During his confirmation hearing, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told fellow senators he took a “confidential” trip to an undisclosed location while serving in Congress in 2016. It marks the first time Mullin has acknowledged his formal involvement in a covert foreign mission – possibly in a dangerous part of the world.
“It was a confidential official trip,” Mullin Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, answered the question fieryly during his confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Homeland Security. homeland security.
Mullin also left the door open to the possibility that he could go abroad to do “missionary work” before being elected to Congress. However, he did not provide further details.
Mullin often suggested to colleagues that he participated in security missions in conflict zones before joining Congress, Axios reported.
On Wednesday, he shed more light on unreported travel during his time as a lawmaker.
“I had to go through graded training. It was fun training and stuff,” he said, adding that it was “absolutely scary.”
“I never talked about the details specifically,” he added.
When Peters asked him, “So where do you smell war, sir?” he replied, “I just said it was classified – and the date and the place and the mission, I never talked about those details.”
Marin stressed that he did not need to disclose the specifics of the trip to the committee because it involved official business.
Peters said he would seek more information on his own. “That’s good,” Mullin replied.
Mullin, 48, has served in the Senate since 2023 after serving a decade in the House representing Oklahoma. He is a member of the Cherokee Nation, a business entrepreneur, and has a background as a collegiate wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter.
While in the Senate, Mullin served as the House’s unofficial mediator, often resolving conflicts between the two chambers. Additionally, he is a staunch supporter of the president and supports his agenda on Capitol Hill.
The effort to appoint a new Homeland Security secretary comes as the department has been shuttered for more than a month amid a congressional impasse over funding its immigration enforcement activities.
Meanwhile, agencies under the Department of Homeland Security, such as the Transportation Security Administration, are also experiencing the effects of the shutdown. The impasse has created considerable staffing challenges at the airport, with many TSA officials resigning and others calling in sick while going without pay during the shutdown.
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