A heated fight erupted between Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Connecticut Democrat Rosa DeLauro during testimony before a House subcommittee hearing on immigration and border security, with a threatening and disrespectful Mullin yelling that DeLauro “should be put in your place.”
The confrontation happened Thursday, June 25, during testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security as DeLauro was questioning Mullin on the Trump administration’s handling of children separated from parents who have been detained by federal immigration officials.
“Thirty-nine hundred children were separated from their families,” DeLauro began but was then quickly interrupted by Mullin.
“Four-hundred and fifty thousand kids were lost under the Biden administration, and you didn’t say a word,” Mullin claimed as DeLauro tried to get her time back.
“Mr. Secretary, Mr. Secretary, do not interrupt,” an angry DeLauro demanded.
“Don’t you point your finger at me,” a disrespectful Mullin threatened.
“I will point my finger at you,” the congresswoman shot back.
“Don’t you be a hypocrite,” a heated Mullin interjected again.
“Thirty-nine hundred children,” DeLauro began again.
“You should be as upset about the 450,000 kids that were lost,” he insisted.
“I am upset,” the Democrat responded.
But a rudely disdainful Mullin continued, “You didn’t say a word about it.”
That’s when DeLauro turned to the committee chair, Republican Mark Amodei, for assistance in getting Mullin under control.
“Mr. Chairman, can you put him in his place?” she asked.
Mullin exploded, “You should be put in your place.”
Social media descended into a furious backlash against Mullin.
“So contempt of Congress isn’t a thing anymore, I guess…” a Threads user noted.
Another alluded to Mullin’s history of emotional and aggressive rhetoric and even physical challenges during congressional hearings in the past.
“Mullin is too emotional to be in a leadership position. Find me a male leader in this administration that this sentence does not apply to.”
“He’s such an obnoxious moron -sshole. Rosa does not suffer fools,” this Threads user stated.
Other posters agreed, “He’s a horrible person no matter who appointed him. Let’s not pretend like Trump is the only reason Markwayne is a complete sh-t human being. He is all on his own, and he’s accountable for that.”
President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security has claimed over and over that the Biden administration “lost” children, according to The Hill.
Mullin’s reference to 450,000 is the number of children crossing the border alone who were placed with either relatives or another adult they knew after they arrived during the Biden years, but it was Trump during his first term under a 2018 policy who separated the children of immigrants from their families and “lost” more than 1,000 of them.
A new report from the Brookings Institution last month finds some 145,000 children, all U.S. citizens, have been separated from at least one parent under Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown over the past 16 months, and 22,000 have lost both parents.
