00:00Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen began the arduous confirmation process to become the next
00:04Homeland Security Secretary yesterday. And to say it got heated doesn't quite cover it.
00:09It was a scene. Mullen, a former MMA fighter turned lawmaker, is known for being direct and
00:15sometimes pretty confrontational during Senate hearings when he's the one asking the questions.
00:19He's also known to have beef with Senator Rand Paul, who happens to be the chair of the Homeland
00:24Security Committee and therefore is in charge of his confirmation process. Now, the bad blood
00:29stems from a 2017 incident when Senator Paul was attacked by a disgruntled constituent,
00:34landing him in the hospital with six broken ribs. When asked about that incident earlier this year,
00:39Senator Mullen said he understood why the attacker did what he did. Here's some of the interaction,
00:46let's call it with Paul, that went down during the hearing.
00:50Haven't heard the word apologize. Haven't heard the word regret. Haven't heard I misspoke and it
00:55was heated and I made a mistake. Haven't heard any of those words.
00:58Sir, actually it wasn't heated and I'm not apologizing for pointing out your character.
01:03Good, good. So you're jolly well fine and you want the American public and the people up here to vote
01:08that may or may not vote for you to know that you supported the felonious violent attack on me from
01:14behind. I did not say I supported it. I said I understood it. I think it's safe to say those
01:19two
01:19aren't going to become besties. The Post's D.C. Bureau Chief Josh Christensen has all the details
01:23on the rest of the hearing. But in his opening statement, Mullen pushed back and said that he
01:28had in fact reached out to speak with Paul privately after offending him with the comment
01:33that he did not in fact support violence against one's political opponents. And yet he was not
01:38apologizing for any of his statements in the past that had attacked Rand Paul's character.
01:44He said simply that he does not get along with the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security
01:48Committee, which is currently vetting Mullen and may vote as soon as Thursday to advance
01:54his confirmation to the Senate floor. But he said that that disagreement over political
01:59issues doesn't keep him from doing his job. And he has differences with people on both sides
02:04of the aisle, despite having strong relationships with Democrats and Republicans. I'll be protecting
02:11everybody, he said, if he is succeeding Noam as head of that department, including Kentucky,
02:17as much as my own backyard in Oklahoma. Mullen, however, will face an uphill battle toward
02:25confirmation. The committee itself is split with eight Republicans and seven Democrats. And Paul
02:31has already come out as a firm no against Mullen's confirmation, meaning that at least one Democrat
02:36will likely have to vote in favor of Mullen to advance him to the Senate floor, where he then can
02:41be
02:41confirmed by a simple majority vote as soon as that's called up. There are some precedents in the
02:47past for committee level confirmation votes that advance nominees to be bypassed through some
02:54procedural measures, though it's unlikely that this will happen. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman has
03:00already expressed in the hearing that he had a, quote, open mind about Paul's nomination. And Paul
03:05himself in an interview with Fox News later Wednesday afternoon said it's likely that Mullen will retain
03:11enough Democratic support to get him to a final Senate vote.
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