Democrats are on a mission to derail incoming Homeland Security Secretary Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) — by claiming he wanted to act more like Rambo than representative.
Mullin, 48, a former mixed martial arts fighter who fought three bouts in the Xtreme Fighting League, was regularly pushing to get his hands dirty in the field or to drop into dark corners of the globe instead of more mundane DC committee work, an inside source claimed.
“It was a huge problem. He spent all his time on the Intelligence Committee trying to fast-rope into Kabul,” a House Dem told The Post.
“Ambassadors were like: I can’t handle this guy, because he wanted to go and be tactical. . . . He was always going to foreign countries and trying to do operational things.
“And it made ambassadors and [CIA] station chiefs bananas. Because they had to be polite to the guy. . . . He was bothering some ambassador for a helicopter.”
Mullin took a 2021 trip to Afghanistan to try to help Americans stranded after the US troop withdrawal.
If Mullin rubbed some House members the wrong way, he had other problems in the Senate last week, where Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) eviscerated him for having “anger issues.”
Paul unloaded on Mullin during his confirmation hearing, referencing the time in 2017 when Mullin called him a “freaking snake” while discussing an incident where Paul’s neighbor assaulted him outside his Kentucky home.
Paul and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) also repeatedly demanded during the hearing that Mullin fill them in on “classified” travel he took to an unidentified country in 2016.
Mullin, who was elected to the House in 2012 and joined the Senate in 2023, disclosed that he undertook special “survival, evasion, resistance and escape” training with a “small contingency” in 2015 — but refused to reveal what it was for.
The nominee huddled with Peters inside a secure facility Wednesday to discuss the mysterious overseas trip. “Peters went into the meeting not knowing where Mullin went or what he did, and he left not knowing where he went or what he did,” according to a Peters aide.
Mullin is set to be considered by the full Senate next week, after squeaking out of committee 8-7 Thursday.
House members said they didn’t know about any sort of classified Mullin mission in 2016 as a civilian lawmaker.
“I don’t know about that one – and I was Gang of Eight at the time,” said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, referring to the top team that gets elite intel briefings.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania), who provided a crucial crossover vote for Mullin, disputed any anger issues and praised the Oklahoman’s “consistent kindness and professionalism.”
If confirmed, Mullin will replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who President Trump fired this month in his first cabinet shakeup.
