WASHINGTON—Screaming matches with senators. Threatening to fist-fight Teamsters President Sean O’Brien during a congressional hearing. Refusing to apologize for federal agents’ murder of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. And a big pal of President Donald Trump.
That’s Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter and plumbing business owner whom Trump nominated to be the new Secretary of Homeland Security, the sole federal department whose money bill for this year, because of the murders, never passed Congress.
And all those traits were on display at a combative confirmation hearing on March 18.
If confirmed, Mullin would succeed current Secretary Kristi Noem, who had a penchant for self-serving publicity, lavish spending on things like a multimillion-dollar ad campaign featuring herself and calling, without a shred of evidence, the two murdered Minneapolis residents, Renee Michelle Good and Alex F. Pretti, domestic terrorists.
Lost in the uproar was Mullin’s declaration he’d make only one minor change in overseeing the vicious attacks by ICE and Border Patrol agents during the Trump-ordered mass roundups. The minor change would be that agents would actually have to get real search warrants before breaking down doors, battering people or charging into hospitals, businesses, religious institutions, and schools to seize people.
“A judicial warrant will be used to go into houses, in places of businesses, unless we’re pursuing someone that enters in that place,” Mullin told Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
ICE agents also smash people’s car windows and drag them out, throwing them into vans and hustling them off to far-away detention centers—before deporting them. He made no promises about ending those practices.
It’s the actions of ICE (the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service) and the Border Patrol that left the Homeland Security Department without its own money bill. ICE and the Border Patrol got tons of new money, however, from the $4.5 trillion 10-yar tax cut for the 1% the GOP congressional majority and Trump enacted last year.
But the lack of a regular money bill left workers at the other parts of the agency, including the airport Transportation Security Agency officers, on the job but unpaid for a month now and counting.
The combat at the confirmation hearing started immediately when Mullin refused to apologize for cheering a physical attack on the committee chair, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., three years ago at Paul’s Kentucky home.
Paul told Mullin: “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.”
Mullin denied he defended the physical attack but said he understood why it occurred.
“As far as my terms ‘snake in the grass,’ sir, I work around this room to try to fix problems,” said Mullin, “I’ve worked with many people in this room. Seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.”
And as for his “bring it on” fight challenge to Teamsters President O’Brien at a Labor Committee hearing, Mullin said the two had talked out their differences. O’Brien attended the confirmation hearing but did not testify. The Teamsters had no comment on Mullin’s nomination to head DHS.
Things went downhill fast, with Paul saying he’ll oppose the Mullin nomination, counterbalanced by a pro-Mullin pledge from often-contrarian Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa. The committee has a one-vote GOP majority, so the two statements cancel each other.
Mullin also stuck with Trump’s massive cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency—cuts which Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., pointed out delay disaster aid to cities, states and people wiped out by tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires and floods. Trump has also vetoed disaster aid requests from blue states, including Vermont and Colorado.
But Mullin also called FEMA “very bloated” despite resignations and Trump firings there.
Mullin’s qualifications, or lack of them, to run DHS, and his temper led even Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the panel’s normally mild-mannered top Democrat, to doubt Mullin could effectively run the sprawling agency.
“We just want ICE to follow the same rules your local police already do,” Peters said. “But DHS has faced management challenges since the start of the Trump administration, and over the past year, many of those challenges have only increased.
“Now more than ever, we need a DHS Secretary who is a steady hand, who will provide thoughtful leadership, follow the facts, tell the truth, and hold agency officials accountable. We need a DHS Secretary who is committed to the rule of law and who will protect and cooperate with independent oversight. And we need a DHS Secretary free from distractions and conflicts of interest that not only undercut the department’s work, but break trust with the American people.”
Peters concluded: “I do have reservations about your readiness to take on such a significant role at such a critical time.”
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
