Breaking: Republican Shreds Trump’s DHS Nominee as Hearing Devolves into Chaos

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We have some big news right now, Senator Mark Wayne-Mullen is being grilled by Republican

Rand Paul in a stunning display during the Senate hearing for the confirmation of Mark Wayne-Mullen

to be the next Department of Homeland Security Secretary to replace Christy Knote.

And well, a lot of senators are skeptical. They're skeptical of denomination,

they're skeptical of Mark Wayne-Mullen, especially given the fact that in the past,

Mark Wayne-Mullen has exhibited extremely aggressive tendencies as a senator.

And he's being grilled by Democrats and by Republicans. And the hearing, at least right now,

isn't going too well for him. I have the latest for you. I'm watching it so that you don't have

to make sure to like, comment, share, and subscribe. The more you like, the more people see.

Subscribe to my sub-stack, click the link below to support my work. At the end of this, I'll also

have an interview with Congressman Gabe Amo about this hearing, along with other things,

including TSA and more. So right now, Senator Rand Paul is ripping Mark Wayne-Mullen a new one.

And he began by going after Mark Wayne-Mullen personally, take a listen to this.

Jim's led to an infection in the space between my lung and chest wall. I spent a week in the hospital

having the infection in the village every six hours through a chest tube. Recently, Senator Mullen,

if you have time to listen, you were confronted by constituents that were angry because you voted

against my amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs. Instead of explaining your

vote to continue these welfare programs for refugees, you decided to transfer the blame.

You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that you completely understood why I had been

assaulted. I was shocked that it would justify and celebrate this violent assault. It caused me

so much pain in my family, so much pain. 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. Being confronted by your constituents.

Senator Mullen, your constituents are justifiably upset with you. By now, most of America knows that

the Somali welfare fraud in Minnesota stole over $9 billion. Instead of defending your vote,

you took to continue the vote to continue these refugee welfare programs. You chose to lash out at me.

You went on to brag that you had already told me to my face that you completely understood and

approved of the assault. Well, that's a lie. You got a chance today. You can either continue to lie

or you can correct the record. You have never had the courage to look me in the eye and tell me

that the assault was justified. So today, you'll have your chance. Today, I'll give you that chance

to clear the record. Tell it to my face. If that's what you believe, tell it to me today. Tell the

world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damage

lung. 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. 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. Pretty stunning from a Republican senator, but he didn't stop

there because if you recall, last year, Mark Wayne Mullen went after the teamsters president

went after him. I mean, it threatened to have a duel on the Senate floor. Take a listen to what

Rand Paul grilled Mark Wayne Mullen on today. In the days after the fight, you did many interviews

in which you justified the violence as historically justified by precedents, such as caning and

dueling. Is it today your opinion that the caning of Charles Sumner was not only justified but

argues still for resolving our political differences with violence? What I was simple to point

out is some of the rules that still apply to this body. For instance, dueling with two consenting

adults is still there. I was pointing out what is still legal for 170 years. There's no precedent

for legal dueling, even then they fled the country. Do you realize that the man that beat

Charles Sumner with a cane, he beat him till he was unconscious. You know why no senators intervened

because he's friend how to gun on the other senators and he kept beating him and beating him until

he crushed his skull. That's what you're insinuating is the precedent of the Senate and that's what

you live by. That is a very, very dangerous sentiment. Pretty stunning that Mark Wayne Mullen is

admitting that he that dueling to him is okay as long as there are two consenting adults and as

the Republican Senator Rand Paul notes that's been illegal. But there was another revealing moment

this morning that I want you to know about. It's when Senator Hassan asked Mark Wayne Mullen whether

or not he would reject an illegal order from the precedent take a listen.

Let's start with the question I have asked every one of the president's nominees.

If directed by the president to take an action that would break the law, would you follow the law

or follow the president's direction? Senator thank you for the questions and thank you for the

concerns. First of all I've enjoyed working with you on several different issues. We've had

very blunt conversations. To answer your question the president would never ask me to do that.

Well certainly every day Americans who have served on juries would disagree with you about that

and the example he has set calls into question that answer. He would have answered. So that's

the latest right now. I spoke with Congressman Gabe Almo about this, the long lines at TSA and

much more. So I want you to listen to that. Let me know what you think. Like, comment, share,

and subscribe. Here's my interview with the Congressman. Super excited today to be joining my

Congressman Gabe Almo from Rhode Island. Now Congressman I got to jump right in. A lot of folks are

concerned. TSA way times are sometimes in the hour is for them. They have to get to airports.

Early TSA agents are working unpaid right now. What is the status regarding the partial government

shutdown? How long will folks feel the pain of this shutdown? Look people are going to continue

to feel pain because Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are choosing to have this be the way

that we're traveling right now. They would much rather have ICE and CBP continued their terror

and the creation of fear in communities across America rather than compensate the hard working

public employees who are at TSA, the Coast Guard, and so many important functions like FEMA. We had

a major storm in Rhode Island. This should be the priority, but instead, Trump wants ICE to

reign and create terror in communities. So I've seen a proposal. I think most of us have seen

something released that says things like we will codify the non deportation of U.S. citizens.

That's insane. That's already not a thing that you're allowed to do. So until they end

the roaming patrols until they change policy, these some practices have better training.

Get rid of the damn masks. We cannot allow the status quo of ICE to persist.

And so the question for the administration is clear. Do you care about the hard working

public employees, the travelers moving about for work, spring breaks, all of the things that

are happening for Americans? Or do you care more about ICE? This is a choice. And I think they're

answering us, but you're seeing my colleagues and the House of Representatives, Republicans,

feel the heat. That's why they released their weak proposal, but we have to be

more vocal and more committed about the chaos that they're treating. So in fact, today,

House Democrats are launching a discharge petition to fund all of the parts of DHS except for

the CBP and ICE. So every Republican who cares, who's running their mouth, should sign this

discharge petition, get it to the floor and make sure that we pay these employees and we get

those critical functions of DHS that are causing to the support that they need.

Right now, Senator Mark Wayne-Mullen is having a hearing to possibly be confirmed as

Christie Nome's replacement at DHS. Do you support Senator Mullen to be the next secretary of DHS?

I don't see how he's any more qualified than the last unqualified person to do the job.

And it seems like he's going to be a puppet of Donald Trump. No fierce independence, no

management abilities that we've seen thus far. I think he's most widely known for trying to start

fights with union leaders and hearings. I don't think those are the skill sets that we need

for this job that is about keeping the homeland safe. DHS has been littered with unprofessional,

unqualified people, grifters like Corey Lewandowski, the teenager that they put in charge

of domestic violence extremism. We need serious people. This is a serious time, the cyber threats

that exist, the threats to the homeland. I do a lot of work around preventing issues at

houses of worship. I support and lead a letter on the non-profit security grant program. In fact,

I've requested a billion dollars for that program so that people at synagogues and mosques, churches

don't have the fear of your worshiping, of participating in the community activities like we saw

last weekend Michigan. So we need to have serious people doing serious work. I'm not sure he's a

serious person, but we'll see it. Well, you talk about threats to the homeland and I think that's

a big concern a lot of Americans have right now because you do have a department shutdown. You do

have less folks working at airports. You have a war overseas right now. What do you say to someone

who says, I don't want to fly. I don't want to get on the airport. I don't want to go to a house

of worship right now. I'm terrified. Yeah, well, we cannot ever let fear or terrorism win. And I know

that is sort of a phrase that has been bandied about, but part of what the destabilizing impact

of terrorism is meant to be is to put a chilling effect on all that we do in our lives. This is why

as public servants, we have to empower those who protect. And I would say to the average American

citizen, the average Rhode Islander, I would say, look, go about your life. And then I will say to

the people who work in my space, let's do our jobs, right? Too often in this Congress,

congressional Republicans have said, you know, we're going to let go and let Trump. That's unacceptable.

That's not the country and the system that we believe in. They elected us, our voters,

our constituents to do work. And so we have to do that where I say, I'm going to continue to

compel my Republican colleagues to step up to the plate and protect our constituents across this

country. Now, something your colleagues have said publicly is that Christy Nome is leaving the

Department of Homeland Security, but that doesn't mean accountability for Christy Nome is over.

Some folks have said suggests a criminal charges for perjury. Others have suggested impeachment

so that she can't hold office again, potentially running for Senate and South Dakota. Where are you

on that issue? Do you believe that Christy Nome should be held accountable more? And if so, what does

that look like? Look, there should be a day of reckoning for every Trump administration official

who carried out their functions for self enrichment and that created danger for the American people.

So what it looks like, I think we've got a lot of places in Congress to navigate that, you know,

we've got oversight committee, we've got the Homeland Security Committee, but we have to have

hearings and robust hearings. When we're in the majority, that's not just so that we can have

gavils so that we can use gavils to compel people to show up. And not just those at the top,

the folks that may not be in the headlines, you know, I bring up Cory Lewandowski because this

is a guy who was known to transact. If you wanted something done at DHS, they said call core,

give a contract to his company. So there should be no safe harbor for these Trump administration

officials. There are consequences. And I hope that those having their jobs now see that there are

consequences and see, well, I better be on my best behavior. I better actually do the work and

serve the American people because I will have to show up in Congress and we will have them in front

of us giving us answers, providing accountability. So I think that's the first step. But I also think

that we should certainly look at the whole ecosystem that is benefiting from the terrible actions

of these officials and, you know, remind folks that if you're an enabler, you're part of the

problem too. That's corporate America. That's, you know, that's folks beyond the greed and the

corruption has got to stop. Well, Congressman, before I let you go, I got to ask you two, those

watching a lot of them are saying, well, why am I going to give Democrats power right now?

Honestly, it doesn't seem like they're doing much. So if you get power tomorrow, let's say,

where you in November, January, whenever, what's the first thing that you plan on? Do whether it's

launching an investigation or pushing a piece of legislation, what's the objective? What are the

American people need to know? Look, the first thing that I want to work on is addressing issue number

one. And that's the cost of living that Americans are dealing with, right? Because the

distraction and the chaos and the confusion and all the challenges brought forth by the Trump

administration all takes these public officials off the ball of the real important things that the

American people want us to address. And so my first priority would be addressing the high cost

of health care. Health care in many ways for so many families for so many individuals is the

beginning, middle, and the end, right? Because if you aren't healthy, you can't go to work. You can't

take carrier kids. Your other expense is to sort of subsumed by this. So I want to work to help

people afford their health coverage. That's an issue number one. But then we have to look more broadly

because the profiteering that we see from the Trump administration across the board, refusing to

hold to account the major issues around the high costs of grocery, so around the high cost of

energy, right? The fossil fuel industry, the benefits greatly from Trump's in action. Remember,

when he ran, he said, your rich, I'm going to make you richer. We have to look at all of these

things that impact people's ability to afford their lives. Because at the end of the day, to your

question, if you're a voter and you're thinking about, oh, you're going to pick next November,

I hope the question revolves from who's going to make my life better?

And that's what we get ahead in this country is that you have a system where people work hard,

they play by the rules, and we help them get to better life in all measures of the way that we

evaluate that from your cost or your ability to have a roof over your head for your kids to have

opportunities for career or college. That's what people want. They don't want wars of choice,

and they don't want endless corruption and enrichment of the few. And so that's what I'm going to

focus on. Congressman, thank you for taking a few minutes. Hey folks, thanks so much for watching.

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