Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) walked into his homeland security confirmation hearing Wednesday, where old grudges from Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) were exposed.
Paul, chairing the Senate Homeland Security Committee, spent his opening remarks pressing Mullin to own up to years-old comments that Paul says amounted to cheering on the 2017 assault that left him in the hospital with six broken ribs and a punctured lung.
“You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me that the assault was justified,” Paul told Mullin Wednesday. “Tell it to my face if that’s what you believe. Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind.”
The bad blood goes back to an attack by Paul’s neighbor in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Mullin had said at the time he could understand why the neighbor acted, calling Paul a snake in the grass. Paul brought both lines into the hearing room.
Mullin didn’t back down. He cut off his own prepared remarks to fire back, calling out Paul for labeling him a liar and vowing he says whatever is on his mind directly and to someone’s face, not behind their back.
He acknowledged the old comments but framed them differently, telling the committee he made the remark because of Paul’s behavior at the time. Then he twisted the knife: “It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.”
A Republican Senate source unloaded on Paul afterward, telling Fox News: “Rand Paul has become completely blinded by his hatred of President Trump and petty personal squabbles. His actions today were those of a seething snake and a hopeless hypocrite. What kind of Republican would bar a fellow Republican senator from voicing their support of a colleague?”
Mullin is up for the secretary slot after Kristi Noem’s departure. His hearing is happening against the backdrop of a partial government shutdown, with DHS funding at the center. More than 40 House Republicans have come out in support of his nomination.
