Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is taking a whole lot of heat for pressing Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) during his confirmation hearing to become the next Secretary of Homeland Security to reveal sensitive national security information in a public setting. Mullin and Paul have quite a lengthy history of not getting along with one another, so the spat was nothing new.
However, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) came to Mullin’s defense during the interaction, saying that Paul, who many conservatives consider to be a Republican In Name Only (RINO) due to his consistent opposition to President Donald Trump and certain aspects of his agenda, such as the war in Iran was making a big deal out of nothing. The back-and-forth started after questions about alleged “classified” trips came up during the hearing.
Mullin was pressed over comments he made in the past about “the smell of war,” after saying he had taken several classified trips in 2015 and 2016, which he then said he could not openly discuss with senators in a public setting. Lankford pointed out that the trips might not actually be classified. Democrats said that Mullin never fully explained what his comment meant.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) asked the Oklahoma senator, “Where did you smell war?” Mullin, who has no prior military service, did not disclose any travel abroad to the committee, saying his experience was “classified” and that he couldn’t provide the committee with specific details concerning the trips. And that’s what seemed to rub Paul the wrong way, leading him to say he was skeptical that Mullin was on “a super secret mission.”
During the hearing, Mullin asked Lankford if he would like to speak on the subject, to which the fellow Oklahoma Republican responded that he’d be glad to. Lankford started by saying that Paul and Peters were making a mountain out of a molehill. “This feels, as my mom used to say, like a mountain out of a molehill, where he is offered over and over and over again, to say, let’s get into a classified setting. I just left the worldwide threats hearing, where I had to run over to be able to run back there and meeting with all the folks there,” he said.
Lankford then pointed out that most of the people in the threats hearing understood that there are procedures, protocols, and other sensitive information that can’t be discussed publicly, but can be talked about in special closed-door meetings. “There were several questions that I asked there that they gave me a partial answer and said, I’ll give you the rest of this answer in a SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility). And everybody goes, Oh, okay, I get that, because there are some things that are sources, methods or actions that we were all keenly aware of on this. And I don’t know what else he could say at this point, other than, let’s get in the SCIF and let’s actually start with that initial meeting and see how that goes.”
The Oklahoma Republican then said, “That’s what we asked for. I said he couldn’t do that [meaning Mullin couldn’t give specific details] because he wasn’t authorized.” Mullin interjected, “No, I did say that. I said I can’t give you all the details to it, because that’s not for me to release it, but I can talk to you in general about it, but not in this setting.”
"*" indicates required fields
Paul was taken to task for his treatment of Mullin in the comment section of a video clip of the hearing, with one user saying, “Rand Paul looked a bit unsure of what he was doing….maybe because he didn’t.” Another slammed the Kentucky Republican replying, “Greasy burr headed sack of s**t from Kentucky needs to go! Along with his worthless a** congressman.”
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video