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Republicans are out of control!

GOP senator challenges Teamsters president to fight during hearing
BY ALEXANDER BOLTON - 11/14/23 12:36 PM ET



WASHINGTON, DC –

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R), a former mixed martial arts fighter, nearly came to blows with the president of the Teamsters at a Senate hearing on Tuesday, forcing Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to step in to stop a brawl from breaking out in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee room.

Mullin challenged International Brotherhood of Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien to a fight on the spot after the senator read aloud O’Brien’s tweets calling him out as a “clown” and a “fraud.”

“Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here,” Mullin said from the hearing room dais.
“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” O’Brien shot back.
“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked. “Stand your butt up then.”
“You stand your butt up,” O’Brien retorted, prompting Mullin, who is 46 years old, to stand up from his chair as if he was preparing to spring into the middle of the hearing room to trade blows with the Teamster.

At that point, Sanders tried to take control of the hearing to stop an impromptu cage match from breaking out.
“Hold it. No, no, no, sit down. Sit down! You’re a United State senator, sit down,” Sanders yelled while banging the gavel to restore order in the room.

“This is a hearing. God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress, let’s not —” Sanders fumed before being cut off by more bellicose crosstalk between Mullin and O’Brien.

Then Mullin tried to challenge the Teamsters official to a real cage match with the proceeds going to charity but Sanders gabbed the mic to interrupt his Republican colleague.

“Excuse me, hold it. Sen. Mullin, I have the mic. If you have questions on any economic issues, anything that was said, go for it. We’re not here to talk about physical abuse,” Sanders said.

The purpose of the hearing, which was called for by Sanders, was show how unions are improving the lives of working families.
Mullin argued that he was trying to expose O’Brien as a “thug” after he and the Teamsters leader tweeted at him after another contentious Health, Education and Labor Committee hearing in March, when O’Brien called Mullin, who a former plumbing company owner, a “greedy CEO” and Mullin told the union official to “shut his mouth.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4309080-gop-senator-teamsters-president-nearly-brawl-in-senate-hearing/