'I shouldn't have said that': Mullin expresses regret for comments about Alex Pretti

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing began with a personal confrontation between fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul as Mullin seeks to take over the Department of Homeland Security from its embattled leader, Kristi Noem.

Paul, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman, sparred with Mullin over comments the Oklahoma senator reportedly made earlier this year regarding Paul’s voting record and assault by a neighbor in Kentucky in 2017.

“You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted,” Paul said.

Paul also pointed to Mullin’s previous public confrontations and temperament, adding that Mullin had “low impulse control.”

“Tell the world why you believe I deserve to be assaulted from behind, have six ribs broken and a damaged lung. Tell me to my face why you think I deserved it. And while you’re at it, explain to the American public why they should trust a man with anger issues,” Paul said.

Paul questioned, “I just wonderif someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to leadan agencythat has struggled to accept limits of the proper use of force.”

Before making his opening statement, Mullin fired back.

“I said I could understand, because of the behavior, you were having, that I could understand why your neighbor … did what he did,” Mullin said. “As far as my term of ‘snake in the grass,’ sir, I work around this room to try to fix problems. I’ve worked with many people in this room. It seems like you fight Republicans more than you work with us.”

Mullin, who President Donald Trump earlier this month tapped to take over the agency from Noem, asked Paul to let him earn his respect and said he would be secretary for all Americans.

Paul later played the tense moment at a November 2023 Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing when Mullin stood up from his seat andappeared to prepare to physically fightTeamsters Union President Sean O’Brien as well as a montage of Mullin’s responses to the incident.

“I get it — it’s about character assassination for you,” Mullin said to Paul. “That’s the way this game is played. I understand it. And you are making this about you, which is fine.”

Mullin noted that O’Brien, sitting directly behind him, came to the hearing on Wednesday as a “close friend.”

“As you cannoticeover my shoulder is my good friend, SeanO’Brien. Both of us have had conversations and shaken hands and agreed we could have done thingsdifferent,” Mullin said. “Sean has become a close friend. We talk all the time. I have been on his podcast. It is how you handle your differences. Not like this,chairman.”

Paul told ABC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Jay O’Brien on Wednesday that he’s planning to hold a committee vote to advance Mullin’s confirmation out of the committee on Thursday — during which, Paul said he will vote no. That means Mullin still needs at least one Democratic vote to advance — and Democratic Sen. John Fetterman said he’s open to being that vote.

Fetterman previously said he was inclined to support Mullin, and Wednesday’s hearing didn’t change that, he told reporters.

Mullin pressed on Pretti comments

Lawmakers on the Senate Homeland Security Committee grilled Mullin, who has no law enforcement experience, throughout the day as the department he’s seeking to lead remains shut down due to a funding stalemate, with no clear end to that shutdown in sight.

Mullin’s hearing came as parts of DHS — from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to theTransportation Security Administration — are shut down amid afunding fight over Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Democrats have said they will fund the department only if changes are made to the agency in the wake of the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis earlier this year.

Sen. Gary Peters, the ranking member of the committee, pressed Mullin over his comments following the killing of Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse who was shot by federal agents during a protest in January.

After Pretti’s death, Mullin echoed initial statements from Noem and White House deputy chief Stephen Miller, calling Pretti “a deranged individual that came in to cause max damage.”

Noem later walked back her comments, claiming she did not have all of the facts at the time.

“I think I said this privately when we had a conversation. Those words probably should have been retracted. I shouldn’t have said that,” Mullin said to Peters, adding he was “responding immediately without the facts.”

“That’s my fault. That won’t happen as secretary,” Mullin said.

When Peters asked Mullin if he would apologize to Pretti’s family for his comments, Mullin stressed that the investigation into the shooting was ongoing.

“We’ll let the investigation go through, and if I’m proven wrong, then I will, absolutely,” he said.

Mullin asked about travel after ‘smell’ of war comments

Peters asked Mullin, who is not a veteran, about his comments to Fox News earlier this month where he suggested he knows what war “smells” like. Mullin admitted to Peters that he had never been out of the country for anything other than mission work and vacations.

Peters asked about the travel to Georgia and Azerbaijan that was listed in the FBI report on Mullin, but the nominee said those 2021 trips were classified.

“So where did yousmellwar?” Peters asked.

“Sir, I just said that this was classified,” Mullin responded.

Mullin on elections, FEMA

Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin asked Mullin about Trump’s controversial suggestion thatRepublicans “nationalize” elections and asked Mullin if he supported putting armed agents at polling stations.

“The only reason why my officers would be there, if there was a specific threat for them to be there, not for intimidation,” Mullin said.

Mullin appeared to counter the messaging of his predecessor when it came to Federal Emergency Management Agency and said the agency “needs to be restructured not eliminated.”

After the Senate Homeland Security Committee vote on Thursday, if his nomination is confirmed, it would then head to the Senate floor where he could be confirmed as soon as next week.

It is all but certain that Mullin will be confirmed as DHS secretary on the Senate floor.

ABC News’ Allison Pecorin and Jay O’Brien contributed to this report.