DHS pick Mullin says he regrets calling Alex Pretti a ‘deranged individual’

The personal animosity between Sen. Rand Paul and DHS secretary nominee Sen. Markwayne Mullin was an ongoing theme throughout Wednesday’s confirmation hearing. And while Mullin, in his testimony, offered a fresh start, Paul didn’t seem ready to turn the page.

Paul, the head of the Senate’s homeland security committee, even tweeted against Mullin DURING the hearing he was in charge of.

“Senator Mullin tried to justify a violent attack on me. Now he wants to lead ICE and Border Patrol?” Paul posted to X while Mullin’s confirmation hearing was ongoing.

Mullin had previously said he understood the motivation of a neighbor who attacked Paul during a dispute, and early on in the hearing Paul sought an apology from Mullin — who was unwilling to give one.

In his post on X, Paul added: “You cannot restore law and order with someone who has an anger problem.”

The confirmation hearing for Sen. Markwayne Mullin as the next secretary of Homeland Security is over.

Senators peppered Mullin with questions about his views on immigration enforcement, how the federal government’s disaster response agency should be managed and a mysterious overseas trip he made while a member of the House.

Sen. Rand Paul set a classified briefing later Wednesday so members can question Mullin further about that trip before the expected vote on his confirmation Thursday.

Asked by Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford if he will be willing to make immigration data — including border encounters, migrant arrests — public, Mullin noted that it could take time.

“I’m going to stand up and make sure that we’re communicating and getting the information you need,” Mullin said. “It’s not going to be fixed overnight.”

The Trump administration has been publishing less reliable and less verified DHS data than its predecessors. Mullin acknowledged that as a congressman he is frustrated when he requests information and cannot see it.

“I’ll do everything that’s required of me by law, but the IG will be doing the investigation,” Mullin said, when Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked if he would make documents and personnel available for the various probes into the former secretary Kristi Noem’s time leading the agency.

Just ahead of Noem’s departure, Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari said DHS leadership had “systematically obstructed” the office’s work in 11 instances, including one criminal investigation with a “nexus” to the department.

Cuffari said that his department was not allowed to access databases or take other steps that were necessary for their investigations.

The Homeland Security committee’s leadership is asking Mullin to provide more information about what they described as his “super secret” mission to a foreign country.

“I didn’t say it was ‘super secret’,” Mullin retorted.

The nominee says the trip was official business and classified, but wouldn’t give any more details in the public setting.

In a testy exchange, the committee’s GOP chairman and ranking Democrat both pressed the nominee to explain the trip that he has described taking him to a warlike zone; Mullin refused. They said the FBI, which conducts background checks on executive nominees, said it has no record of his trip.

Ultimately, Mullin agreed to discuss the matter this afternoon in a private classified setting.

Paul, the chairman, noted this has been the panel’s quickest confirmation process ever. He said he is willing to cancel Thursday’s planned vote to advance the nominee to the full Senate without satisfactory answers.

It’s been a throughline of the hearing, as lawmakers use chunks of their time to point fingers over the shutdown that has created long lines at airports.

In a preamble, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst argued that the shutdown means “there is a greater possibility of Sept. 11 happening all over again” before being prompted to ask a question. Mullin added on, saying “I look at this as political theater,” before Democratic Sen. Gary Peters pushed back for several minutes of his own time.

“The political theater has been on the Republicans’ side,” he said, arguing that GOP lawmakers aren’t open to bills that would fund parts of the DHS, such as the TSA.

Saying he didn’t think DHS had a “real chain of command” during Noem’s tenure, Sen. Ruben Gallego pressed Mullin for assurances that he would, in fact, be the one in charge.

“I think Stephen Miller was the person who was actually calling the shots there, and you could see the results of what occurred,” the Arizona Democrat said.
Gallego noted that some ICE employees felt a sense of disorganization and cited a lack of operational orders or training.

Miller, the White House chief of staff for policy, has long been among the most vocal proponents of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

“I believe in empowering people to make decisions,” Mullin responded, adding that he would work directly with Trump and would “take full responsibility” to lead DHS.

“Who won the 2020 election?” asked Sen. Elissa Slotkin from the dais.

“We know that President Joe Biden was sworn into office,” said Mullin, sidestepping the question and Slotkin’s repeated ask.

Democrats have voiced disquiet with Trump’s push to nationalize U.S. elections, and Mullin has fielded questions about the notion of armed federal officers at polling places.

During an exchange Wednesday with Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Mullin said that his agents would “work with local law enforcement” in such situations if there were a “specific threat ... not for intimidation.”

Slotkin clapped back that, “if we ever get to the point where you are being asked to put armed ICE officers at polling locations, we have lost the plot as a country.”

The Trump administration said it has no plans to deploy immigration agents to polling locations, but a group of eight secretaries of state has been pressing Mullin for assurances along those lines.

Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, asked Mullin to talk about the congressional trip he led to Syria, a country she said had not hosted U.S. officials in 15 years, as a way to discuss how he would work with people who have opposing viewpoints.

Mullin paraphrased a conversation he had last year with President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who previously led Hayar Tahrir al-Sham, a militant group that was once affiliated with al-Qaida, although it later cut ties.

“He says, ‘I want a relationship with the United States, I want to have that relationship,’” Mullin said. “That’s somebody that says, yes, my past is my past, but I’m looking to the future. And I think we all have past, a past we can learn from.”

The California Republican has shown up to back Mullin during his Capitol Hill testimony. The two were congressional workout buddies when Mullin led classes in the House gym.

Mullin was also a champion of McCarthy during the infighting that led to his ouster as speaker in 2023.

Mullin says if he’s confirmed he would personally accompany New Jersey’s Sen. Andy Kim to look at a warehouse in New Jersey that is slated to be used as a facility to hold hundreds of people detained by immigration enforcement.

Some state and local officials are pushing back against the Trump administration’s attempts to house thousands of detained immigrants in jails, converted warehouses and privately run facilities in their communities.

Kim said ICE didn’t talk to local officials about the facility the agency bought in New Jersey that would house 1,500 detainees. Mullin said he didn’t know the particular circumstances of this case but recognized the toll that such a big facility could take on a town’s infrastructure and staffing.

“It’s important that we’re talking to the communities,” he told Kim. “If I’m confirmed, I’ll make a trip out there and see it for myself, because it’s a big concern of yours, and we want to address those concerns.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency should be “restructured” but not eliminated, Mullin told Sen. Andy Kim of New Jersey.

FEMA has been in upheaval since the start of Trump’s second term after the president repeatedly floated the idea of phasing out the agency and pushing more disaster responsibilities to states.

Kim pressed Mullin on specific FEMA policies, including whether the nominee would revoke former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s policy of requiring her personal approval on expenditures over $100,000, which critics said delayed crucial disaster payments to states.

Mullin said he would discontinue that policy, calling it “micromanaging.” He vowed to work with Senators on FEMA reforms, said the agency would be “adequately staffed” to respond to the nation’s disasters and that he was already looking at potential nominees for a permanent FEMA administrator.

“It’s got a great mission, and I think people at FEMA want to do their job,” he told Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford before Kim’s questioning, but said the agency needed reforms that would speed up payments and better serve rural communities.

Mullin declined to back away from the Trump administration’s efforts to detain some 3,000 immigrants a day, in pursuit of 1 million deportations this year.

Facing questions from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat from Connecticut, the nominee insisted that it’s the president who determines that level of policy for the department.

“No quota has been set,” Mullin said. “I’ll be working with the president.”

Blumenthal pressed Mullin about the department’s tactics — particularly having federal agents enter people’s home based on administrative warrants, rather the judicial warrants that require sign off by a judge. This remains a major point of contention the talks between the White House and congressional Democrats over Homeland Security funding.

Mullin had indicated privately he would be willing to require the judicial warrants, Blumenthal said.

During public questioning Mullin said agents would no longer enter a home or a place of business without a judicial warrant, “unless we’re pursuing the individual that runs into a place of business, or a resident or a house.”

Mullin was asked about some of his friendships that stretch across the aisle during his confirmation hearing.

Mullin pointed to his friendship with New Jersey Democrat Josh Gottheimer and said the two initially met during one of the workout sessions that Mullin led for members of Congress.

Mullin said Gottheimer initially mistook him for a Congressional staff member. The pair became friends and their daughters are currently writing a book together on bipartisanship, Mullin said.

Asked if he regretting saying “absolutely” on CNN as to whether the shooting of Renee Good by federal agents in Minneapolis had been justified, Mullin didn’t definitively answer yes or no.

“It’s very clear that an officer had to make a split decision in that case, as the car was running towards him and did strike him,” Mullin replied to Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.

When Blumenthal repeated his question on regrets, Mullin again didn’t answer. Blumenthal also asked if Mullin supported an investigation into the shooting.

“My understanding is that there is,” Mullin said. “I will find out once if I’m able to get confirmed.”

Asked by Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson to tell a story about why he’s close with Trump, Mullin described the 2020 brain injury suffered by his son, saying he would “try to get through without crying.”

Jim Mullin, once “a world-class athlete,” now suffered memory loss. Once Trump learned of the situation, Mullin said, the then-president — who was campaigning for a second term — called regularly to check on his son.

Visiting in person, Mullin said, Trump told his aides to wait so he could spend more time with him.

“For the next 15 minutes, he did nothing but love on my son,” Mullin said, tearing up as he described the interaction. “We were acquaintances before that. We’ve been friends ever since.”

Mullin says that he made a mistake in the way he referred to Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident killed by Border Patrol officers.

At the time Mullin described Pretti as a “deranged individual” who came to the protest seeking to cause maximum damage.

“I went out there too fast, I was responding immediately without the facts,” said Mullin. “That’s my fault. That won’t happen as Secretary.”

Mullin’s contrition will likely be contrasted with previous DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who called immediately labeled Pretti a “domestic terrorist.” Noem’s reaction damaged her reputation and help sour public perception of President Donald Trump’s mass deportation push.

The Homeland Security nominee was asked about his relationship with the president, and Mullin answered directly.

He referred to interactions between the president and his family going back years.

“A friend,” he said.

Under questioning from Sen. Gary Peters about previous statements suggesting he had been “involved in special security forces or combat operations overseas,” Mullin declined to give details about a trip he said was official travel during his time as a U.S. House member.

Peters, a Michigan Democrat, cited news interviews in which Mullin — who has not served in the U.S. military — said “war is ugly” and describes its smell as “something you will never forget.”

“It’s classified, sir,” Mullin replied when Peters asked follow-up questions for details. “The dates, location and mission, I’ve never spoken specifically details about.”

Mullin initially said “no” when asked if he had traveled abroad aside from vacations but later clarified and described the trip as “classified.”

The personal tension between Sen. Rand Paul and DHS secretary nominee Sen. Markwayne Mullin continues to bubble up. Mullin had in previous years called Paul a snake and said he understood the motivation of a neighbor that attacked Paul during a dispute.

“You offered no apology,” the chairman said.

Paul said Mullin has shown no contrition over his disparaging remarks, and relies on his “machismo” with no impulse control.

Mullin said, “I am not apologizing.”

“You’re going to have your opinion, I’m going to have mine,” Mullin said.

As part of his opening remarks, Mullin insisted that DHS must be funded, about a month into the standoff between Congress and the White House over routine money for the agency.

“We have to get DHS funded,” Mullin said Tuesday, going on to note that “sometimes it’s political theater, sometimes it’s true differences, but what we do know is that we’re playing with fire” by leaving the agency without a funding mechanism in place.

“We have 280,000 employees right now that are on day 30 without pay, and they’re still showing up every single day to do their job,” Mullin said. “That is a dedicated group of people, and we should all be proud of, and we should all be working together. We should all be trying to fund them.”

His fellow Oklahoma Republican senator, James Lankford, introduced Mullin, describing his background and an anecdote from the day they first met in 2013.

Lankford said he first met Mullin after a tornado ripped through a school in their home state, just weeks after Mullin was elected to the U.S. House. Unable for a moment to find Mullin, Lankford said the plumbing company owner was “digging through the debris field to find a way to be able to shut off the water that was shooting through the middle of that destroyed elementary school.”

“And I remember smiling, thinking, he’s the guy that doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty to actually go solve the problem where there’s a problem he can solve,” Lankford added.

Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, says the next secretary to head the Department of Homeland Security should be someone with a steady hand.

Peters noted all the areas where the department plays a role in keeping the U.S. safe including stopping cyberattacks and preparing for disasters.

“This is a role where temperament matters,” said Peters.

Peters also reemphasized the demands that Democrats have to restrain Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of any agreement to fund the department.

In his opening remarks Sen. Markwayne Mullin acknowledged a history of tension with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, the chairman of the committee considering his nomination for DHS secretary.

That includes previously saying he understood why Paul was violently attacked by own neighbor in a dispute.

“We just don’t get along. However sir, that doesn’t keep me from doing my job, he said. “I can set it aside if you’re willing to set it aside. Let me earn your respect.”

Rand Paul pointedly questioned whether Mullin — who has called him a “freaking snake” — is the “right person” to lead the agency.

“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 to the proper use of force?” Paul wondered. He accused Mullin of celebrating when Paul was injured in an assault during a dispute with a neighbor.

According to Oklahoma conservative talk show host David Arnett, who wrote about the remarks on his Substack, Mullin recently called Paul — who frequently defects from his own party on a number of matters — “a freaking snake. And I understand completely why his neighbor did what he did. And I told him that to his face.”

The hearing before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs is underway. The Capitol Hill hearing room is packed with journalists and other attendees.

Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who chairs the committee, has begun an opening statement in which he recounted his own experiences with violence, including the congressional baseball game shooting and the attack Paul endured over a dispute with a neighbor.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is in the middle of a tumultuous reform process after Trump said he wanted to overhaul it, if not eliminate it.

After two acting administrators left FEMA during Noem’s tenure, the agency is still without a permanent head.

The hearing comes as the president’s mass deportations agenda is at a crossroads, and Mullin will face pressure to reach the president’s lofty deportation goals when the public mood has soured over the aggressive way immigration enforcement operations have been carried out.

Under Noem, intense enforcement operations were launched in places including Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, where immigrants were rounded up in arrest sweeps and protesters clashed with federal officers.

The shooting deaths of two protesters — Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis — have further swelled criticism of Trump’s immigration agenda.

In short, Mullin has a long to-do list awaiting him, if he’s confirmed to take over from embattled outgoing secretary Kristi Noem.

He’d be heading to a Department of Homeland Security — and the constellation of agencies under its umbrella — in flux.

But first up is likely the monthlong funding lapse for DHS, which grew from congressional Democrats’ demands for reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mullin is also walking into a battle with congressional Democrats demanding reforms at ICE — like a ban on masks worn by deportation officers, and an end to roving patrols — which has led to a monthlong lapse in funding for DHS.

In his new role, Mullin is expected to improve relationships with Congress, where Republicans treated Noem with skepticism. Republicans are hopeful that switching out Noem for Mullin will serve as enough of a change to appease Democratic demands to fund the department.

Mullin initially vowed to only serve three terms in Congress. He later broke that promise when he announced plans to run again. saying then that he “didn’t understand politics” when he originally made the initial pledge.

Mullin also has faced criticism for receiving at least $1.8 million from a federal rescue program designed to keep small businesses afloat during the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. Treasury Department data showed four separate businesses owned by Mullin received a total of between $800,000 and $1.9 million from the Paycheck Protection Program.

A Mullin spokeswoman said at the time the congressman was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the companies and referred questions to the companies’ chief financial officer.

During the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Mullin made headlines when he attempted to enter the country from multiple locations and was denied. Mullin said he was trying to help an American family flee Afghanistan.

He’s been a Republican senator representing Oklahoma since 2023 and was in the U.S. House for a decade before that. The plumbing company owner portrayed himself as a political outsider fed up with government regulations strangling businesses like his.

But Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, is also a former mixed martial arts fighter who has earned a reputation as a combative presence in the Senate and a top Trump defender.

His fiery Senate exchanges included a 2023 hearing with the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, when Mullin told Sean O’Brien to “stand your butt up,” before standing from his seat and appearing to take his ring off.

Months after his confrontation with O’Brien, the two reconciled. Mullin called the union leader a “new friend.”

Despite his jabs at detractors, Mullin is often an affable presence on Capitol Hill, known to walk the halls in a cowboy hat and boots, sometimes bouncing a rubber ball as he chats with reporters. He’s also led workout sessions sometimes in the House gym.