He's unfit. That was the attack. It came from a Republican who has a personal history with the current DHS boss nominee, but it didn’t work.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) was truly in the hot seat during his confirmation hearing, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) unloading both barrels.
Paul was clearly against Mullin, portraying him as someone with anger issues and “unfit” for office, but Mullin still managed to clear the first hurdle.
At the heart of Paul’s resistance to Mullin were comments made about Paul being physically attacked by his neighbor in 2017.
During a McGrath Breakfast Group event in Tulsa, Mullin took a verbal jab at Paul. Yahoo! News reported that Mullin answered a question from a voter about giving illegals money.
After talking about a Paul amendment, he blasted Paul for not “ever” voting with Republicans when it comes to appropriation bills. He claimed Paul was trying to “kill” the bill with his amendment because he was “trying to legalize hemp for drinks in Kentucky because of tobacco industry shifts.”F
Then came the real bomb, adding, “I respect Bernie Sanders because he’s an open socialist, and you know that he’s a communist so you know what you’re getting. Rand Paul’s a freaking snake. And I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did. And I told him that to his face. It stirred people up like Cheryl (Mullin’s wife), who don’t know the backstory. And then that night Rand sends out a fundraising letter on it. It’s a gimmick.”
Paul took the opportunity during the confirmation hearing to call Mullin out, all but demanding an apology for the comments made by Mullin. That apology never came, which led to fiery exchanges between the two men. The Kentucky senator used his time to just obliterate Mullin as much as possible.
In part, he stated, “Instead of explaining your vote to continue these welfare programs for refugees, you decide to transfer the blame. You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted. I was shocked it would justify and celebrate this violent assault that caused me so much pain and my family so much pain.”
He then added, “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 to the proper use of force,” reported The Hill.
This continued on and on during Paul’s opening statement, as it was clear he wanted to try to derail this nomination in the eyes of anyone who was on the bubble.
By now, you have surely seen the videos blowing up all over the internet. After the hearing, however, Paul blasted Mullin, calling him “unfit” for the post. Fox News reported that Paul stated, "If I wished violence on his family, that wouldn't be acceptable.
"And if he says the violence that happened to me where I had six ribs broken, my lung damaged, part of my lung removed, two pneumonias — if he thinks that's justifiable… I think that makes him unacceptable and unfit to hold office.”
The committee's vote to bring Mullin's nomination to the floor, which was taken the day after the hearing, managed to succeed despite the opposition by Paul, passing 8-7, according to CBS News. Sen. John Fetterman's (D-PA) "yes" vote cancelled out Paul's "no" vote, sending Mullin through.
Now, Mullin will face the challenge of passing through the anti-Trumpers in the Senate, but with the support of Fetterman, it would appear that, at worst, Vice President JD Vance will be casting the tie-breaker to pass him through. This is not anywhere close to being automatic, but Mullin should make it through to be the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
