The top Republican on the Senate’s Homeland Security committee has ripped into Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who is asking for his colleagues’ approval to run the Department of Homeland Security under Donald Trump.
Mullin refused to apologize for his comments about Sen. Rand Paul, saying in his opening statements to the committee during his confirmation hearing that he “understands” why Paul’s neighbor attacked him, leaving him with several broken ribs.
The Oklahoma senator, who is set to be the face of the agency behind the president’s anti-immigration agenda, enters the picture after Trump fired Kristi Noem days after she came under bipartisan fire in congressional hearings earlier this month.
Here is a recap of the hearing:
12:15 p.m. — Mullin evades questions about ‘super secret’ trips
As the hearing was drawing to a close, the committee’s top senators tried to understand why Mullin couldn’t answer questions about his international travel, and even invited him to speak in a classified setting to understand work he was allegedly performing while a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“You brought this up that you were on a super secret mission that you can't tell us about,” Paul said.
Sen. Gary Peters, the committee’s top Democrat, said Mullin’s story “always seems to, kind of, change,” and noted that the FBI has not named him in any classified materials.
“Candor, honesty, transparency are absolutely critical particularly at this time to try to build trust as the secretary of Homeland Security,” he said. “We want to know what this supposed classified work was. I have real questions about it.”
Mullin insisted it was a “classified trip” but “it wasn’t a mission,” though he declined to say who assigned it or where he went.
“I have zero issue with talking about it,” Mullin said. “I don’t have clearance to talk about this this afternoon.”
“I don’t know how we would begin doing this without your cooperation,” Paul said.
A vote on Mullin’s nomination is expected this week, though Paul said he was willing to hold the vote to get more information about Mullin’s travel.
11:35 a.m. — Mullin questioned about ICE at the polls and 2020 election results
“We know that President Joe Biden was sworn into office,” Mullin told Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin when pressed point-blank who won the 2020 presidential election. “I believe my job as DHS secretary is to make sure the elections are fair and people can trust them,” he said.
Asked whether he would install immigration officers at polling locations, Mullin said “only” in there was a “specific threat”
“I can’t sit there and guarantee hypothetically what threat there would be,” he said.
“If we ever get to the point where you are being asked to put armed ICE officers at polling places, we have lost the plot,” Slotkin said. “We have lost the plot as a country.”
10:57 a.m. — Mullin asked if he regrets saying ICE officer was ‘absolutely’ justified in killing Renee Good
After she was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Trump administration officials accused Renee Good of committing an “act of domestic terrorism” by using her car to hit the officer, though video analysis appears to show she was swerving away from the scene.
Mullin at the time told CNN that the officer was “absolutely” justified.
“Do you regret that?” asked Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Mullin said an “investigation is going on.”
“There is no investigation,” Blumenthal fired back. “The Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security has blocked state and local investigations into the killing of Renee Good. I hope that you would allow that to go forward.”
Mullin said he believes the FBI is “looking into” the case and said he would determine whether DHS is investigating, if confirmed to run the agency.
10:38 a.m. — Emotional Markwayne Mullin tears up while speaking about son’s brain injury and Trump support
Mullin teared up while speaking about his son’s brain injury, recalling a moment when Trump spoke to his son.
“Do you know why I love your dad?” Trump told him, Mullin said.
“Because he loves you. Because of you,” he said, according to Mullin.
“Man, that’s… he didn't do it for any other reason,” he said. “He did it just because he cared. When you want to say why he’s a friend? Yeah. We were acquaintances before that. We've been friends ever since.”
“I hope that you will be as emotional about the children who are presently detained at Dilley and other camps … where they have been subjected to conditions that would outrage many,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told Mullin.
10:27 a.m. — Mullin grilled over plans for ICE detention warehouses
Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to spend nearly $40 billion on a plan to detain tens of thousands of immigrants in retrofitted warehouses across the country, expanding the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts into cities and towns that are increasingly urging officials to keep them out of their backyards.
New Hampshire officials successfully stopped the administration from constructing an ICE facility in Merrimack after the plans were exposed, and after Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan grilled ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons on whether he would similarly cancel a project in her state after Republican officials convinced Noem to stop them in their states.
On Wednesday, Hassan asked Mullin whether he can “make the case for these facilities” — and explain how they will negatively impact neighboring property taxes.
“Or if you can’t make the case, they shouldn’t be built,” she said.
Mullin said he would “obviously” work with state and local officials but declined to weigh in on the future of the warehouse model.
10:13 a.m. — Mullin ‘regrets’ calling Alex Pretti a ‘deranged individual’
Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, had previously grilled the chiefs of ICE and Customs and Border Protection over the labeling of Alex Pretti and Renee Good as “domestic terrorists” after they were fatally shot by immigration officers in Minnesota.
The directors of those agencies said that characterization — amplified by Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller and their allies — never came from them, or officers under their command, they testified.
In her congressional hearings, Noem refused to apologize for baselessly accusing them of committing acts of “domestic terrorism.”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin had previously called Pretti a “deranged individual.”
“Those words should have been retracted,” Mullin said Wednesday.
Asked by Peters whether Mullin will apologize to Pretti’s family, Mullin said “I just said I regret those statements.”
10:05 a.m. — Markwayne Mullin and Rand Paul face off over assault comments
Mullin has refused to apologize for his statements about Republican Sen. Rand Paul, saying in his opening statements to the Homeland Security committee that he understood why his neighbor attacked him. “I simply addressed I said I can understand because of the behavior you were having, I understand your neighbor did what he did,” Mullin said.
“We just don’t get along. However, sir, that doesn’t keep me at all from doing my job,” he added. “I can set it aside if you’re willing to set it aside. Let me earn my job. … I’m not perfect. I don’t claim to be perfect. I make mistakes like everyone else.”
Paul, in response, said Mullin has shown “a lack of contrition, no apology and no regrets.”
“You’re unrepentant,” said Paul, noting Mullin’s “machismo,” “anger,” and “low-impulse control.”
“You think that’s great and to be extolled?” he added. “I mean, the sheer lack of any kind of awareness that you’re going to be leading thousands of men and women who will be using use of force. Do you think justifying that kind of violence sets a good example for the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol?”
9:30 a.m. — Rand Paul rips into Mullin moments into hearing
Paul immediately launched into the hearing questioning whether Mullin is an appropriate pick to lead an agency flooded with complaints of violence and unconstitutional use of force.
Paul suffered several broken ribs when he was assaulted by a neighbor in 2017. Mullin allegedly called him a “freaking snake” in response.
“I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did. And I told him that to his face,” Mullin reportedly said.
“I was shocked,” Paul said Wednesday. “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 for the proper use of force.”
He said Mullin can “continue to lie” or use his testimony as a chance to “clear the record.”
“While you’re at it,” Paul said, Mullin can tell Americans why they “should trust a man with anger issues to run ICE and Border Patrol agents,” Paul added.
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