Sparks fly at DHS confirmation hearing, but Trump’s pick clears committee
The NPR Politics Podcast
NPR
4.4 • 25.7K Ratings
🗓️ 19 March 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode: senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith, immigration policy correspondent Ximena Bustillo, and senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson.
This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.
Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House. I'm Jimenez |
| 0:08.9 | Bustillo, and I cover immigration policy. And I'm Mara Liason, senior national political correspondent. |
| 0:14.0 | Today on the show, President Trump's pick to run the Department of Homeland Security, Oklahoma |
| 0:19.1 | Senator Mark Wayne Mullen was narrowly approved |
| 0:22.1 | by the Senate's Homeland Security Committee after a heated hearing yesterday. Will new leadership |
| 0:27.8 | change anything about the way the administration has been doing immigration enforcement? |
| 0:33.5 | Hemena, before we get to policy, let's talk about that hearing. Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, who heads the committee, has some issues with Mullen that he aired right there at the beginning of the hearing. |
| 0:46.5 | Tell it to my face. If that's what you believe, tell it to me today. Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken |
| 0:56.0 | and a damaged lung. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it. And while you're at it, |
| 1:01.2 | explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues to set the proper |
| 1:06.4 | example for ICE and Border Patrol agents. Okay, Jimenez, help us out here. |
| 1:13.0 | What is this beef? |
| 1:14.5 | And what was going on there? |
| 1:16.3 | Yeah. |
| 1:16.7 | So Senator Rampal was attacked by a neighbor in 2017. |
| 1:23.4 | He was assaulted and that left him with those six broken ribs, as you hear him describe. |
| 1:30.3 | And Senator Mullen at one point since then, it said that he could understand why his neighbor would attack Paul. |
| 1:41.7 | And so that is the first layer. And then the second layer is, you know, Mullen has been on record |
| 1:50.0 | calling Paul a, quote, freak and snake. And then the third layer here is Mullen had previously |
| 1:59.6 | threatened to fight the president of the Teamsters union during a |
| 2:04.4 | hearing pretty infamously. |
| 2:07.9 | Now him and that Teamsters president appear to be friends and have made amends that president |
... |
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