WTF, CNN? "Democrats like Markwayne Mullin but that doesn't mean they'll vote for him for DHS secretary" [View all]

Really? Democrats like him?

Democrats like Markwayne Mullin but that doesn’t mean they’ll vote for him for DHS secretary

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/17/politics/markwayne-mullin-congress-dhs-secretary-trump

Since coming to Washington in 2013, Mullin has built a brand on Capitol Hill as a straight-talking, former MMA fighter who is the rare partisan warrior who can tout White House talking points on Fox News and then sit down to cut the occasional deals with Democrats. The affable Oklahoman has spent decades building strong connections across both chambers in the US Capitol – which eventually helped catapult him into the president’s inner circle.

Now, Mullin is nominated to serve as President Donald Trump’s secretary of Homeland Security, a post that will require him to execute the president’s signature campaign promise on immigration, which has turned into one of the party’s biggest political liabilities heading into the midterms. He is also about to test just how much he can keep his outsider bona fides while doing Trump’s bidding.

Mullin will sit before the Senate Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, just two weeks after he was suddenly tapped for the post and more than a month into a partisan government shutdown of the very agency that – if confirmed – he would run.

Now on the other side of the dais, Mullin is expected to face a grilling from Senate Democrats – some of whom have years-long friendships with him but are under intense pressure to oppose him amid the fractious immigration politics of this moment.