Washington — President The hearing opened With provocative boldness: say it to my face.
Senator Rand PaulThe Kentucky Republican made it clear he didn’t care much about that President Donald Trump Nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Fellow Republican Senator Markwayne Mullen. He says he will vote against it.
Their differences go way back.
Mullen has called him a “terrifying snake” Standing next to Paul’s neighbor who left the senator with him Several broken ribs After a surprise attack, the neighbor beat the senator while he was doing yard work outside his home.
Paul describes Mullen as a liar who has anger management problems and lacks the temperament to lead troubled people Internal Security Department This is at the forefront of Trump Mass deportation agenda.
“Tell the world why you think I deserve to be assaulted,” Paul said Wednesday. As hammered Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
“Explain to the American people why they should trust a man with anger issues to be a suitable role model for ICE and Border Patrol agents.”
Mullen, a mixed martial arts champion who led training sessions in his home gym — including with then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker who was sitting behind him in the front row of supporters, took a page The Trump administration’s rules of the game.
Fight, fight, fight. And he wasn’t backing down.
“If I had something to say, I’d say it right to your face,” Mullen replied.
Mullen revealed the reason for his selection for this position, as he is the preferred presidential candidate to take over the management of the agency in light of the battles he faces. Secretary Kristi Noem Heading towards the exit.
He reiterated what he said about Paul that “he can understand why your neighbor did what he did.”
“I’m not apologizing,” Mullen deadpanned at one point.
In a turbulent season of fiery committee hearings, the exchange was like few others.
Trump administration officials — and those aspiring to join the Cabinet — have been competing with members of Congress, especially Democrats, who oppose the president’s people and policies. But criticisms from Paul, a fellow Republican who has also taken issue with Trump as an outsider in the GOP, offered a rare bipartisan rebuttal. That showed Mullen’s narrow path toward Senate confirmation, with a vote expected next week.
And it didn’t stop there.
Mullen was questioned for three hours about his character and general experience on the Homeland job. He is not a policy expert, steeped in the complexities of immigration enforcement, FEMA or other homeland security operations. He is not a well-known management expert, having run the family plumbing business before joining Congress.
What Mullen brings to office is a relationship with Trump — he has described the president as a “friend” — and a reputation as an approachable person who brings people together across the political divide, and who steadily overcomes the stress ball as he walks the halls of Congress.
Mullen’s colleagues in the Republican Party praised Mullen’s character, and he cried when he told the story of how Trump doted on his son Jimmy, who was suffering from health problems while the president was busy with his 2020 election campaign.
But Mullen left senators scratching their heads about a secret trip he said he took several years ago to a foreign country, which he described as having war zone-like conditions.
The senators said the FBI, which conducts background checks on executive branch nominees, had no record of any such trip, and the committee chairs insisted that Mullen meet with them in a secure facility afterward to discuss what they called his “top secret” mission to a foreign country.
“I didn’t say it was top secret,” Mullen said.
However, it was the opening dialogue that set the tone for the discussion — and signaled the narrow support Mullen is expected to get in Thursday’s committee vote.
Paul opened with a plea for an end to the political violence that has spread across the country, from the beginning of his political career in 2011, when former Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot at a congressional event outside a grocery store in Tucson, to a 2017 congressional baseball practice when he was warming up in the batting cage when a gunman opened fire, and so on.
“It is essential now more than ever for our country’s leaders to renounce violence and lead by example,” Paul said.
He plays a video of Mullen nearly brawling with a union leader — and he asks him to “Stand your ass up” – In another Senate hearing in 2023.
Mullen admitted that there were differences between him and Paul.
“We don’t agree,” he testified.
Mullen said he and union leader Sean O’Brien of the Teamsters, who was sitting behind him in the audience, became friends.
“I can put it down if you want to put it down,” Mullen told Paul.
Paul turned back and said, “Somehow, do you think I’ll put that aside?”