After an intense hearing, a Senate Democrat provided a decisive vote to move Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to the next stage of his confirmation process. This is due to the fact that Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, promised not to back Mullin because he believed he was “unfit” for the position.
Mullin retorted that he would confront someone directly if he had a problem with them. More importantly, he wanted to show Paul and the Senate Democrats on the panel that he was the best candidate.
“I’m going to earn the job, I won’t fail you,” Mullin said. “I won’t back down from a challenge. And I’ll also admit when I’m wrong. I’m not perfect. I don’t claim to be perfect. I make mistakes just like anybody else. But mistakes, if you own them, you can learn from them, and you can move ahead. And I’ll make that commitment to you.”
Additionally, Paul and Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., switched votes on multiple occasions on the Senate floor. Republicans’ plans to move quickly through the confirmation process would have been severely damaged without Fetterman’s vote, as he was the only Democrat on the panel to support Mullin.
After the hearing, Fetterman admitted that he could make a difference.
“I came here and committed to come here with an open mind, and I’m going to continue to do that,” Fetterman said. “It’s not going to be about gotcha moments for me. My experience with you has been consistent and professional.”
In the upcoming days, Mullin’s confirmation as the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security will go to the Senate floor, where he will need only a simple majority vote to be approved.
However, given the ongoing dispute over the DHS shutdown, a number of Senate Democrats might not back him. Throughout the shutdown dispute, Democrats have called for strict changes to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“I will not be supporting Sen. Mullin’s nomination should it come before the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “The problems at DHS, especially at ICE and CBP, run far deeper than just who is in charge.”
Still, Mullin survived a sometimes jovial, sometimes grueling back-and-forth during the hearing. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., believed that once out of committee, Mullin would have broad support across the Senate.
“Obviously, [Wednesday’s] hearing sounds like it got a little spicy at times,” Thune said. “But at the end of the day, it comes back to the job, and it comes back to the right person for the job. And I think that Markwayne is the right person.”
Paul and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel, almost didn’t vote on Thursday because they disagreed about a trip the lawmaker took years ago.
The two wanted to meet and hear about the trip, which Mullin said happened while he was still in the House but couldn’t be talked about in public. In the end, Paul didn’t even show up to the secret meeting.
A representative for Paul told Fox News Digital that the senator already knew how he was going to vote but wanted to hold the secret meeting to “make sure everyone else got the information they needed.”
And even though Paul and Mullin hated each other personally, it wasn’t enough to ruin his chances of becoming the next DHS chief.
Paul said he would not support Mullin ahead of the confirmation vote, in part because he wouldn’t apologize for saying that the assault on Paul by a neighbor in 2017 was “justified.” He argued that Mullin’s inability to apologize, along with his previous outburst during a hearing with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, showed he lacked the mindset needed to lead DHS.
“We’re in the midst, I think, of a crisis where there needs to be more direction from the top,” Paul said. “And a guy who brawls, a guy who can’t even say he’s sorry about wishing violence on me and really applauding the attack that happened on me — can’t come to say that. I don’t know how he could, from my point of view, be a leader of ICE or Border Patrol.”