Before Wednesday’s hearing, Sen. Markwayne Mullin seemed to be on a glide path to confirmation as the next Secretary of Homeland Security. But after some curious claims about supposedly “classified” trips, Mullin’s nomination suddenly appears stuck in a holding pattern.
Pressed about past comments he made about “the smell of war,” the Oklahoma Republican claimed Wednesday that he had taken classified trips abroad in 2015 and 2016 — trips he couldn’t openly discuss with senators in an unclassified setting.
That presented two problems for the committee. For one, the trips may not have been classified, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., a key Mullin ally, later said. And for another, Mullin never fully explained what he meant, Democrats said.
“Where did you smell war?” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., asked at Wednesday’s hearing, referring to comments on Fox News in which Mullin described the way people “taste it and feel it in your nostrils and hear it,” saying it’s “something you never forget.”
Mullin, who has never served in the military and did not disclose any travel abroad to the committee, said his experience “was classified,” and that he couldn’t speak specifically about it.
That line of defense didn’t sit well with Peters or with Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Paul said he was skeptical Mullin was “on a super secret mission.” Peters, the top Democrat on the panel, also scoffed at the idea of a “top secret effort” by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which Mullin traveled with, rather than the Intelligence or Armed Services panels. Mullin complained that the pair was treating the issue “in a condescending way.”
Mullin then explained himself — at least in part — to committee members behind closed doors, in a special room where senators get classified briefings.
But Democrats leaving the classified meeting said they weren’t satisfied. And Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., Mullin’s top ally on the committee, told reporters the nominee may have simply signed a non-disclosure agreement.
“I would use more the term of ‘non-disclosure’ than ‘classified,’ but I get those are two different things on it. I think the terms are all being thrown around. I think even Markwayne wasn’t careful in trying to be able to articulate between the two,” Lankford said.
Lankford told reporters Mullin’s trip overseas pertained to a whistleblower, and that it was a much smaller issue than the committee fight indicated.
“This really feels like mountain-molehill stuff,” Lankford said. “When you hear the story, like, why is this a story?”
Still, the episode cast new uncertainty over a nomination that had seemed on track — even as Mullin appeared to sidestep another problem: his long-running feud with Paul.
Despite Paul’s misgivings and issues with Mullin, the Kentucky Republican said he would move forward with a committee vote on Thursday as long as the classified session with Mullin went smoothly.
“If that goes as planned and he’s forthcoming, I still plan on having the vote tomorrow,” Paul said Wednesday.
But shortly after members met in classified session, no one seemed to know if Paul still intended to hold a vote on Thursday.
Lankford, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., told reporters they don’t know if the vote would take place Thursday, though Lankford said if the committee couldn’t approve Mullin’s nomination, senators could seek to bring his nomination straight to the Senate floor.
While Paul said he would move forward with a vote — with the important caveat that Mullin be forthcoming behind closed doors — the Kentucky Republican doesn’t seem to be in any mood to help Mullin.
The personal animus between Paul and Mullin was an issue multiple times Wednesday.
During the hearing, Paul reminded Mullin that he once called him a “freaking snake” and claimed that Mullin said he “completely understood” why Paul had been assaulted by a neighbor. (In November 2017, Paul and his neighbor got in a physical altercation over a property line dispute. The assault resulted in Paul breaking six ribs and damaging a lung.)
On Wednesday, Paul demanded that Mullin “tell it to my face,” asking him to clarify whether he thinks his neighbor assaulting him was “justified.”
Mullin, for his part, didn’t exactly back down. He said everyone on the committee knows that, if he has something to say, “I’ll say it directly to your face.”
Mullin claimed he told Paul that, given some of his behavior, he could understand why his neighbor “did what he did.” “It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us,” Mullin said to Paul. “You’ve spent millions of dollars in my campaigns against me, because we just don’t get along,” Mullin added. “However, sir, that doesn’t keep me, at all, from doing my job.” When Paul gave Mullin another opportunity to apologize, the best Mullin could muster was an explanation — he didn’t say he “supported” his neighbor assaulting him. “I said I understood it,” Mullin said. The answers didn’t exactly win over Paul, who said he would be voting against Mullin’s nomination. But with Democratic Sen. John Fetterman vowing to support Mullin, the Oklahoma Republican has a bit of wiggle room on the committee vote. That is, if the committee brings his nomination to a vote. The personal spat between Paul and Mullin — combined with the mystery of Mullin’s secret international trip — may have buried some substantive concessions Mullin made during the hearing. He told senators he would direct ICE agents to rely on judicial warrants — rather than administrative approvals from the agency itself — to enter homes or businesses, except in limited instances when officers are pursuing someone who enters the building. Mullin also said he would end his predecessor’s policy of personally reviewing contracts over $100,000, which led to complaints from senators about delayed payments to their states. And he broadly said he aims to work with state and local law enforcement so that ICE would “become a transport” for people being deported, rather than acting as “the front line.” Still, the exchange on classified travel left some members with an odd impression. “I have no idea why Sen. Mullin is saying that it must be classified,” Blumenthal told MS NOW. “The whole situation is somewhat weird and bizarre.” Lankford, who introduced Mullin at the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing and downplayed the “molehill” of an issue afterward, offered a succinct rebuttal. “It’s not weird,” he said. Ali Vitali and Mychael Schnell contributed to this report.
Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from Arizona State University. Recommended
