‘Stand Your Butt Up’: GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin Practically Begins Fistfight In Listening to

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) on Tuesday almost began a fistfight with labor union chief Sean O’Brien in the course of a Senate committee listening to, after the 2 traded ridiculous, excessive school-level insults for a number of minutes.

Mullin, a member of the Senate Committee on Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions, held up printed copies of previous tweets by O’Brien which have mocked the senator. This was throughout a listening to theoretically centered on standing as much as company greed.

“It says, ‘Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self-made,’” Mullin learn aloud from a tweet O’Brien posted in June. “‘Just a clown and fraud. Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any place, anytime cowboy.’”

The senator, who’s a former MMA fighter, then spoke on to O’Brien, the overall president of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters.

“This is a time, this is a place,” Mullin stated. “If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”

“OK, that’s fine,” O’Brien stated. “Perfect.”

“You want to do it now?” Mullin requested.

“I’d love to do it right now,” O’Brien replied.

That is when issues received actually bananas.

“Well, stand your butt up then,” demanded the senator.

“You stand your butt up, big guy,” O’Brien shot again.

Mullin then stood up on the dais as if he was able to brawl, which drew fun and a few shouts within the room.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the committee chairman, needed to intervene.

“Oh no,” he stated, hitting the gavel. “Stop it. Sit down. Sit down. You’re a United States senator!”

Amid the dust-up, O’Brien sniped at Mullin: “Is that your solution to every problem?”

Sanders reminded them that this was a Senate committee listening to.

“God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress,” stated the Vermont senator, telling the 2 to knock it off.

It didn’t work, although.

“I don’t like bullies,” Mullin stated.

“I don’t like you,” O’Brien responded. “Because you just described yourself.”

The 2 have beforehand sparred, and like this most up-to-date occasion, it was over imply tweets. In June, Mullin challenged O’Brien to an MMA match to show who was the more durable man outdoors of social media.

Throughout Tuesday’s listening to, Mullin stated O’Brien “went quiet” after that problem, suggesting he was scared to combat him.

“I didn’t go quiet,” O’Brien replied. “You challenged me to a cage match acting like a 12-year-old schoolyard bully.”

Sanders needed to soar in, once more, with the gavel and a raised voice. Folks within the viewers could possibly be seen stifling laughs and even hiding their faces.

“We’re not here to talk about physical abuse!” stated Sanders.

However the two went again at it, speaking about how they don’t respect one another “at all.”

Mullin once more introduced up that O’Brien refused to comply with combat him. This time, the senator steered a selected date and site for a public brawl.

“April 30. How about we do it for a charity at the Smoke & Guns in Tulsa, Oklahoma?” the senator stated, referring to an MMA and boxing occasion within the space.

“You want to fight me?” requested O’Brien, incredulous.

“What’d you say about anytime, anyplace?” Mullin stated, referring to O’Brien’s tweet.

“Let’s have coffee, discuss our differences,” stated O’Brien.

Their dialog might have de-escalated from right here. Nevertheless it didn’t.

Mullin mocked O’Brien for “backing down.”

“I don’t back down on anything,” O’Brien replied.

“You did,” the senator stated.

“You should be one of the most influential people in this country. You’re focused on something that’s irrelevant,” snapped the labor union boss. “You’re an embarrassment to the state of Oklahoma.”

Sanders lastly minimize them off and moved on to a different senator on the committee to ask panelists questions, and that was that.

Mullin denied after the listening to that he was attempting to choose a combat with O’Brien.

“I didn’t try to fight anyone, he called me out,” he instructed reporters. “You don’t call me out… and not back it up with what you said.”

When requested whether or not senators needs to be held to a better commonplace, Mullin replied: “I’m still a guy.”

Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who’s a member of the committee, stated she walked out as the 2 had been verbally sparring.

“This is the U.S. Senate. This kind of behavior is unacceptable,” she instructed HuffPost. “I actually got up and left before it was over because I was so upset by what Sen. Mullin did. It’s a result of people having bad judgment who don’t seem to be able to detach from a policy disagreement.”

Smith stated that folks typically ― however particularly U.S. senators ― ought to be capable to have coverage disagreements with out actually difficult somebody to a combat.

“I’m a human being, and I think you ought to behave with some sense of dignity,” she stated.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) stated her GOP colleagues’ habits reminded her of her earlier job as an elementary college instructor.

“I used to teach 4- to 6-year-olds,” she stated. “They were better behaved than some of the people in this place.”