‘That’s CRAZY!’ Rand Paul Twists the Knife Into ‘Unfit’ Markwayne Mullin During Scorched Earth Fox News Hit

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) carried his viral feud with Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, into a Wednesday afternoon Fox News hit.

Paul upbraided Mullin during his confirmation hearing earlier that day for expressing solidarity with the perpetrator of a 2017 assault that left the Kentucky senator with a number of serious injuries.

On America Reports, anchor Sandra Smith asked Paul if Mullin had ever apologized for his comments.

“No, and I think his anger issues that he has as an individual, and his celebration of the violence that happened to me, but also his justification of the violence when he’s, you know, engaged in-, he was ready to have a fistfight in a committee. When they asked him, after he had cooled off days later, you know, would he reject any of that? Does he regret any of it? And he said, no, he had no regrets. In fact, he referred to historical examples of violence as justification,” replied Paul. “Nobody really in the modern age that I know of — other than Markwayne Mullin — is justifying political scien-, political violence as, ‘Oh well, we need a manly way to settle our differences and sometimes people just need to be punched in the mouth.’ That, to me, is bizarre and I think makes him unfit to lead federal law enforcement.”

“So can you vote for him?” followed up Smith.

“No. I mean, an apology might have had a chance, but he’s had several chances. I talked to him privately and he referred to it that we had political differences. And today he said we should set aside our political differences. Well, political differences would be, I’m against the refugee welfare program and I’ve told him he’s for it. That’s a political difference. But if I wished violence on his family, that wouldn’t be acceptable. And if he says the violence that happened to me, where I had six ribs broken, my lung damaged, part of my lung removed, two pneumonias. If he thinks that’s justifiable and he can readily understand it, he can completely understand it. I think that makes him unacceptable and unfit to hold office,” said Paul.

Paul drilled down on the point further a few moments later:

I asked him about Charles Sumner, the famous abolitionist who was bludgeoned nearly to death. He’s unconscious, laying on the ground, blood coming out of his ear, blood coming out of his mouth. He is unconscious, and the thug from South Carolina kept beating him. He could have been dead for all he knew, and there was another representative from South Carolina with a gun holding everyone back so they couldn’t help him. And somehow Markwayne Mullin thinks that’s a good example of when men were men and that’s the way we could settle our differences man to man. Well, that’s crazy! Nobody believes that. I didn’t think in the modern world, even in 1860, they thought it was terrible what happened to Charles Sumner. And if he can’t see that or empathize with people who have suffered from political violence, boy, I think he really precludes himself from this kind of job.

Watch above via Fox News.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!