us have shaken hands. And both of us agree we could have done things differently. Sean is someone that has become a close friend. We talk all the time. I have been on his podcast. We’ve talked through this. That’s how you handle your differences. Not like this, Mr. Chairman.
Mullin: As you could notice over my shoulder here is my good friend Sean O’Brien. Both of us have had conversations. Both of us have shaken hands. And both of us agree we could have done things differently. Sean is someone that has become a close friend. We talk all the time. I have been on his podcast. We’ve talked through this. That’s how you handle your differences. Not like this, Mr. Chairman.
In the days after the fight, you did many interviews in which you justified the violence as historically justified by precedence, such as caning and duelling. Is it today your opinion that the caning of Charles Sumner was not only justified but also still argues for solving our political differences with violence?
Mullin: What I was simply pointing out is that some of the rules that still apply to this body, for instance, duelling with two consenting adults, are still there.
Paul: It has been illegal for 170 years. You realize the man that beat Charles Sumner with a cane beat him until he was unconscious. And you want to know why no senators intervened? Because his friend had a gun on the other senators, and he kept beating him and beating him until he crushed his skull. That is what you are insinuating is the precedent of the Senate, and that’s what you live by. That is a very dangerous sentiment. After half a dozen victory lap interviews where you pointed out the union guy was just lucky, that fear kept him from standing up. Dana Bash asked you if you have any regrets about bringing violence to the Senate committee, and you replied you have no regrets. Today you said you have no regrets about being happy, being completely understanding why I was attacked from behind. You have no regrets about instigating a brawl in a Senate committee hearing. Are those still your opinions?
Let’s pause here now and speculate which side Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, champion of states’ rights in all things, would have been on while Representative Preston Brooks beat on Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber. Yeah, that’s pretty much what I think too.
And to think, people once worried that the Senate was turning into the same kind of monkey house that exists on the other side of the Capitol. Cynicism is such a terrible thing.
