Markwayne Mullin confirmed to lead a DHS in turmoil

By Morgan Rimmer, Alison Main, CNN

(CNN) — Markwayne Mullin will serve as Donald Trump’s next Department of Homeland Security secretary, elevating the US senator to helm the agency at the center of the president’s controversial immigration enforcement effort and an ongoing shutdown.

The Senate confirmed the nomination on Monday night, less than three weeks after Trump tapped Mullin to take over from embattled Secretary Kristi Noem.

Mullin is set to take over a department in turmoil. Its funding lapsed on February 14, and while lawmakers and the administration have engaged in negotiations in an effort to end the shutdown, a deal has not yet been reached. Democrats have demanded changes to immigration enforcement procedures and tactics following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minnesota.

The final confirmation vote was 54 to 45, with GOP Sen. Rand Paul voting “no” and Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Martin Heinrich voting “yes.”

Ahead of his confirmation, Mullin made the case to his Senate colleagues that he will be a different kind of leader at DHS than Noem, and faced questions over his temperament and allegations of stolen valor.

Paul, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, has sharply criticized Mullin’s temperament and accused him of “anger issues.” During his confirmation hearing, Paul pointed to Mullin’s public comments that Paul is a “snake” and that he “understood” why Paul’s neighbor attacked him in 2017 to highlight his concerns, as well as a 2023 Senate hearing where Mullin appeared ready to physically fight a witness.

Fetterman and Heinrich, on the other hand, both pointed to their friendships with Mullin in explaining their support for him. After voting to advance Mullin’s nomination on Sunday, Heinrich insisted in a statement that they could have a “constructive” relationship, and argued that Mullin wouldn’t be pushed around by other White House officials.

Heinrich, who served with Mullin in the House, said he’s “seen first-hand that Markwayne is not someone who can simply be bullied into changing his views.”

Throughout his tenure in the Senate, Mullin has been a key figure working to bridge gaps between the House and Senate Republican Conferences due to his strong relationships in both chambers. During his confirmation hearing, he told senators that he would be accessible to them, noting he wouldn’t change his cellphone number, and would keep in mind the frustration that members of Congress feel when the administration is not as responsive as they would prefer.

He’s a close ally of Trump as well, often appearing on conservative media platforms to tout the president’s message. Mullin has described the president as a “friend,” a relationship that was solidified after Trump reached out to Mullin consistently while the Oklahoma Republican’s teenage son was suffering a severe brain injury.

During his confirmation hearing, Mullin also faced allegations of stolen valor, which he chalked up to a “misunderstanding,” about comments he has made about having smelled war before. He said he was asked to train with a “very small contingency and go to a certain area” around 2016, when he was a member of the House of Representatives.

As part of that trip, he said he participated in Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape training, which he simultaneously described as “kind of fun” and “absolutely awful,” though he added that some of the details were classified. Mullin later met with several senators on the panel in a classified setting so that he could offer more clarity, though some were still unsure of what to make of Mullin’s comments when they left.

Noem was ousted from the top job at DHS earlier this month after tensions mounted between the former South Dakota governor and GOP lawmakers over her handling of the fallout from the fatal shootings of Pretti and Good in Minnesota and the perception that she has used the post to boost her own public image.

Mullin testified before his Senate colleagues that he will be a different kind of leader than Noem has been for the department, beyond his accessibility to Congress. He noted that he is “not perfect” and will “own” his mistakes, adding, “my goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day.”

During his confirmation hearing, he also apologized for calling Pretti a “deranged individual” in the immediate aftermath of the shooting.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” he acknowledged.

“The investigation is ongoing, and there is, like I said, there’s sometimes going to make mistake and I own it,” he told the panel. “That one, I went out there too fast. I was responding immediately without the facts. That’s my fault.”

Mullin has long been a staunch supporter of Trump’s immigration crackdown. But during his confirmation hearing, he also said that there should be some changes as to how ICE is deployed around the country, telling senators, “I would love to see ICE become more a transport than on the front line,” and pledged to require ICE officers to obtain judicial warrants before entering private property, with limited exceptions.

Democrats have demanded that the use of judicial warrants, rather than the less-restrictive administrative warrants ICE has been using, be codified in legislation amid negotiations over funding DHS.

The White House said on Monday ahead of the Senate vote that it was waiting until Mullin was confirmed to lead DHS to continue negotiating with Democrats over the shutdown.

“It seemed appropriate to wait until after his confirmation to allow him to be a full participant in ongoing conversations,” a White House official told CNN.

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