The vote to move former Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) out of committee was 8-7. His nomination for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security should have been dead in the water with open GOP opposition. But it passed because of one Democrat.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) openly opposed the Mullin nomination, and since Dems were expected to vote along party lines, it looked like the nomination would die in committee.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), however, kept an “open mind,” offsetting the Paul “no” vote with a “yes” vote of his own.
In an earlier report today, we went into detail about the problems between Sens. Mullin and Paul.
This all goes back to comments made by Mullin about Paul blocking Republican legislation, or attempting to sabotage it, in Mullin’s opinion, as well as Mullin’s off-color comments about the 2017 physical attack against Paul.
They had a very heated exchange during the hearing, with Paul citing an exchange between Mullin and Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien, saying he was a definite “no” on the nomination.
He then added, “I think there are anger issues. I think there’s a lack of contrition, both about the violence that was perpetrated on me, really the violent episode he was involved in the Senate committee where he’s told the media, frankly, that he doesn’t regret it,” reported The Hill.
O’Brien did respond to the comments made by Paul, telling The Hill, "If anyone is willing to stand their butt up to protect America, it's Markwayne Mullin.” Keep in mind, these two men nearly came to blows during a committee hearing.
Sen. Fetterman also stepped up, giving a completely different impression of Mullin, saying all he ever received from Mullin was “kindness and professionalism,” citing that he was going to keep an open mind.
According to a New York Post report, Fetterman then added, “Even before you got the call for the big job, we were even discussing about getting together and having dinner as family. So, that’s an ongoing relationship, because that’s also part of the fact [that] here in this town, you gotta get along and find a way to work together, and now we have to come at it and just let things go in the past.”
When the votes were cast, it was 8-7, with the Fetterman vote offsetting Paul’s vote, so Mullin passed out of committee and will likely be on the floor for a vote next week.
Fetterman took one more parting shot at the Democrat Party, and it was aimed right at leadership, saying that “TDS” controls the party. As I am sure you know, TDS refers to Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Fetterman was asked who leads the party right now, and he responded, “We don’t have one,” according to a Fox News report regarding his appearance on the "All-In" podcast.
Fetterman also offered a rather astute observation, believing that he is "literally the only Democrat in America, uh, in Congress, that I've come across that's saying, I think it's a great thing to break and destroy the Iranian regime. I think it's appropriate to hold them accountable."
Fetterman will likely be primaried when he comes up for re-election in 2028. Surely, he knows this (a report surfaced about an actual plan to primary Fetterman in October 2025 on Fox Baltimore), but refuses to back down to the idiocy and extremism of his fellow Democrats today. This is great news for conservatives because, based on recent elections, if Democrats put a radical in his place, the GOP should have a very good chance of flipping that blue seat red.
