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WASHINGTON (CN) — The Senate homeland security committee on Thursday morning narrowly voted to advance Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin to a final confirmation vote as he seeks to replace the ousted Kristi Noem as secretary of the Homeland Security Department.
Mullin, who President Donald Trump tapped for the role earlier this month, cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee with the help of one Democrat — Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman — and without the support of the panel’s Republican chairman, with whom he had a deeply personal conflict.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who at Mullin’s nomination hearing Wednesday excoriated the Oklahoma lawmaker for positive comments about the chairman’s 2017 assault, did not speak as the panel met Thursday morning. But Michigan Senator Gary Peters, the committee’s top Democrat, said Mullin had failed to be “forthright and transparent.”
“Senator Mullin also showed that he doesn’t have the experience or the temperament to lead this critical department,” said Peters, who added that he was “troubled” by what he said was the senator’s willingness to condone physical violence.
Mullin on Wednesday refused to apologize to Paul for saying he “understood” why the Kentucky Republican’s neighbor attacked him outside his home in 2017, an assault which left the lawmaker with lung injuries and lifelong symptoms. The Oklahoma senator instead told Paul he wanted to “set it aside” and earn his colleagues’ support to lead DHS.
Paul was furious. “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 on the proper use of force,” he said.
The homeland security committee chairman was the lone Republican vote against the DHS nominee Thursday.
Mullin, meanwhile, also faced scrutiny for a near-physical altercation he had with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien during a Senate hearing in 2023. The lawmaker stood up during questioning and threatened to fight O’Brien, an incident that required Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to intervene and sparked a congressional ethics investigation.
Reading from an ethics committee letter to Mullin, Peters said the nominee “declined to uphold the Senate standard relative to your actions and advocated physical violence as a means to resolve political disagreement.”
“There will be no shortage of political disagreements facing the next DHS secretary,” the Michigan senator said. “The department, and the American people, will deserve a leader who is steady and proven under pressure, not just someone better than the very low bar set by his predecessor.”
The homeland security panel voted 8-7 to advance Mullin’s nomination. Fetterman, who expressed interest in backing the senator on Wednesday, ensured Mullin was able to clear the committee.
The Oklahoma senator now faces a confirmation vote before the full Senate, which has yet to be scheduled.
During his nomination hearing Wednesday, Mullin appeared to express some willingness to shift the Homeland Security Department’s strategy and messaging on some key issues. “My goal for six months from now is that we’re not the lead story every day,” he told lawmakers.
Among other things, the DHS nominee seemed open to walking back the agency’s policy on warrantless searches. The agency for nearly a year has allowed federal immigration agents to forcibly enter certain homes without a signed judicial search warrant, relying instead on administrative warrants provided by agency staff. Noem defended that practice as recently as this month.
Mullin also expressed regret for framing U.S. citizens shot and killed by federal agents in Minneapolis as “domestic terrorists,” though he stopped short of criticizing the Trump administration for using such language. During a March 3 Senate hearing, Noem refused to recant her own statements about the slain Americans.
But the Oklahoma senator also appeared to vex fellow lawmakers as they questioned him about past allusions to military service or government security work; there’s no record of Mullin having served in the armed forces.
The nominee told members of the committee he’d been involved in a “classified” official trip during his time as a House lawmaker in 2016. He refused to publicly disclose details of the excursion or who classified it, though he mentioned it required him to undergo military survival training.
Mullin on Wednesday afternoon met with senators for a classified briefing to discuss the trip, but the situation appeared even more opaque for some lawmakers as they left the meeting. Oklahoma Senator James Lankford, the only Republican who attended, told reporters he would characterize the clandestine nature of Mullin’s trip as under “non-disclosure” rather than as classified.
If confirmed, Mullin will replace the outgoing Noem, whose last day is March 31. Trump fired her earlier this month, though the president has said she will transition to a new role elsewhere in the administration.
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