What we're covering
• DHS confirmation hearing: Sen. Markwayne Mullin is testifying before a Senate committee to be the next Homeland Security secretary. In a tense start, Sen. Rand Paul accused the Oklahoma senator of having “anger issues.”
• “I shouldn’t have said that”: Mullin admitted that his early comment calling Alex Pretti a “deranged individual” was a mistake. Pretti, an ICU nurse in Minnesota, was killed by immigration officers in January.
• Global threats hearing: Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s intelligence chiefs are testifying before a Senate hearing about the Annual Threat Assessment, the first such report not to mention foreign threats to US elections since Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. 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.
Gabbard says she did not “participate” in FBI 2020 ballot seizure in Georgia
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard denied that she was participating in a domestic law enforcement action as she was grilled on her presence at the execution of an FBI search warrant at the Fulton County, Georgia, election center.
“I did not participate in a law enforcement activity, nor would I, because that does not exist within my authorities,” Gabbard told Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“I was at Fulton County, sir, at the request of the president and to work with the FBI to observe this action that had long been awaited. I was not aware of what was in the warrant or was not in the warrant.”
Warner pressed Gabbard on why President Donald Trump wanted her there and how he knew a warrant was going to be executed in Fulton County, which covers Atlanta, the target of some of Trump’s most aggressive efforts to reverse his 2020 defeat.
Gabbard said she is not aware that Trump knew of the FBI’s affidavit justifying the search – which did not make any claims of foreign election interference – before it was served.
Mullin says uniformed officers would only go to polling places if there is a “specific threat”
Pressed by Sen. Elissa Slotkin on whether he would place uniformed officers at polling places, Sen. Markwayne Mullin would not rule it out, though he was clear that he would only do so if there was a “specific threat,” and that they would work with local law enforcement.
“The only reason why my officers would be there [is] if there was a specific threat for them to be there, not for intimidation,” he said.
The idea that ICE or other federal agencies might send officers to the polls in this year’s midterm elections has become a source of concern among Democrats as well as some state and local election officials, who fear such a move might frighten some voters away from casting ballots.
“I can’t sit there and guarantee hypothetically what threat would be or not,” Mullin replied, when asked why he wouldn’t rule out that option, “If there is a threat, a specific threat — say it’s in a Jewish community, and there is a threat that’s specific to that, to that polling area, then we will work with local law enforcement. There’ll be a reason for us to be there, and it’ll be known why we’re there.”
Slotkin also asked Mullin, who voted against certifying the 2020 election in the aftermath of the January 6th attack on the Capitol, whether former President Joe Biden won that election.
“We know that President Joe Biden was sworn into office. He was the president for the last four years, but I do believe my job as Department of Homeland Security Secretary will be to make sure that we assure that the elections are fair and people can trust them,” said Mullin, without directly answering the question.
Mullin also championed the president’s voter ID and proof of citizenship bill that the Senate is debating this week.
Mullin: ICE should not be on the "front line"
Immigration officers should not be on the “front line” in American cities and instead should be used in a “transport” role that coordinates with local law enforcement agencies, Sen. Markwayne Mullin said Wednesday.
Mullin’s comments during his confirmation hearing to become the next Homeland Security secretary indicates he is seeking a different approach than the outgoing secretary. Under Kristi Noem’s leadership, immigration officers deployed to several American cities and carried out highly visible, sweeping and scrutinized immigration operations.
Mullin said he would like to see the agency work more closely with local law enforcement and have officers going to pick up undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes from local jails.
Gabbard doesn't fully explain her presence in Fulton County
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s appearance before lawmakers today did little to help explain why she on site for an FBI search of a Fulton County, Georgia, elections office earlier this year.
Her presence at the search drew scrutiny as her job generally involves coordinating with US intelligence agencies overseas and not in domestic law enforcement matters and could imperil any cases that come out of the search.
It also didn’t help that the administration has given a series of conflicting explanations for why she was at the scene. Gabbard said today that she was in Fulton County at the request of the President Donald Trump.
At the National Prayer Breakfast, however, Trump said Gabbard was there at the request of Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“The media asked, ‘Why is she doing it?’ Right, Pam?” Trump said. “Because Pam wanted her to do it, and you know why? Because she’s smart.”
It would also be highly unusual for the president to be aware of any law enforcement activity before it happened and so Trump’s potential involvement in a search related to elections has also raised questions.
Trump has long been fixated on debunked claims about the 2020 election in Fulton County. His involvement in the case and Gabbard’s presence on the scene of a search could compromise any criminal cases that are brought in this matter as defense attorneys could file motions claiming vindictive prosecution.
Mullin grew emotional talking about his son during confirmation hearing
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin grew emotional this morning as he discussed his son during his appearance before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
Saying the homeland security secretary needs to have “integrity,” Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson asked Mullin to share a story about where his loyalty to President Donald Trump originated.
Mullin told the panel that it stemmed from the way Trump changed the trajectory of his son’s life after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in 2020 that caused him to lose most of his memory and muscle control.
“We almost lost him. For 26 hours he had an extremely low pulse. There was a time that they thought they lost his pulse all together,” Mullin recounted.
Mullin said that after hearing of this, Trump frequently followed up with him and his son, offering to send his “personal plane” to bring his son to a top neurorehabilitation center. Mullin emphasized that this was all happening during a contentious election cycle.
“That one incident jogged his memory, and from then on he started retaining things,” Mullin said of his son, adding of Trump: “We’ve been friends ever since.”
Why Fetterman is expected to save Mullin
Sen. Markwayne Mullin could be at risk of losing the vote of Sen. Rand Paul as his nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security is considered in the committee that the Kentucky Republican leads.
But that doesn’t mean that Mullin’s nomination is doomed. In fact, it’s likely he wins over a Democrat on the panel: Sen. John Fetterman, who has a strong relationship with the Oklahoma Republican and has broken with his party over the closure of DHS.
Republicans currently have a one-vote margin on the committee. So if there was a party-line vote, the nomination would deadlock, potentially dooming Mullin’s chances.
But Fetterman has signaled to reporters that he’s on board with Mullin, meaning his vote would be enough to send the nomination to the floor, where Mullin is likely to win the votes for confirmation.
During his questioning of Mullin, Fetterman took a more hawkish line on immigration than his Democratic colleagues — and defended the Oklahoma Republican over his past controverses, namely his near scuffle with Teamsters president Sean O’Brien at a 2023 hearing.
“I came here and I committed to come here with an open mind, and I’m going to continue to do that,” Fetterman said at the hearing Wednesday, touting his past work with Mullin. “And it’s not going to be about ‘got you’ moments for me. It’s about just saying my experience with you has been consistent kindness and professionalism.”
Intel report doesn’t mention threats to US elections for first time in years
The US intelligence community’s annual worldwide threat assessment released Wednesday is the first such intelligence report not to mention foreign threats to US elections since Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, according to a CNN review.
Past intelligence reports have typically mentioned Russia, China or Iran’s well-documented attempts to influence American voters with propaganda or cyber operations.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, asked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in the Wednesday hearing on the new intelligence assessment why election security was omitted from the report.
“Are you saying there is no foreign threat to our elections in the midterms this year?” Warner asked.
“As I stated in the outset of my remarks, this year’s annual threat assessment matches the prioritization of threats.” Gabbard said, at which point Warner and Gabbard began talking over each other.
While Gabbard has been largely silent about foreign threats to US elections, she was present at the FBI’s search of 2020 election records in Georgia in January. The Trump administration has so far provided no evidence of a foreign nexus to that investigation, and Gabbard’s presence was sharply criticized by Democrats, former intelligence officials and election law experts.
Heading into November’s midterm election, there is widespread concern among current and former officials that the US government’s willingness to combat foreign efforts to shape elections has waned, CNN has reported.
Many of the government centers previously tasked with repelling foreign influence operations have been disbanded or downsized — and local election officials are preparing to face a continued onslaught of foreign influence operations largely on their own.
FBI Director Patel says agency is increasing focus on terror in US
FBI Director Kash Patel said during Wednesday’s hearing he has increased the number of agents focused on intelligence gathering around terrorism in the United States.
Patel, when asked about ISIS and threats of terrorism in the US, said the FBI has expanded “the number of agents and intel analysts that go online and detect” resulting in a “double-digit increase in intelligence production.”
His comments stand in stark contrast from his goals prior to joining the agency.
During a podcast interview in 2024, Patel suggested that the FBI should scale back its intelligence activities and instead focus on law enforcement.
The director’s comments also come after Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran just days before the US attacked the country.
Why senators keep asking Mullin about ICE warehouses
On at least two occasions, Democratic senators have asked Sen. Markwayne Mullin about how he expects to handle Homeland Security’s warehouse detention plans that have received blowback from members of both parties.
In recent months, DHS quietly purchased multiple warehouses nationwide to turn into immigrant detention centers as part of a broader effort to expand capacity. At the local level, though, some of those purchases came as a surprise, prompting pushback from Republicans and Democrats in the community.
One of the primary concerns lawmakers and local officials have voiced is a lack of communication with DHS. During the hearing, Mullin said he plans to communicate with local officials if installed as Homeland Security secretary.
“If I’m confirmed, I’ll make a trip out there and see it for myself because it’s a big concern of yours and we want to address those concerns,” Mullin said in an exchange with New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim about a warehouse planned in his state.
Mullin pledges to be accessible to senators after frustration with Noem's responsiveness
Sen. Markwayne Mullin pledged to be accessible to senators if confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security, in contrast to complaints about Sec. Kristi Noem.
“I think all of us that’s been either in the House or in the Senate, always complain about the outreach of agencies. I will make a commitment to you that I’m going to have the best,” he said, pledging a responsive legislative affairs office and a direct response to members who reach out to him.
Mullin’s hearing comes on the heels of back-to-back contentious hearings with Homeland Security Secretary Noem earlier this month. The pair of hearings, which frustrated Democrats and Republicans alike as well as President Donald Trump, ultimately led to Noem’s ouster.
One of the ongoing concerns held among lawmakers was the lack of information coming from the agency. Lawmakers will often make requests for information to federal agencies with deadlines on when they expect those requests to be met.
Lawmakers who oversee the Department of Homeland Security previously told CNN the agency had repeatedly stymied their requests for information in recent months, with even some Republicans alleging they’ve had phone calls go unanswered and data requests left to languish.
That tense Mullin-Paul hearing exchange stems from a long-simmering feud
At the crux of Sen. Rand Paul’s blistering open remarks at Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing to serve as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security is a long-simmering feud between the two men.
Mullin’s frustrations with Paul have long centered on the fact that Paul has repeatedly voted against GOP priorities and that he is often a thorn in the side of GOP leaders and President Donald Trump.
Mullin told a group of voters in Oklahoma he “understood” why Paul’s neighbor had attacked him back in 2017 and called Paul a “snake.”
Weeks later, Mullin suddenly found himself nominated to serve as the president’s DHS chief. That meant Mullin would sit before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which Paul chairs.
Repeatedly this morning, Paul pressed Mullin to apologize for his comments, but Mullin refused.
At risk for Mullin: If Paul were to vote against him, he will need a Democratic vote for his nomination to move forward. Sen. John Fetterman has signaled he could vote for Mullin but that could become a key vote if Paul votes “no.”
FEMA should be “restructured,” but not eliminated, Mullin says
The country’s federal emergency response agency should be “restructured,” but not eliminated entirely, Sen. Markwayne Mullin said during his confirmation hearing to be Homeland Security secretary on Wednesday.
Mullin was asked to respond to vows outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem made during a Cabinet meeting last year to “eliminate FEMA.” She later backtracked from those comments by saying FEMA would be eliminated in its current form by shifting disaster response duties to state, rather than the federal government.
Mullin’s comments during Wednesday’s hearing aligned with Noem’s later comments. “As I as I said, I think it needs to be restructured, not eliminated,” he said.
ICE agents will need judicial warrants to search private property, with limited exceptions, Mullin says
Sen. Markwayne Mullin said that if he is confirmed as Homeland Security secretary, immigration officers will nearly always need a judicial warrant to enter homes or private businesses — a contrast to current policy that allows them to do so with a less restrictive administrative warrant.
“We will not enter a home or a place of business without a judicial warrant unless we’re pursuing the individual that runs into a place of business or a residence or a house,” Mullin said in response to questioning from Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
Under outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem, immigration officers have been authorized to use force to enter homes or businesses using only an administrative warrant. Those warrants are signed by officers who work under the executive branch, while judicial warrants are signed by neutral judges and require a higher bar to issue.
That memo alarmed experts in constitutional law who said it sought to usurp basic constitutional protections surrounding searches on private property without a judge’s permission.
Blumenthal presses Mullin on immigration arrest quotas
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal asked Sen. Markwayne Mullin about a White House-imposed quota of 3,000 daily immigration arrests — a steep number that federal agents have not yet been able to meet.
Asked whether Mullin will similarly hold agents to that number, he replied: “No quota has been set for me. … The president of the United States sets the policies, and I will be working with the president.”
It has been understood among multiple secretaries who have served under both Trump administrations that Stephen Miller, who now serves as White House deputy chief of staff and imposed the quota, relentlessly directs policy at the Department of Homeland Security and is the primary architect the president’s mass deportation campaign.
The dynamic between Mullin and Miller, if Mullin gets confirmed, will be one that is watched both internally among officials and, as indicated by Blumenthal, lawmakers on the Hill.
Mullin says calling Alex Pretti a “deranged individual” was a mistake
Sen. Markwayne Mullin acknowledged Wednesday that his early descriptions of Alex Pretti, who was killed by immigration officers in January, as a “deranged individual” were a mistake.
Shortly after Pretti, an ICU nurse who was legally carrying a pistol, was killed in Minneapolis, Mullin called him a “deranged individual who came in to cause massive damage with a loaded pistol.” Video of Pretti’s killing showed that he never brandished the pistol he was carrying before he was shot and killed.
“The investigation is ongoing, and there is, like I said, there’s sometimes going to make mistake and I own it,” he added. “That one, I went out there too fast. I was responding immediately without the facts. That’s my fault.”
Mullin says he'll run DHS differently than Noem amid public distrust
In the first hour of Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation hearing, there have already been multiple instances where he’s indicated how he’d manage the Department of Homeland Security differently than outgoing Secretary Kristi Noem.
Democratic senators have cited public distrust of the department over the last year, particularly on the heels of the fatal shootings of two US citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis.
“In the past 14 months, Secretary Noem has fundamentally broken the people’s trust in the Department of Homeland Security. The top priority must be to rebuild trust,” said Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.
“Everybody has different leadership styles,” Mullin responded. “My management style is empowering people.”
DHS officials, who are hoping for a reset at the department, are still getting acquainted with Mullin and his management style.
Mullin’s responses so far suggest a stark difference from the way the department has been managed under Noem, whose de facto chief adviser Corey Lewandowski was known to get involved in multiple issues and abruptly dismiss people.
Moreno slams Democrats for "political theater" over DHS funding
GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio slammed Democrats over the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, calling it a “disgrace,” and warning of “political theater” from Democratic side of the dais.
Moreno, though he is a very junior member of the committee, was allowed to jump the line so he can attend a dignified transfer of three soldiers from his state who were killed in the ongoing war with Iran.
“This job isn’t complicated. The American people send us here to get things done, and yet, for the third time in six months, we shut down this government with total impunity. They will go home and just make social media videos and try to blame Republicans. It is a disgrace,” Moreno said.
“I’m going to go pay respects to three soldiers who died so that we can have the liberties that we enjoy here, and you guys continue with political theater, personal attacks, whatever you can do. I know that is a good man,” he added, referring to Mullin. “I will vote for you. Our Republican colleagues will vote for you. You will get confirmed. You will do a great job, and you will make this country proud.”
Mullin says accusations of stolen valor are a “misunderstanding”
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who has no history of US military service, on Wednesday addressed accusations that his previous, vague statements about serving overseas or smelling war amounted to stolen valor.
Mullin said the controversy around his statements amounted to a “misunderstanding.” The Oklahoma senator told Sen. Gary Peters during his confirmation hearing to serve as Homeland Security secretary that he was asked to train with a “a very small contingency and go to a certain area” around 2016.
As part of that trip, Mullin said, he participated in Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training, which he simultaneously described as “kind of fun” and “absolutely awful.” He said aspects of that training and trip were classified.
Peters, the top Democrat on the committee, also confronted Mullin about cryptic comments he made during a Fox News interview earlier this month, during which he said war “smells bad.”
“So where did you smell war, sir?” Peters asked.
Mullin again responded that his answer would be classified.
Sen. Warner: Gabbard “not interested” in protecting US democracy from foreign influence
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is “not interested in protecting American democracy by combatting foreign influence,” Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the intelligence committee, said at Wednesday’s worldwide threats hearing.
Warner cited Gabbard’s dissolution of a center in her office to counter foreign malign threats and her presence at the FBI’s seizure of 2020 election ballots in Georgia in January. Warner also claimed US intelligence agencies have not responded to the committee’s requests for legally required briefings on foreign threats to the midterms.
Former senior US intelligence officials and election experts have told CNN that Gabbard’s presence at the FBI’s execution of a search warrant in Fulton County, Georgia, risks eroding a crucial line between foreign and domestic intelligence activities instituted after Watergate.
Gabbard has defended her actions as falling under her mandate to probe foreign influence aimed at US elections.
Warner used his opening statement to sound other notes of alarm about the state of American democracy. He slammed Kurt Olsen, the White House official and election denier whose referral led to the FBI’s ballot seizure.
“[I]t is worth asking: why is someone whose career has been devoted to undermining the legitimate results of a democratic election now operating from inside the federal government with access to law enforcement and intelligence authorities? What exactly is he being empowered to do?” Warner said in his prepared remarks, referring to Olsen.
Sen. Paul demands an apology, plays video of Mullin confronting witness during hearing
GOP Sen. Rand Paul demanded an apology from Sen. Markwayne Mullin for his past comments that he “understood completely” why Paul’s neighbor attacked him in 2017 during Mullin’s confirmation hearing to be Secretary of Homeland Security.
Paul, who is chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, then played clips of Mullin confronting a witness and appearing to threaten a physical fight in a 2023 hearing.
He also showed clips of Mullin saying he would have gone after the witness if he hadn’t been told to stop and that he doesn’t regret his handling of the event.
Mullin pushed back, noting that the witness, President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Sean O’Brien, is now a “good friend,” and is attending the hearing as Mullin’s guest.
