What we covered here
• Three hours of intense questioning: Sen. Markwayne Mullin testified before a Senate committee to be the next Homeland Security secretary. Sen. Rand Paul, who accused the Oklahoma senator of having “anger issues,” said he will not vote to confirm Mullin.
• What Mullin said: Mullin admitted he made a mistake calling Alex Pretti, the Minnesotan killed by immigration officers in January, a “deranged individual.” Mullin also said he would scrap Kristi Noem’s controversial FEMA policy requiring her personal signoff for any spending request over $100,000.
• Global threats hearing: Lawmakers also heard from President Donald Trump’s intelligence chiefs Wednesday at a Senate hearing where they testified about the Annual Threat Assessment. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the Iranian regime “appears to be intact, but largely degraded.” You can follow CNN’s live coverage on Iran here.
• Epstein briefing: Meanwhile, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche briefed lawmakers behind closed doors tonight on the Epstein investigation. Following the tense briefing, which saw several Democrats walk out, House Oversight Chair James Comer said he plans on moving forward with a subpoena for Bondi.
Our live coverage of the Trump administration has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates here.
AG Pam Bondi says she will "follow the law" on subpoena to testify in Epstein probe
Attorney General Bondi said tonight she would follow the law when asked if she would comply with a subpoena to testify under oath to the House Oversight Committee.
“I made it crystal clear, I will follow the law,” Bondi told reporters on Capitol Hill.
Bondi said the Justice Department poured through the 3 million Epstein files, which amounted to the height of the Eiffel Tower, and that attorneys did their best to protect victims in the process.
“We did our very best to comply with the law,” she said.
Bondi would not concede that she has made any mistakes in the process and told reporters, “We’re proud of the work that we’ve done.”
Bondi also criticized Democrats for walking out of the briefing.
Comer says he plans to move forward with Bondi subpoena
House Oversight Chair James Comer said he plans on moving forward with a subpoena for Attorney General Pam Bondi after tonight’s closed-door briefing, telling reporters, “That’s what we plan on doing.”
But Comer also said he personally did not see a reason for a deposition, even though five House Republicans voted for it.
“I personally don’t see any reason for her to do a deposition,” Comer told reporters on Capitol Hill.
He claimed that some of the members who voted to subpoena Bondi “were pretty embarrassed by the way the Democrats acted in their lack of sincerity.”
If Bondi does not comply, Comer would not commit to holding her in criminal contempt and said, “We’ll have to talk about it as a committee.”
Comer also confirmed that he said Democratic Rep. Summer Lee was “b*tching” during the closed door meeting.
“That is accurate,” Comer said.
Comer said Democrats did not ask substantive questions of Bondi or Blanche.
“It was very disappointing what the Democrats have done, I believe that was premeditated,” Comer stated. “They came out clutching their pearls, complaining that she wasn’t answering any questions and things like that. The first three people to ask questions, all they did was complain. All they did was complain they didn’t ask any questions — attorney general’s here, but they said they wanted C-SPAN in here.”
Paul says Mullin will get a committee vote Thursday morning as scheduled
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul told reporters that Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead DHS will get a vote in committee Thursday morning as scheduled. While Paul has said he will oppose Mullin’s nomination, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman has indicated he is open to crossing party lines and voting to advance the nomination.
“Yes,” said Paul, when asked if the committee will vote tomorrow. “I think we’re sort of done. There are still some mysteries regarding his war service, but I think that, you know, we’ve gone about as far as I think we’re going to go.”
Paul was referring to Mullin’s claim that he went on an official international trip as a House member in 2016 that he said he couldn’t discuss in detail, which raised eyebrows during his confirmation hearing. Several senators on the panel met with Mullin in a classified setting afterward to hear more about the situation, but Paul noted that he did not attend, noting that his main concern with Mullin is the Oklahoman’s temperament. He said that his staff attended.
He added, “My courtesy to the White House is we went fast with the nomination hearing, we’re gonna go fast for the vote, but I can’t vote for a guy who’s got all these anger issues.”
The Kentucky Republican repeated his frustration that Mullin had not apologized for saying he “understood” why Paul’s neighbor attacked him in 2017.
“My primary concern is whether or not he has the demeanor, whether or not his anger issues might be a problem in leading an organization of federal law enforcement, and I really think his embracing of the violence, the political violence that happened to me without an apology, I think it means he’s unfit,” said Paul.
Pressed on whether he is concerned about retaliation from the White House, Paul indicated he believes Mullin will ultimately be confirmed. “No one’s really talked to me,” he said, adding “I think he probably gets the votes.”
Tension fills Bondi's Epstein briefing on Capitol Hill
Tensions quickly rose in the room on Capitol Hill where Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche briefed lawmakers on the Epstein investigation.
Bondi was questioned early on by Democrats about whether she still planned to appear for a deposition. She responded multiple times that she planned to “follow the law,” according to multiple people familiar with what happened.
But the questions continued — with House Oversight Chair James Comer arguing with Rep. Summer Lee at one point near the end.
When Lee was asking about the briefing being essentially a hearing without cameras, Comer said, “It’s a briefing!”
“Are you trying to find information or are you trying to embarrass the attorney general?” Comer asked.
Lee responded that Bondi could defend herself and she was questioning Comer about the logistics.
“You wasted three minutes of everybody’s time, kind of b*tching,” Comer then said. There were audible gasps inside the room.
CNN has reached out to Comer for comment.
Another person familiar said this closed-door session was never a hearing and it was offered as a briefing before subpoena was issued. Democrats walked out of the hearing.
“This was clearly the Democrats’ plan all along: to walk out of the briefing the DOJ offered to provide. Both Attorney General Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Blanche were answering substantive questions, and Attorney General Bondi stated she would follow the law regarding her subpoena,” a spokesperson for the Oversight Republicans told CNN. “It’s clear Democrats don’t want answers or justice for survivors; they just want theatrics for their latest partisan stunt.”
Frustrated Democrats walk out of Epstein briefing with Bondi and Blanche on Capitol Hill
Democratic lawmakers walked out of a closed-door briefing with Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche after being dissatisfied with how their questions over the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein document release were being answered.
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called what happened in the briefing a “complete disrespect of the process” and said that the American people should be “outraged.”
Garcia said that Bondi refused to commit to sitting for a deposition. She was subpoenaed to testify to Congress next month.
“It’s outrageous, it’s infuriating and it continues this White House cover up of the Epstein files,” Garcia said after leaving the briefing.
Before the briefing began, Garcia said the closed-door meeting does not replace the subpoena the committee issued for Bondi’s deposition.
“We’re glad we’re getting a briefing, which is long overdue, but it in no way substitutes for the serious questions that we have that must be answered under oath,” Garcia said.
Unlike the briefing on Wednesday, Garcia said a deposition under oath is needed for Bondi to be in a setting that is “recorded, that is transcribed and then is released to the public.”
Rep. Summer Lee said after walking out of the meeting that she had asked House Oversight Chair James Comer if he would force Bondi to comply with the subpoena for a deposition, and relayed that Comer told her to stop “b*tching.”
“Instead of answering as an adult, he said that I was ‘b*tching,’ which is, again, something that would not be allowed if we were operating under the rules of this committee, because engaging in personalities is actually something that we are not able to do,” Lee said.
CNN has reached out to Comer for comment.
Pelosi says Mullin story “hard to accept” after comments about secret “mission”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that “the pieces don’t fit together” in a statement responding to Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s comments during his confirmation hearing today alluding to a secret “mission” while he served in the House of Representatives.
Pelosi, who would have been the Democratic leader at the time, said Mullin’s story was “hard to accept.”
“While Republicans were in the Majority at the time, I was part of the Gang of Eight as Democratic Leader,” she said in the statement. “I have never heard of any intelligence circumstances like those described by Senator Mullin ever occurring for a House Member.”
“Based on the information we have from an intelligence standpoint, the pieces don’t fit together and his story is hard to accept.”
Mullin’s comments spurred members of the Homeland Security Committee to request the nominee meet them in the Senate SCIF to further discuss this afternoon. Several Democrats emerged with more questions than answers while fellow Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford said Mullin’s comments had not given him cause for concern.
Meanwhile, DOJ officials are on Capitol Hill for a closed-door Epstein briefing
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche have arrived on Capitol Hill for a closed-door briefing on the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
“We look forward to speaking with them tonight, and we’ll talk to you when it’s over. Thank you,” Bondi told reporters, without taking questions.
The briefing was announced Tuesday by House Oversight Chair James Comer as part of the committee’s Epstein probe as there has been bipartisan frustration over the DOJ’s redaction process and documents that are still being withheld.
Comer also issued a subpoena for Bondi to appear for a deposition next month, writing that his panel is investigating the “possible mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation” into Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
A source familiar with matter previously told CNN that DOJ had requested to brief lawmakers on its Epstein investigation to promptly answer lawmakers’ questions, given that scheduling a deposition with the committee will take time.
The Justice Department and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers on Capitol Hill have battled over releasing investigative files from the Epstein case since the beginning of the Trump administration, ultimately resulting in a new law that compelled the DOJ to release all Epstein-related documents with exceptions for victims’ identities, privileged information or information that is part of an ongoing federal investigation
But the law’s passage in November did little to appease lawmakers, who believed the files were overly redacted and demanded greater transparency.
Senior officials at the Justice Department have consistently pushed back, saying that the tight deadline made it difficult to properly review millions of Epstein-related documents for release and that any mistakes identified by the public would be quickly fixed.
Blanche said in an interview Wednesday that the idea the Justice Department is “ignoring Epstein victims” is unequivocally false, and that prosecutors are prepared to investigate or charge anyone potentially involved in the abuse should the evidence arise.
Homan says he "fully" supports Mullin leading Homeland Security
White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News that he “fully” supports Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to be the next Homeland Security secretary, saying the Oklahoma senator did “fine” at his confirmation hearing today that grew tense at times.
Homan had a less than friendly relationship with Kristi Noem, the outgoing head of the agency — CNN has previously reported that Homan and Noem rarely spoke.
Trump administration officials see Mullin’s potential confirmation as a reset between the Department of Homeland Security and Homan.
“Markwayne Mullin is the right guy, at the right time, in the right position. Fully support him. I’ve talked to Markwayne every day, several times a day, ever since President Trump announced his nomination,” Homan said.
“If he actually gets the job, he’s looking at solutions for CBP and ICE and FEMA. He’s already working, even though he’s not in that position yet. He gets what needs to be fixed. We have frank conversations. He welcomes my judgment,” Homan added.
Senators still not sure what to make of Mullin's past comments after closed-door meeting
Senators on the Homeland Security Committee left a classified session with Sen. Markwayne Mullin unsure whether they would vote on advancing his nomination in committee tomorrow morning.
Chairman Rand Paul had previously scheduled the vote for 9:30 a.m. ET on Thursday, but Paul said Wednesday that he would push the vote if Mullin was not able to satisfy committee concerns over allegations of stolen valor relating to an international trip he says he took in 2016.
After the hearing, Mullin met with members of the committee in a classified setting to discuss the trip, which he says was an official trip that only four other people were aware of at the time.
“This whole situation strikes me as weird, and I haven’t talked to Chairman Paul about whether he’s going forward tomorrow, but I think he should seriously consider waiting a while so we can get responses to these questions,” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal told reporters as he left the meeting.
Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan agreed. “Look, I think it’s really important that whoever is the next leader of the Department of Homeland Security be able to rebuild trust with the American people, and what we need to determine is whether Senator Mullin can do that,” she said.
However, GOP Sen. James Lankford, who represents Oklahoma in the Senate alongside Mullin, maintained that Paul and Democrats are making “a mountain out of a mole hill,” and said the trip was related to a whistleblower report.
Lankford also said Mullin was bound by a non-disclosure agreement, but he wouldn’t say if the trip was actually classified, as Mullin had claimed it was.
“I would use more the term of non-disclosure than classified. But I get those are two different things on it — I think the terms are all being thrown around. I think even Markwayne wasn’t careful in trying to be able to articulate between the two on it,” said Lankford.
How would Mullin differ from Noem as DHS Secretary? He listed several ways
During his confirmation hearing to be the next Homeland Security secretary, Sen. Markwayne Mullin was given multiple opportunities to differentiate himself from outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem, who was ousted from the job after a year of controversies and chaos within the agency.
Mullin indicated his leadership style would differ from Noem’s in several ways:
He said he would admit mistakes. (And then he did)
During his opening statement, Mullin said he would admit when he was wrong — something Noem never did during her tenure as DHS secretary.
Later, he was given the chance to do just that, and he took it. Shortly after Alex Pretti’s killing in January by an immigration officer, Mullin described him as “deranged.” He said during Wednesday’s hearing that it was a mistake to do so. “I shouldn’t have said that,” he said, adding: “I was responding immediately without the facts. That’s my fault.”
In contrast, Noem declined several opportunities to apologize to Pretti’s family for the premature ways she characterized him after his death.
Taking ICE off the “front line,” reverting back to judicial warrants
More than once, Mullin said he hoped that DHS under his leadership would not be in the headlines every day. He listed some ways he thought that could be accomplished.
Mullin also said ICE officers would only enter homes using judicial warrants, with limited exigent circumstances. That would reverse a policy under Noem’s leadership that allowed immigration officers to enter homes and businesses with less restrictive administrative warrants.
No more “micromanaging” contracts
Mullin told the committee that, if confirmed, he would do away with one of Noem’s most controversial policies that required her sign-off on contracts exceeding $100,000. The policy, she said, was designed to root out waste, but instead it led to a backlog of much needed relief during natural disasters under her watch.
Mullin said he “agrees” the policy only added more red tape at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. “That’s called micromanaging,” he said.
Increased cooperation with watchdog
Shortly before Noem was ousted, the DHS internal watchdog said in a letter to members of the Homeland Security committee that Noem’s agency had “systematically” obstructed the work of his office.
Mullin said he would cooperate with the agency’s inspector general, including by providing all records and documents asked by the watchdog as required by law.
An unanswered question from Mullin hearing: What was his secret "mission"?
Facing three hours of intense questioning in front of a Senate committee, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security gave frank answers on everything from his leadership style to immigration policies.
But after the hearing concluded, one question remained unanswered: what exactly were the “special assignments” that Sen. Markwayne Mullin said he participated in a decade ago during his time in the House?
Mullin’s comments about those assignments — and previous cryptic statements about knowing how war “smells” despite never having served in the military — have prompted accusations of stolen valor. Both leaders of the Senate Homeland Security committee — Republican Sen. Rand Paul and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters — tried prying more details from Mullin, but the nominee said that he could not respond in a public forum because those answers would be classified.
Toward the beginning of that hearing, Mullin told the committee that while serving in the House in 2015, he was asked to train with “a small contingency” and go to a “certain area.” He said he participated in a high-intensity training meant to simulate combat and survival scenarios. He then referenced an official “mission” he participated in, but said he could not divulge details of that mission because it was classified. Only about four people were read into the aspects of that mission, Mullin told senators.
“So where did you smell war?” Peters asked.
“Sir,” Mullin responded, “I just said that this was classified, and the dates, locations and the mission, I’ve never spoke specifically details about.”
Hours later, after being given an opportunity to deliver a second round of questioning, Peters returned to the topic. “Today is the first time that I’m hearing about your classified activities from 2015 to ’16,” he said. “Quite frankly, as we’ve had these conversations, you’ve not been forthcoming with me or this committee.”
Peters said he would like to have Mullin discuss his work in a secure setting, and Paul agreed before teaming up with Peters on more lines of questioning
Did Congress assign him the mission, Paul asked. Mullin said yes. Peters asked: Who specificially assigned it? Mullin responded that he could not say. Paul asked which agency classified the mission. Mullin responded that the House classified it.
“I have nothing to hide on this,” Mullin said.
After more back and forth — some of it testy — Mullin eventually agreed to Paul’s request that the nominee go to a secure facility to brief committee members about the trip.
At least one lawmaker came to Mullin’s defense on the topic. “This feels, as my mom used to say, [like] a mountain out of a mole hill,” Sen. James Lankford said.
Here's what was said — and not said — about the Iran war in today's global threats hearing
Nearly 20 days since the war with Iran began, President Donald Trump’s intelligence chiefs testified before a Senate hearing about the Annual Threat Assessment.
Democratic senators avoided asking the intelligence chiefs — which included Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel — about the resignation of Joe Kent, a high-ranking Trump appointee who stepped down yesterday citing misgiving about the US war with Iran.
Here’s some of what Gabbard said about the war:
- When asked whether US intelligence determined Iran posed an “imminent nuclear threat,” Gabbard said it’s not her job to determine what an “imminent threat” is, but the president’s.
- The director dodged questions about whether she was asked to brief Trump on the possibility of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz prior to the US launching military action against the country.
- Gabbard said the US intelligence community assesses that the Iranian regime “appears to be intact, but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities.”
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard testified to lawmakers Wednesday that the intelligence community believes the Iranian regime is intact, "but largely degraded due to attacks on its leadership and military capabilities."
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Jennifer Hansler and Sean Lyngaas contributed to this report.
Intelligence chief and CIA director take different approaches at worldwide threats hearing
The Senate’s Worldwide Threats hearing offered a study in contrast between Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who appears concerned about saving her job by not showing any daylight with the White House, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, whose position appears more secure in the administration.
Gabbard’s testimony omitted a part of the Intelligence Community’s assessment that Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated” by last year’s US and Israeli bombing campaign — a omission noted by Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the panel.
She dodged and weaved to not contradict President Donald Trump’s claim that the reason for the current war with Iran was because of an imminent threat from Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump and other officials have been frustrated with Gabbard’s performance, CNN has reported, and her survival in the job has been the subject of speculation. That was revived with the public resignation by her closest aide, Joe Kent, who criticized Trump’s decision to go to war against Iran, which he said posed no imminent threat to the US.
Gabbard ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 partly on an anti-war platform, and she specifically opposed war with Iran.
Ratcliffe didn’t attempt to avoid contradicting the White House on another important aspect of the Iran war. US intelligence agencies have assessed that the Russian government has provided some support to Iran, including drones and targeting from their satellites, to assist in attacks on US military targets.
Asked about that assessment recently, Steve Witkoff, the president’s top negotiator with Iran, said the US had asked the Russians, and Vladimir Putin had denied providing such assistance. Witkoff said he took Putin at his word.
Ratcliffe, asked Wednesday about the claim, said he did not take Putin at his word and offered to provide more detail in the next classified hearing.
Sen. John Fetterman leaning yes on Mullin but won't say for sure
Sen. John Fetterman says he will maintain an open mind on Markwayne Mullin’s nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security but would not definitively say if he will back his nomination.
Fetterman’s vote is crucial given chairman Rand Paul is a “no” on the nomination.
“I came up with an open mind, and I’m going to maintain that that was always my commitment to do that,” Fetterman said.
Asked if he was leaning one way or another, Fetterman said, “I haven’t been rocked by some kinds of mic dropping, kinds of moments, for sure.”
He also suggested that he wasn’t moved by Paul’s comments on Mullin’s attacks against him.
“What happened to my colleague from Kentucky is terrible. Political violence is awful, and he was in the hospital in pain. No one wants that kind of thing. You know, all I’ve I ever mind is when, when I was in the hospital, you know, I was touch and go and, you know, I know there were unkind things said, but I’ve let all that go. And that’s why Sean O’Brien was here, because they let it go. That’s just part of, like the moment that we’re in right now. We kind of just find a way forward and just kind of let things go. That’s their prerogative not to. But he’s here for that reason, and that’s why I have an open mind as well, too.”
GOP Sen. Rand Paul will vote against Mullin's nomination
Republican Sen. Rand Paul demanded an apology from the nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, at his confirmation hearing over comments Mullin made regarding an assault Paul suffered back in 2017.
Sen. Rand Paul said that he will not vote to confirm Sen. Markwayne Mullin as Secretary of Homeland Security, after Mullin refused to apologize during his confirmation hearing for saying he “understood” why Paul’s neighbor violently attacked him in 2017.
Paul, the panel’s chairman, accused Mullin of having “anger issues,” and said that his comments about violence set a bad example for a department whose reputation has been marred by accusations of excessive use of force, pointing to ICE.
“I think there are anger issues. I think there’s a lack of contrition, both about the violence that was perpetrated on me, really the violent episode involved in the Senate committee where he’s told the media frankly that he doesn’t regret it,” said Paul, referring to Mullin’s apparent willingness to physically fight a witness during a 2023 hearing.
“The fact that he can’t bring himself to say that, you know, really, we shouldn’t settle political questions with violence, I think that would be a terrible example for ICE and for our border patrol agents,” added Paul. “We’re in the midst, I think, of a crisis where there needs to be more direction from the top, and a guy who brawls, a guy who can’t even say he’s sorry about, you know, wishing violence on me and really applauding the attack that happened on me, can’t come to say that? I don’t know how he could, from my point of view, be a leader of ICE or border patrol.”
Paul added that he believed asking Mullin to apologize for his comments should have been an easy question, recounting how the 2017 attack affected him. “I still remember lying in bed not being able to get up, having to have a rope tied to my bed to try to pull myself up. I had three ribs that were completely snapped in half. So, the ribs rubbed on each other for three months. My lung was damaged such that they had to remove a part of it. I coughed up blood for a year. So no, I don’t think highly of people who think that that’s okay. And really, this is sort of a lowball question.”
Near the end of the hearing, Paul had threatened to cancel the committee’s vote on Mullin’s nomination, scheduled for Thursday, if Mullin did not meet with the top committee members in a classified setting to explain what Mullin has called a “misunderstanding” about allegations of stolen valor. Pressed on this, Paul said they could go ahead with tomorrow’s vote if Mullin is “forthcoming.”
“We have an agreement now to go over to a classified hearing and hear about his classified mission that, you know, hasn’t been fully detailed to anyone. If that goes as planned and is forthcoming, I still plan on having a vote tomorrow.”
Gabbard denies handling ballots during Fulton County warrant execution
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard denied handling ballots when she was present at the FBI’s seizure of 2020 ballots in Fulton County, Georgia, and she said that the FBI evidence truck that she was photographed standing in was “empty.”
Sen. Jon Ossoff asked Gabbard a number of pointed questions about her involvement in the search.
He said that the committee is probing her involvement in election-related activities, while revealing that Gabbard’s general counsel and deputy general counsel had provided testimony for the inquiry.
The committee’s chair, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, cut the Geogia Democrat off in the midst of his questioning because his time had run out.
Gabbard said that President Donald Trump made the request that she observe the seizure on the day of the search, but she declined to say how that request was communicated to her.
Takeaways from the worldwide threats hearing
Top Trump administration officials testified publicly Wednesday about the buildup to the Iran war for the first time since the start of the conflict three weeks ago.
The testimony was much-anticipated given the administration’s often-confusing and contradictory conduct of the Iran war and presentation of the underlying intelligence.
The testimony also came a day after the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent, became the highest-profile Trump administration official to resign over the war. Kent did so while suggesting the administration had lied about Iran posing an imminent threat.
So what did we learn? Some takeaways were:
1. The intelligence officials repeatedly either contradicted or failed to back up Trump’s claims about the Iran war.
2. There wasn’t much support for Trump’s claim Iran was an “imminent” threat.
3. Democrats avoided focusing on Kent, specifically.
4. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard failed to clear up much of anything about the controversial January search of a Fulton County, Georgia, elections office.
Mullin hearing ends after three hours of intense questioning
Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing on his nomination to be Secretary of Homeland Security has ended, after a little over three hours of intense questioning from Democrats and the committee’s Republican chairman.
While Sen. Rand Paul had at one point threatened to cancel the committee vote on Mullin’s nomination, scheduled for tomorrow, as he wrapped the hearing the chairman said the committee’s markup on the nomination is still scheduled for Thursday morning.
Mullin says he will cooperate with DHS inspector general, who alleged obstruction under Noem
Sen. Markwayne Mullin said during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he would cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog, which has complained about the lack of such cooperation during Secretary Kristi Noem’s tenure.
Asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal whether Mullin would specifically cooperate with the Inspector General’s inquiry into DHS’s expansive spending on advertising campaigns and the contractors and subcontractors who benefitted from them, Mullin responded that he would “do everything that’s required of me by law” including providing documents and records to the watchdog.
In a letter sent to senators earlier this month, DHS’s inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, said the agency had “systematically obstructed the work” of his office.
