Markwayne Mullin Is Hustling Backward

As northeast Oklahoma’s highest-ranking man in government, Markwayne Mullin has made a truly curious choice on his career path. Trading a Senate seat at 48 years old in a bright-red district for a hyper-scrutinized cabinet position with an unpopular president careening toward lame duck status sure seems like hustling backward. But Mullin doesn’t seem to mind doing so, because of how deep his dedication runs for President Donald Trump. 

Mullin touted his strong relationship with the president Wednesday during his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security, saying “I speak to the president from a friend level more than I do a policy level,” during questioning from Sen. Gary Peters, the Democrat from Michigan. The hearing featured a lot of grandstanding. Maybe the most came from Mullin’s own Republican colleague, committee chair Rand Paul, who went hard at Mullin from the jump, saying he has “anger issues,” and “low impulse control.” Mostly Paul seemed interested in embarrassing Mullin, and used the proceedings to relitigate their preexisting beef over Mullin’s comments to constituents that he "understands completely” why Paul’s neighbor assaulted him in 2017.

And while the other Republicans on the committee came to his aid, Paul and the Democratic senators hit Mullin in all the places you’d expect: his invitation to fight with Teamsters boss Sean O’Brien in the middle of a 2023 senate hearing, his trail of podcast appearances and Fox News hits where he crowed about the non-fight with O’Brien, the intimations that he’s been, essentially, a secret agent, carrying out classified duties in foreign countries while he was serving in the House. (Let’s keep an eye on that one.) Peters also pressed him on his big recent slip-up, when he called Alex Pretti “deranged” and a “domestic terrorist.” And while Mullin said he regretted doing that, he declined the opportunity to apologize to Pretti’s family. 

Mullin was combative throughout the hearing, choosing minor points to niggle over and insisting that, while he may not always say the right thing in the moment, he has the moral strength to apologize when he’s wrong. Paul didn’t stand for this, and the Democrats ignored it. Mostly the other Republicans vouched for his character along similar lines. Bernie Moreno from Ohio concluded his time by calling him “a good man” and “a great American person.” James Lankford presented the softer side of Mullin’s résumé, saying “He’s not afraid to talk about his faith in Jesus Christ.” 

But Mullin’s straight-talkin’, small-town senator kayfabe does have a problem, one that will probably follow him into his new gig at DHS. While he and his supporters all insist that his tendency to speak off the cuff is a redeeming quality,¹ he code-switches the moment somebody asks him about not letting ICE illegally break into people’s homes. Dick Blumenthal did just that, and Mullin quickly turned into an attorney for the defense, a look that doesn’t suit him. And considering that his predecessor in the DHS job just got canned because the agency was wilding out, I wonder how long he’ll last in the job with a stance that unpopular with the public. 

If Rand Paul really does hate Mullin as much as he demonstrated today, I suppose it would make more sense to push him out of the Senate by voting for his confirmation.  I wonder what Mullin would say behind closed doors about changing jobs like this. Does he really want to be closer to the president that badly? I guess when you throw your lot in with Donald Trump, what you want doesn’t really matter.