A look at Mullin's rise from MMA fighter to MAGA warrior and DHS nomination

Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullin will face his colleagues tomorrow for his

confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security. Mullin's

nomination comes after President Trump fired former DHS head Christy

Nome in the first cabinet shake-up of his second term. Lisa Desjardins takes a

look at how Senator Mullin went from an MMA fighter to a MAGA warrior and now

he might soon run DHS.

Please put your hands together for Senator Mark Wayne Mullin. He is unconventional.

A former MMA fighter, a businessman without a bachelor's degree, and he's

often unfiltered. For example, stumping for the Trump campaign in 2024 in

North Carolina. Man, I'd like to say I got a great connection in North Carolina.

I don't really. But he is Oklahoma through and through. Hi, I'm more going

to Mullin with Mullin. The owner of his family's plumbing business and a

cattle rancher, Mullin branded himself as a political outsider when he first ran

for Oklahoma's second congressional district in 2011. Like you, Mark Wayne

Mullin is at enough of Washington intruding in our lives. Mullin won becoming

the second Republican to represent the district in a century. He's from

still well Oklahoma, which is a very rural part of the state and also is one of

the poorest cities in all of the country.

Rescormon reports on Congress for notice and covered Mullin as an Oklahoma

reporter, including Mullin's pledge to serve no more than three house terms.

But when the time came, Mullin and his wife, Kristi, reconsidered, prayed and...

We looked at each other and we said, we're running again. And immediately we

understand that people are going to be upset and we get that. We understand it.

Oklahoma's were definitely upset about it, but it didn't cost him in the election.

Mullin won the race and more attention followed, including from President Donald

Trump. And President Trump was one of the first people to call me.

Mullin said on a podcast last year that Trump phoned him weekly after his son

suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2020. Later that year when Trump lost the

presidential election, Mullin echoed lies that the vote was stolen and said he

planned to contest the results. When there's as many questions still out there

or on the electoral votes in the votes that took place, we have to challenge it.

That's what Congress is supposed to do on January 6th. Instead, rioters stormed

the Capitol on January 6th. That day, Mullin helped Capitol police block the

doors to the house chamber. Hours later, he still voted to challenge the 2020

election results and continued to defend Trump. And soon, Trump backed Mullin in

his 2022 Senate run. Mullin won that too. And as a member of the Cherokee

Nation, he became the first Native American Senator since 2005. And when Trump

hit the campaign trail for the 2024 election, why is tribal land treated like

public land? Mullin especially reached out to tribal areas. Among Republicans,

he's known as a specialist in building relationships. Even though he's a

Senator, he's in these House GOP conference meetings every week. He sees himself

as a conduit between Senate leadership and House leadership and the White House.

That has included staunch work for Trump's immigration agenda, backing his

efforts to deport undocumented migrants and end birthright citizenship, as well as

defending federal officers after the killings of Alex Prety and Renee Good in Minnesota.

If you don't want to be in a horrors way, don't get in the way of police officers from doing

their job. At the same time, Mullin also is seen as potentially open to limited

immigration reform, with a legal status for some. I think there would be a

conversation that might have towards like DACA individuals that were brought

here under the age of 18 by their parents. Maybe if you want to talk to someone

that's been here in the country for 10 years or longer. Mullin's tenure in

Congress has not come without controversy. The House Ethics Committee ordered

Mullin to pay $40,000 back to his family business. After learning, he received

company money through an accounting error, violating ethics guidance. And in 2023,

he made headlines when he challenged the Teamsters Union president,

Sean O'Brien, to a fight during a Senate hearing.

You want to do it now? I'd love to do it right now.

We'll stain your butt up, then. You stand your butt up.

Hold it. Oh, stop it.

Say you should ever pull it. No, no, sit down. Sit down.

Okay. You know, you're a United States senator.

Sit down. Okay. Sit down, please.

But Mullin applied relationship skills. And O'Brien is now a supporter,

endorsing Mullin to be DHS secretary as someone willing to quote, stand his butt

up for the country. Speaking to his approach, Mullin praised his predecessor,

Kristi Nome, but told reporters earlier this month that he wants to improve the

agency. Is there always lessons you can be learned? You know, listen, my wife and I,

we have over the years, we have been fortunate to purchase companies and

rural companies. And every day, there's something you can be better. And so I

think there's, there's an opportunity to build off successes. And there's

also opportunities to build off things that maybe they can go quite as planned.

But there are questions about his experience. Mullin has worked with FEMA on

Oklahoma disasters. But he doesn't really have the immigration experience,

or just the experience that you usually would see in Canada,

the secretary's, Trump loves loyalty, loves people to not criticize him. And he's

found that in Mark Wayne Mullin. Mullin will face his fellow senators and the Senate

committee overseeing Homeland Security at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.

For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Lisa Desjardins. And you can live stream Senator Mark Wayne Mullin's

confirmation hearing tomorrow, beginning at 9.30 a.m. Eastern on our website and on our YouTube page.