Q&A: Mullin defends Hegseth against Senate attacks, calls out 'hypocrisy'

Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) has been an outspoken supporter of Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary, amidst the backlash Hegseth has received over allegations of past excessive drinking and sexual misconduct.

The nominee faced intense scrutiny during a recent Armed Services Committee hearing, where his character and qualifications were questioned by Democratic senators.

Mullin, a member of the committee, went viral for calling out what he saw as hypocrisy in the way some senators handled the proceedings. He sat down for an interview with News On 6 to explain his views on the hearing and Hegseth’s qualifications.

Q: Tell me about this hearing. You had kind of something that went viral just talking about how there's a lot of hypocrisy with some of the senators. So tell me what that was about, and kind of your thinking behind it.

Markwayne Mullin: Well, the whole substance about confirming a secretary that's going to be over either an agency or the department is, you know, are they capable of doing a job? And it should be substance based on that. What the Democrats were doing yesterday is they were constantly attacking his past and his and they were setting themselves up as this moral high ground. And I'm not saying I'm a more moral or better than anybody else. I'm probably the worst here, but the idea that they were attacking him based on that was frustrating me, and then the fact that his wife was sitting right behind him, having to receive the oncoming fire that her husband is receiving? I know if that was my wife sitting there, she'd want somebody to defend me. So rather than going down the line of questions that I had, I switched and just wanted to call out the hypocrisy of them, because we don't call our own colleagues that. They were saying that he's unqualified because of his past. What does that mean? Every senator that's went through the same thing is unqualified to do, because we should hold ourselves to just as high a standard if not higher standard of others as well. So you can't have it just one way and it doesn't affect you. So what I've told people all the time, I'll never ask any employee of mine to do anything I'm not willing to do. So if we're going to set the standard, then we need to set that standard.

Q: Do you think that it's kind of getting away from, you know, getting to the root of making sure that Hegseth is the right nominee for this?

Markwayne Mullin: I think yesterday, what the Democrats were doing was all about sound bites. It had nothing to do with substance. It was all about attacking him, attacking him, and breaking down and build and trying to bury him all together. I thought the way that Pete handled it showed his ability to lead under fire.

Q: So you had no concerns about any of those things in the past. Obviously, he was never charged with a crime or anything like that. So you have no reservations whatsoever to confirm.

Markwayne Mullin: You know, if he was sitting there denying that, that he was perfect, or sitting there saying he was perfect, he didn't deny or he didn't, I guess, acknowledge that he's had a problem in the past, then, yeah, I may have a problem with that. Well, I would have a problem with that. But the fact that he's owned it, he doesn't hide from it, and he moves forward is great for me, as far as him, as someone making an accusation against him back in 2017 and the fact that the police found no evidence that any that existed, in fact, it kind of leaned towards that she was being more aggressive towards him, and that he was completely open and transparent about it, and that there was -- they dismissed the case. It wasn't that any charges were filed. They dismissed the case, as nothing was here. Well, being accused of something can happen to anybody. The fact that there was no case, and they dismissed the whole thing altogether as not being factual, that's fine, and move on from there.

Q: And then what's next? You think he's going to get confirmed. Obviously, has to move through your committee, but then it goes to the full Senate. Do you think he has the vote?

Markwayne Mullin: Yeah, we'll vote on him this week, I think in the committee. And I think we're going to try to confirm him, actually, on the 20th, so right after President Trump is sworn into office, we're going to reconvene, try to get him in place, and Marco Rubio in place. And I don't know if we'll be able to have Tulsi done or not, but we'd like to get, obviously, Radcliffe in place, if possible, and our Attorney General maybe get Pam in place. So we're working through that process, and hopefully that happens on the 20th.