'Arrogant as hell': O’Reilly demands Trump dump Cabinet secretary

After the GOP’s hard midterm defeat, Bill O’Reilly had no patience for Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and called on President Donald Trump to put him out to pasture.

On his Monday No Spin News show, O’Reilly spoke about Trump’s 60 Minutes interview, which aired the night before. He gave interviewer Ross Douthat an “A” and said Trump had “admitted that ICE went too far on some occasions, which is true.” In O’Reilly’s estimation, that cost Republicans the Hispanic vote in the midterms, though “there was more to it than that.” Either way, Mullin has run his course.

“So while Tom Homan did his best and I respect him, this Markwayne Mullin guy couldn’t have been worse. He’s worse than [Kristi] Noem,” O’Reilly said. “Never explained, arrogant as hell. What are you doing? You know, when people are getting beat up in the streets by federal agents, you need to say why. Okay, that’s not hard.”

O’Reilly faulted Douthat for letting that point slide.

“Douthat didn’t get into that. I would have,” he said. “I mean, if [it] were me, Mullin would be in the Bahamas right now taking the sun.”

Mullin, a former Oklahoma senator, took over Homeland Security in March after Trump fired Noem. And Trump’s own words to Douthat were a bit softer than O’Reilly’s interpretation. Asked whether his deportation policy went too far, the president said it “might be too tough.”

The question of who in the Trump administration will be done in after last week’s drubbing has been much debated. Three senior DOJ officials have already submitted their resignations, including civil rights chief Harmeet Dhillon and the prosecutor leading the probe into Trump’s political foes. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has stepped aside, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller took over her post on Monday.

O’Reilly cast the swap as a matter of temperament. Wiles, he said, is “not a wartime consigliere,” while Miller “will go after the people that go after President Trump and he doesn’t hold back.” Where Wiles rarely showed up on camera, O’Reilly said viewers will “see a lot of Miller” answering the attacks headed for the White House. His guest, Just the News CEO John Solomon, agreed the administration now needs “a pugilist.”

But the promotion has put Miller under a microscope. He is widely seen as the architect of the same immigration crackdown Trump now concedes was too tough, and a former ICE official told NewsNation that Miller’s appointment “sends a pretty loud message” that enforcement won’t slow down.