(WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing began with a personal confrontation between fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul as Mullin seeks to take over the Department of Homeland Security from its embattled leader, Kristi Noem.
Paul, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman, sparred with Mullin over comments the Oklahoma senator reportedly made earlier this year regarding Paul’s voting record and assault by a neighbor in Kentucky in 2017.
“You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted,” Paul said.
Paul also pointed to Mullin’s previous public confrontations and said Mullin had “low impulse control.”
“Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, 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,” Paul said.
Paul questioned, “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.”
Before his opening statement, Mullin fired back at Paul.
“I said I could understand, because of the behavior, you were having, that I could understand why your neighbor … did what he did,” Mullin said. “As far as my term of ‘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.”
Mullin, who President Donald Trump earlier this month tapped to take over the agency from Noem, asked Paul to let him earn his respect and that he will be secretary for all Americans.
Paul later played a montage of Mullin challenging people to a fight, including a tense moment at a November 2023 Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing when Mullin stood up from his seat and appeared to prepare to physically fight Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien.
“I get it it’s about character assassination for you,” Mullin said to Paul. “That’s the way this game is played. I understand it. And you are making this about you, which is fine.”
Mullin noted that O’Brien came to the hearing on Wednesday as a “close friend.”
“As you can notice over my shoulder is my good friend, Sean O’Brien. Both of us have had conversations and shaken hands and agreed we could have done things different,” Mulin said. “Sean has become a close friend. We talk all the time. I have been on his podcast. It is how you handle your differences. Not like this, chairman.”
Lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security Committee are expected to grill Mullin through the day as the department he’s seeking to lead remains shut down due to a funding stalemate, with no clear end to that shutdown in sight.
Parts of DHS — from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to the Transportation Security Administration — are shut down amid a funding fight over Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Democrats have said they will fund the department only if changes are made to the agency in the wake of the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Mullin may also face questions about threats to the homeland after DHS warned of potential lone-wolf and cyberattacks amid the ongoing strikes in Iran, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by ABC News.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee is scheduled to vote on his nomination on Thursday. After that vote, if his nomination is confirmed, it would then head to the Senate floor where he could be confirmed as soon as next week.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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