The former MMA fighter set to replace Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary once threatened to drag a teenager’s face over asphalt, reigniting scrutiny over his temperament.
Newly resurfaced footage shows Trump ally Markwayne Mullin made the comments about his daughter’s boyfriend in late 2023 while speaking to a church group whose mission is for evangelical Christians to take over all levels of government and reign as “elders” anointed by God.
At the meeting of the Oklahoma-based “City Elders,” Mullin also mused about getting more “godly” people elected to office and boasted about how he disciplined his children.
“I do spank, I have no problem with that,” he said. “I can spank them and I’m still upset and they’ll come and crawl on my lap two minutes later and just love on me. I’ve got to be more forgiving.”
But it was his comments about the threat he made to his daughter’s boyfriend, who Mullin nonetheless described as a “great kid” but “I really don’t like him,” that have raised eyebrows.
“I said: ‘if I ever see you kiss her in front of me, I’m dragging your face across the asphalt’,” Mullin recalled telling the boy, as his audience laughed and clapped awkwardly. “And that’s a true story; I told him that.”
While the father of six appears somewhat jovial in the footage, it nonetheless comes after his fiery Senate hearing last week, when fellow Republican Rand Paul claimed the Senator applauded violence against him after he was attacked in 2017.
Paul also played a series of clips where Mullin promoted fighting and even challenged a Senate witness to a brawl.
“Explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper example for ICE and border patrol agents,” Paul asked him.
Mullin was set to be confirmed by the Senate this week to replace Noem as the head of DHS, which oversees everything from the border control and ICE enforcement, to maritime security, to cybersecurity and natural disaster emergencies.
This comes after Noem, who earned the nickname ICE Barbie for her tendency to cosplay for photo ops, was fired by Trump after a string of controversies, such as a $220 million self-promoting ad, the use and purchase of a luxury jet, and her alleged affair with top aide Corey Lewandowski.
She also came under attack over the deaths of U.S. citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good, who she falsely maligned as “domestic terrorists” after they were killed by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Mullin for comment. However, in his hearing last week, he described himself as a “straight shooter” but insisted he did not condone violence.
“I can have differences of opinion with everybody in this room, but as Secretary of Homeland, I’ll be protecting everybody,” he said.
But the newly resurfaced video, along with his ties to City Elders, a Tulsa-based group led by Pentecostal evangelist Jesse Leon Rodgers, has sparked further concerns.
Reverend Shannon Fleck, the executive director of progressive Christian group Faithful America, said she had watched Mullin and City Elders run in the same Oklahoma circles for years, and feared the senator’s Christian Nationalist views would shape the way he ran DHS.
“Christian Nationalists are seven times more likely to agree with and enforce political violence,” Fleck said, citing a 2024 study by the non-profit Public Religion Research Institute.
“The violent rhetoric he’s used in the past is also rooted in a frame that places him and others in his belief system as being better, more divinely anointed, and having the divine right to enforce their worldview on others.
“That mindset leading Homeland Security should be wildly alarming for everyone.”
In the video, Mullin was introduced by Rodgers as someone he has known for years.
“We’ve been in friendship for many years and he’s been to City Elders almost from our inception. He has been here many times as a congressman and now as a senator,” the pastor says.
Mullin, in turn, promotes the group’s mission to get more evangelical Christians elected to office.
“You came to my office started sharing with me the vision of City Elders and I got it,” he said.
“We started talking about going into our small towns, going into our cities, working on the school boards, working on the city councils and getting godly people elected.”
