Trump-allied conservatives are using more pugnacious rhetoric than ever, and in some cases, such as an incident Tuesday featuring Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), are ready to make things physical, a trend that is setting off alarm bells on Capitol Hill.
Republican and Democratic senators say former President Trump’s bombastic threats and insults, which have proved to be a winning political formula for the GOP, are catching on more broadly in Congress.
Senators in both parties say they were shocked when Mullin, a first-term senator and Trump ally, challenged the president of the Teamsters to a fistfight in the middle of a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, forcing the 82-year-old chair, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), to step in to keep blood from being spilled on his carpet.
Mullin told the Teamsters leader to “stand your butt up” and sprung out of his chair while taking off a wedding ring to prepare for melee.
The Oklahoma senator, a former mixed martial arts fighter, told CNN on Wednesday he had “full intentions” of pummeling the labor boss right there in the hearing room.
“First thing I thought of when I stood up I thought, ‘I’m going to break my hand on this guy’s face’ and will take my wedding ring off,” he said.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who voted twice to convict Trump of impeachment charges and will retire at the end of next year, said that unfortunately, in his view, the Republican Party has become the party of Trump.
He said Mullin’s attempt to challenge a witness to a brawl in the middle of a hearing was “clearly unfortunate.”
“I can understand losing one’s temper,” he said. “But it’s more important to rein it in.”
Romney said “there’s no question” there’s been a coarsening of political discourse in America.
“I don’t think that President Trump created something in the population that wasn’t there, but he brought something out that had been held behind norms and comity that is now out in the open,” he said. “Have we coarsened our debates and our dialogue? No question.”
