Senator Markwayne Mullin, Donald Trump’s choice to replace Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, is facing his Senate colleagues during a confirmation hearing Wednesday.
Mullin, who is set to be the face of an agency behind the president’s anti-immigration agenda and efforts to deport tens of thousands of people from the country, enters the picture after Trump fired Noem days after she came under bipartisan fire in congressional hearings earlier this month.
Follow for live updates
10:57 a.m. — Mullin asked if he regrets saying ICE officer was ‘absolutely’ justified in killing Renee Good
After she was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, Trump administration officials accused Renee Good of committing an “act of domestic terrorism” by using her car to hit the officer, though video analysis appears to show she was swerving away from the scene.
Mullin at the time told CNN that the officer was “absolutely” justified.
“Do you regret that?” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked during Mullin’s confirmation hearing at the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.
Mullin said an “investigation is going on.”
“There is no investigation,” Blumenthal fired back. “The Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security has blocked state and local investigations into the killing of Renee Good. I hope that you would allow that to go forward.”
Mullin said he believes the FBI is “looking into” the case and said he would determine whether DHS is investigating, if confirmed to run the agency.
10:38 a.m. — Emotional Mullin tears up while speaking about son’s brain injury and Trump support
Mullin teared up while speaking about his son’s brain injury from a wrestling incident in 2020, recalling a moment when Trump spoke to his son.
“Do you know why I love your dad?” Trump told him, Mullin said.
“Because he loves you. Because of you,” he said, according to Mullin.
“Man, that’s… he didn’t do it for any other reason,” he said. “He did it just because he cared. When you want to say why he’s a friend? Yeah. We were acquaintances before that. We’ve been friends ever since.”
“I hope that you will be as emotional about the children who are presently detained at Dilley and other camps … where they have been subjected to conditions that would outrage many,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told Mullin.
10:27 a.m. — Mullin grilled over plans for ICE detention warehouses
ICE intends to spend nearly $40 billion on a plan to detain tens of thousands of immigrants in retrofitted warehouses across the country, expanding the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts into cities and towns that are increasingly urging officials to keep them out of their backyards.
New Hampshire officials successfully stopped the administration from constructing an ICE facility in Merrimack after the plans were exposed, and after Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan grilled ICE’s acting director Todd Lyons on whether he would similarly cancel a project in her state after Republican officials convinced Noem to stop them in their states.
On Wednesday, Hassan asked Mullin whether he can “make the case for these facilities” — and explain how they will negatively impact neighboring property taxes.
“Or if you can’t make the case, they shouldn’t be built,” she said.
Mullin said he would “obviously” work with state and local officials but declined to weigh in on the future of the warehouse model.
10:13 a.m. — Mullin ‘regrets’ calling Alex Pretti a ‘deranged individual’
Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, had previously grilled the chiefs of ICE and Customs and Border Protection over the labeling of Alex Pretti and Renee Good as “domestic terrorists” after they were fatally shot by immigration officers in Minnesota.
The directors of those agencies said that characterization — amplified by Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller and their allies — never came from them, or officers under their command, they testified.
In her congressional hearings, Noem refused to apologize for baselessly accusing them of committing acts of “domestic terrorism.”
Mullin had previously called Pretti a “deranged individual.”
“Those words should have been retracted,” Mullin said Wednesday.
Asked by Peters whether Mullin will apologize to Pretti’s family, Mullin said “I just said I regret those statements.”
10:05 a.m. — Markwayne Mullin and Rand Paul face off over assault comments
Mullin has refused to apologize for his statements about Republican Sen. Rand Paul, saying in his opening statements to the Homeland Security committee that he understood why his neighbor attacked him.
Paul suffered several broken ribs when he was assaulted by a neighbor in 2017. Mullin allegedly called him a “freaking snake” in response.
“We just don’t get along. However, sir, that doesn’t keep me at all from doing my job,” Mullin said Wednesday. “I can set it aside if you’re willing to set it aside. Let me earn my job. … I’m not perfect. I don’t claim to be perfect. I make mistakes like everyone else.”
Paul, in response, said Mullin has shown “a lack of contrition, no apology and no regrets.”
“You’re unrepentant,” said Paul, noting Mullin’s “machismo,” “anger,” and “low-impulse control.”
“You think that’s great and to be extolled?” he added. “I mean, the sheer lack of any kind of awareness that you’re going to be leading thousands of men and women who will be using use of force. Do you think justifying that kind of violence sets a good example for the men and women of ICE and Border Patrol?”
Paul, the chair of the committee, wants a vote on Mullin’s confirmation this week.
He can’t be confirmed without his vote.
9:30 a.m. — Rand Paul rips into Mullin moments into hearing
Paul immediately launched into the hearing questioning whether Mullin is an appropriate pick to lead an agency flooded with complaints of violence and unconstitutional use of force, after Mullin’s comments in the wake of Paul’s assault.
“I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did. And I told him that to his face,” Mullin reportedly said.
“I was shocked,” Paul said Wednesday. “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.”
He said Mullin can “continue to lie” or use his testimony as a chance to “clear the record.”
“Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it, and while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and Border Patrol agents,” Paul told Mullin.
“Explain to the American public how a man who has no regrets about brawling in a Senate committee can set a proper example for over 250,000 men and women who work at the Department of Homeland Security,” he added.
