Getting confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary requires surviving your confirmation hearing first. For Markwayne Mullin, the biggest threat in the room was sitting on his own side of the aisle.
Rand Paul, the Republican chair of the Senate Homeland Security Committee and the one vote Mullin cannot afford to lose, opened proceedings by questioning whether the nominee has the temperament to run an agency already drowning in use-of-force complaints. Based on what followed, the answer did not reassure him.
The flashpoint was a comment Mullin made after Paul’s neighbor physically attacked him in 2017, breaking several ribs. Mullin’s response at the time was that he understood completely why it happened, and said so directly to Paul’s face.
On Wednesday, he still would not take it back.
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
“I simply addressed that I can understand, because of the behavior you were having, I understand your neighbor did what he did,” Mullin told the committee, then offered to set the tension aside and let his work speak for itself.
Paul was not interested.
“A lack of contrition, no apology and no regrets,” he said flatly. “You’re unrepentant.” Then came the question that cut to the heart of it. “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.”
That was a Republican asking another Republican that question. Out loud. On the record.
The hearing did not get easier from there. Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan pressed Mullin on the administration’s plan to spend nearly $40 billion converting warehouses into ICE detention facilities across the country, a plan communities are already pushing back against. New Hampshire blocked one in Merrimack. Hassan asked Mullin to make the case for why they should be built at all. He said he would work with local officials. He did not make the case.
Then came Alex Pretti, a U.S. citizen shot and killed by immigration officers in Minnesota. Noem had called him a domestic terrorist, a label that even ICE and CBP directors testified never came from their agencies. Mullin had called him a “deranged individual.”
On Wednesday, he said he regretted those words. When asked whether he would apologize to the family, his answer was: “I just said I regret those statements.”
Regret and apology are different things. The family noticed. So did the committee.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
