Rand Paul demands apology from Mullin over comments on assault
Republican Sen. Rand Paul demanded an apology from the nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, at his confirmation hearing over comments Mullin made regarding an assault Paul suffered back in 2017.
Sen. Rand Paul said that he will not vote to confirm Sen. Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security, after Mullin refused to apologize during his confirmation hearing for saying he “understood” why Paul’s neighbor violently attacked him in 2017.
Paul, the panel’s chairman, accused Mullin of having “anger issues,” and said that his comments about violence set a bad example for a department whose reputation has been marred by accusations of excessive use of force, pointing to ICE.
“I think there are anger issues. I think there’s a lack of contrition, both about the violence that was perpetrated on me, really the violent episode involved in the Senate committee where he’s told the media frankly that he doesn’t regret it,” said Paul, referring to Mullin’s apparent willingness to physically fight a witness during a 2023 hearing.
“The fact that he can’t bring himself to say that, you know, really, we shouldn’t settle political questions with violence, I think that would be a terrible example for ICE and for our border patrol agents,” added Paul. “We’re in the midst, I think, of a crisis where there needs to be more direction from the top, and a guy who brawls, a guy who can’t even say he’s sorry about, you know, wishing violence on me and really applauding the attack that happened on me, can’t come to say that? I don’t know how he could, from my point of view, be a leader of ICE or border patrol.”
Paul added that he believed asking Mullin to apologize for his comments should have been an easy question, recounting how the 2017 attack affected him. “I still remember lying in bed not being able to get up, having to have a rope tied to my bed to try to pull myself up. I had three ribs that were completely snapped in half. So, the ribs rubbed on each other for three months. My lung was damaged such that they had to remove a part of it. I coughed up blood for a year. So no, I don’t think highly of people who think that that’s okay. And really, this is sort of a lowball question.”
Near the end of the hearing, Paul had threatened to cancel the committee’s vote on Mullin’s nomination, scheduled for Thursday, if Mullin did not meet with the top committee members in a classified setting to explain what Mullin has called a “misunderstanding” about allegations of stolen valor. Pressed on this, Paul said they could go ahead with tomorrow’s vote if Mullin is “forthcoming.”
“We have an agreement now to go over to a classified hearing and hear about his classified mission that, you know, hasn’t been fully detailed to anyone. If that goes as planned and is forthcoming, I still plan on having a vote tomorrow.”