Far-right GOP senator celebrates duels and canings after threatening Teamsters president with violence

15 November 2023

When far-right Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) and Teamsters President Sean O'Brien almost came to blows during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on Tuesday, November 14, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) intervened.

In a June 21 post on X, formerly Twitter, O'Brien had described Mullin as a "clown and fraud" who needed to "quit the tough guy act." And Mullin, during the hearing, angrily told the Teamster president, "You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here…. Well, stand your butt up then."

Sanders, frustrated, told Mullin, "You're a United States senator. Sit down."

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That same day, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) had an altercation with Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tennessee) — one of the Republicans who voted to oust him as speaker. Burchett said that McCarthy elbowed him when they passed by one another.

Mullin's critics were quick to lambast him for threatening O'Brien with violence during the HELP hearing. But Mullin wasn't the least bit apologetic when he later appeared on Fox Business' "The Bottom Line." Instead, he doubled down on his violent rhetoric and fondly remembered violence that occurred among U.S. politicians during the 19th Century.

Mullin told Fox Business, "You can't continue to do this stuff. Too many times, people get real tough on a keyboard because of social media. But when they get called on it, they actually may learn lessons. So, maybe (O'Brien) learned a lesson…. (He) won't run his mouth to me again."

The pro-Trump senator went on to say, "This isn't anything new," claiming that President Andrew Jackson "challenged nine people to a duel when he was president, and he also knocked one guy out at a White House dinner."

Mullin told Fox Business, "There have been canings before in the Senate too…. Maybe we should bring some of that back and, you know, keep people from thinking they are so tough."

The Daily Beast's William Vaillancourt, reporting on Mullin's endorsement of canings, noted, "The most infamous one was in 1856,, when pro-slavery Rep. Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat abolitionist Rep. Charles Sumner, who was seriously injured and did not return to the Senate full-time until three years later."

Read the Daily Beast's full report at this link (subscription required).

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