The New DHS Secretary Bragged About Spanking His Daughter On Stage
The big picture: A resurfaced 2023 video shows newly sworn-in DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin bragging about spanking his children and telling an audience he threatened to drag a teenager’s face across asphalt. It’s drawing fresh scrutiny alongside his documented history of condoning violence, including saying he “understood” why Rand Paul was assaulted and implying journalists should be killed for negative coverage.
Why it matters: Mullin now leads the department overseeing ICE, CBP, TSA, and FEMA during one of the most volatile domestic policy moments in recent history. You have a cabinet secretary with a public pattern of treating violence as casual or justified, and he’s the one giving orders to agencies that have already been criticized for excessive force.
The video: Speaking to a conservative Christian group called City Elders in 2023, Mullin described being raised by “fear of the belt” and using spanking on his own kids. He told a detailed story about his daughter begging him not to spank her, saying “you got two seconds or you’re going to get two instead of one.” He also described spanking a son who was already in tears, adding “sometimes you still gotta discipline them.”
The boyfriend threat: In the same speech, Mullin talked about his daughter’s boyfriend, saying “if I ever see you kiss her in front of me, I’m dragging your face across the asphalt. And that is a true story, I told him that.”
The pattern: This isn’t new territory for Mullin.
During his confirmation hearing, Senator Rand Paul confronted him for saying he “understood” why Paul was assaulted by a neighbor in 2017, an attack that left Paul with broken ribs. Paul asked: “I just wonder if someone who applauds violence against their political opponents is the right person to lead an agency that has struggled to accept limits on the proper use of force.”
Also Mullin previously challenged the Teamsters union president to a physical fight during a Senate hearing. AND he posted a video telling the story of a reporter who shot a congressman in 1890, adding that journalists “would write a lot less false stories if we could still handle our differences that way.”
The reactions: The Democrats’ official account wrote: “He’s bragging about hitting his daughter. This is who’s running ICE for Trump now.” Others said: “People who beat their children should be in jail, not in office.”
The bottom line: Bragging about spanking his kids on stage, threatening a teenager with asphalt, saying he understood why a senator was assaulted, trying to fight a union leader at a hearing, & implying journalists should be shot for bad coverage… That’s the resume of the person now running the department in charge of immigration enforcement, airport security, and disaster response. Rand Paul’s question during the confirmation hearing has only gotten more relevant since Mullin took the job.
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