Sen. Markwayne Mullin praised his friendship with a union boss he once threatened to fight during a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday for Lori Chavez-DeRemer, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Labor Department, and said if the two of them were a couple, he’d “be the man in the relationship.”
“You know, the last time Sean and I was in this room together, obviously, we had our differences,” Mullin said on Wednesday, looking over to Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who was sitting in the audience.
“Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here,” the Oklahoma Republican had said to O’Brien in November 2023 during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing where the Teamsters chief was testifying.
“Ok, that’s fine. Perfect,” O’Brien had replied in that hearing.
“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked.
“I’d love to do it right now,” O’Brien shot back.
“Well, stand your butt up, then,” Mullin demanded.
“You stand your butt up, big guy,” O’Brien retorted, prompting Mullin to antagonistically rise from his seat on the panel, causing O’Brien to also stand up, sending the hearing room into chaos.
“Sit down! You know, you’re a United States senator!” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the chair of the committee at the time, yelled at Mullin.
“And if Sean and I can move and come together on this, then that, if nothing else, should set some type of example,” Mullin said at Wednesday's hearing, noting how far the two have come since that moment. “Even though I do joke with my new friend that if we were in a relationship, I’d be the man in the relationship. He adamantly denies that.”
“That’s awfully strange,” O’Brien said from the crowd.
