During a Senate hearing, there was an almost physical altercation between the president of the Teamsters union and a Republican senator.
“You’re tempted to speak freely. During a labor union hearing, Sen. Markwayne Mullin said to Sean O’Brien, “We can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the chair of the committee, intervened to end the dispute. “You’re a senator for the United States!” he yelled at Mullin.
Tuesday during a Senate committee hearing, a Republican senator and the Teamsters union head almost got into a fistfight, but Sen. Bernie Sanders intervened and broke it up.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma started the conversation by reading a June tweet sent out by Teamsters President Sean O’Brien.
Do you wish to speak freely? Mullin addressed O’Brien, who was testifying at a hearing on labor unions in America, saying, “We can be two consenting adults, we can finish it here.”
Alright, no problem, excellent,” O’Brien answered. “I wish I could do it now.”
“Then get up and stand there,” retorted Mullin.
O’Brien remarked, “You put your butt up.”
Mullin then got to his feet and approached O’Brien while wearing a white shirt and no jacket.
“No, no, have a seat! Get seated! Sanders, an independent from Vermont and the head of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, exclaimed, “You’re a United States senator!”
In the hearing chamber, Mullin and O’Brien persisted in their verbal abuse of one another.
It’s a hearing today. Sanders remarked, “And God knows the American people already despise Congress enough; let’s not make it worse.”
Months previously, the senator and the union president had a falling out.
During a contentious argument during an earlier hearing in March, Mullin instructed O’Brien to “shut your mouth.”
Later, in June, O’Brien disparaged Mullin as a “clown and a fraud” in a social media post.
“Stop being such a nasty man at these Senate hearings. You are aware of my location. Cowboy, anywhere, anytime,” O’Brien posted on X.
Mullin retaliated a few days later, declaring that he had accepted the invitation and suggesting a mixed martial arts match to benefit charity.
Mullin’s dare to fight O’Brien during Tuesday’s hearing was sparked by this interaction.