Welcome to the three martini lunch.

Grab a stool next to Greg Carumbus of Radio America and Jim Garrity of National Review.

Three martini's coming up.

So glad you're with us for the Wednesday edition of the Three Martini Lunch.

So much to get to.

It's a wild day on all of the stories we're going to be talking about today.

But Jim, it's pretty rare that you see fireworks right out of the gate in a confirmation hearing

when the chairman of the committee and the nominee are from the same party and are both members of the United States Senate.

But that's exactly what we got today in the Homeland Security and Oversight Committee of

the Senate, because Rand Paul is the chairman. Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma is the nominee to replace

Christy Nome at Homeland Security. But these two have a history, a relatively long history. They

don't like each other. And apparently Senator Mullen made some pretty strong comments about Paul a while back,

including suggesting that he understood why his neighbor did what he did to Rand Paul in that assault a few years back.

But don't hear it from me.

Hear it from Rand Paul.

Here's the first thing he said in his opening statement.

You were confronted by constituents that were angry because you voted against my amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs.

Instead of explaining your vote to continue these welfare programs for refugees, you decided to transfer the blame.

You told the media that I was a freaking snake and that

you completely understood why I had been assaulted. I was shocked that it would justify and celebrate

this violent assault. That caused me so much pain and my family so much pain. I just wonder if someone

who applauds violence against their political

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