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Sen. Markwayne Mullin clashed with committee chairman Sen. Rand Paul during his DHS confirmation hearing on Wednesday (Reuters)
Punchbowl and other outlets have reported that Fetterman’s support for Mullin is not in question at all. And, Fetterman has claimed Democratic leaders weren’t pushing him to oppose Mullin’s nomination.
The love-fest was more akin to the reaction Mullin received from Republicans on the panel — minus Paul.
Besides Fetterman, Republicans on the panel happily shielded Mullin from tough questions and the furor of their colleague. Democrats, led by ranking member Sen. Gary Peters, pressed Mullin on the knee-jerk response he (and Noem) had to the shootings of two Americans in Minneapolis by ICE and immigration enforcement agents, which Mullin told the committee he regretted.
Paul told Semafor after the hearing that he would bring Mullin’s nomination up for a committee vote on Thursday, but confirmed he wouldn’t support him.
“I think he’s unfit. I think his temperament is not suitable. I think his anger issues are a problem, yeah, and so I won’t vote for him, but I’ve promised to at least get an expeditious vote,” the Kentucky Republican told Semafor. “They’ve had to have known for weeks that I couldn’t be real happy about a guy that won’t apologize and thinks that my assault was perfectly understandable.”
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Rand Paul said after the hearing that he would not support Mullin’s nomination but would not block it, either (Getty)
With Paul in opposition to the senator’s confirmation, Fetterman’s vote will likely decide the fate of his colleague. Staff in the chairman’s office told reporters on Wednesday that initial plans were for a vote to be held to advance Mullin’s nomination out of committee on Thursday.
At home, Fetterman continues to get pummeled for his apparent heel turn. Conor Lamb, Fetterman’s former primary opponent who spent much of 2025 engaging in cautious probing of the senator’s weaknesses among the Democratic base, is now openly savaging him on social media every chance he gets.
Even as the senator has repeatedly stressed that he won’t switch parties, it seems like his voting base may have already at least partially made that decision for him.
A Philly Inquirer poll publised last month found the senator’s approval rating among Democrats in his home state to be hopelessly languishing in the murky depths. Six in ten Pennsylvania Democrats say he’s doing a poor job as senator, while two in ten support him. He’s hated by more Democrats than even Sen. Dave McCormick, his Republican colleague on the state’s congressional delegation.
2028 is still a long way away, however, and Democrats may have to come to terms with the fact that one of their own is often batting for the other team for now.
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