Trump nominee Markwayne Mullin grilled by senators at DHS confirmation hearing – live

Mullin said that he regrets making comments denigrating Alex Pretti, after he was killed by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis.

After the 37-year-old was fatally shot while filming the officers on his phone during a protest against the immigration crackdown in his city, Mullin called him a “deranged individual that came in to cause max damage”.

He went on to retract his comments while answering questions from senators on the homeland security committee.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” Mullin said. “I went out there too fast. I was responding immediately without the facts. That’s my fault.”

Mullin, however, stopped short of issuing an apology when probed by Democratic senator Gary Peters of Michigan. “We’ll let the investigation go through, and if I’m proven wrong, then I will, absolutely,” Mullin added.

While Mullin has never served in the US military, he routinely speaks as if he did in interviews. My colleague, Robert Mackey, dug into these comments ahead of today’s confirmation hearing.

Two days after the US attacked Iran, for instance, Mullin told Fox News: “War is ugly. It smells bad. And if anybody has ever been there and been able to smell the war that’s happening around you and taste it, and feel it in your nostrils, and hear it, it’s something you’ll never forget. And it’s ugly.”

These remarks came up again when Gary Peters questioned Mullin today. The Republican senator confirmed that he has never traveled to a foreign country outside of vacation or mission work.

Mullin has made cryptic claims about “overseas” work, and was similarly opaque today while describing an unlisted official trip as a member of Congress, which he insisted was classified.

Peters said that the committee “will want to find out more information” about this trip.

During his questioning today, Paul played a clip of Mullin threatening to fight Sean O’Brien, the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, during a 2023 Senate health committee hearing.

Today, O’Brien was sat behind Mullin. The Oklahoma senator referred to the Teamsters leader as a “close friend”.

“We talk all the time. I’ve been on his podcast. We talked through this. That’s how you handle your differences,” Mullin added.

At the time, in an interview following his interaction with O’Brien on Capitol Hill, Mullin said that “sometimes people just need to be punched in the face”.

As Paul continued to question Trump’s nominee to lead the DHS, Mullin ultimately said that he didn’t agree with the sentiment that political differences had to be settled with violence.

Disaster management experts and climate advocates have voiced concerns about what Mullin’s confirmation would mean for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), which falls under the Department of Homeland Security umbrella.

As recently as 2019, Mullin has questioned the existence of the climate crisis – despite scientific consensus that it is occurring.

Like former homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who gutted Fema, Mullin has also suggested that states should lead disaster response rather than the federal agency, even once publicly questioning if Fema should have any role in disaster preparedness.

Mullin did not mention Fema in his opening statement.

Michigan Senator Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the committee, voiced concerns about Noem’s treatment of Fema in his own opening words.

“The administration has also taken an ax to Fema, cutting staff and freezing or delaying critical grant funding for everything from emergency food and shelter after a disaster to flood mitigation programs and security grants to nonprofits, including houses of worship,” Peters said.

Mullin was quick to push back against committee chair Rand Paul’s comments at the beginning of the hearing.

“I have to address the remarks the chairman made, calling me a liar,” Mullin said. “I think everybody in this room knows that I’m very blunt and direct to the point … I’ve worked with many people in this room. Seems like you [Paul] fight Republicans more than you work with us.”

The Oklahoma senator said that his candor is what separates him from most lawmakers:

If do have something to say … I’ll never say it behind your back. So for you to say I’m a liar, sir, that’s not accurate.

Mullin went on to say that although he has “different opinions with everybody in this room”, as homeland security secretary he’s prepared to “protect everybody”.

He said the job is “bigger than the political differences” on Capitol Hill. “So I can set it aside, if you’re willing to set it aside, let me earn your respect. Let me earn the job,” Mullin added.

“This is a role where temperament matters, where judgment matters, and where experience matters,” Peters said, before noting that under Noem’s leadership “shortcomings in these traits” have imperiled the DHS.

“While I’m interested in hearing more about your vision for leading the department,” Peters told Mullin today, “I do have reservations about your readiness to take on such a significant role at such a critical time.”

The committee’s top Democrat, Michigan senator Gary Peters, noted what we reported earlier – that Democrats are committed to funding TSA, Fema, Cisa and the Coast Guard, while lawmakers negotiate “much needed ICE reforms”.

“Yesterday, the White House sent a letter laying out their latest offer, but the devil is always in the details. Administrative action is not enough,” Peters said. “We need to pass real reforms into law. If Republicans really do agree with us that TSA and other personnel need to be paid, then they should join us and pass the bills to pay them today.”

Rand Paul seemed immediately frustrated with Mullin as he opened the hearing. While he was speaking, he suggested that Mullin wasn’t listening to his remarks, during which he pushed Trump’s nominee on his vote against Paul’s amendment to stop all funding for refugee welfare programs.

“You decided to transfer the blame. You told the media that I was a ‘freaking snake’ and that you completely understood why I had been assaulted,” Paul said, referring to when he was attacked by a neighbor in Kentucky in 2017, which resulted in Paul breaking several ribs and developing pneumonia.

The confirmation hearing for Markwayne Mullin, the president’s nominee to replace Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary is due to start any minute.

Lawmakers are gathered around the dais, and the committee’s chair, Republican senator Rand Paul is delivering his opening remarks.

The president also used Truth Social today to criticize Democrats over the ongoing stalemate on funding parts of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Funding for several DHS agencies has been lapsed for more than a month as lawmakers negotiate new limits on federal immigration enforcement. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), however, was not impacted because it continues to receive billions of dollars guaranteed under Donald Trump sweeping bill, signed into law last year.

Meanwhile, thousands of employees at the Transport Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) and the Coast Guard have been affected, and are working without pay

Trump said the ongoing shutdown is “causing chaos at the airports”, branding Democrats as “lunatics” and saying their demands are “totally unreasonable in their Radical Left asks”.

On Tuesday, a White House official confirmed that Senate Democrats sent a counteroffer on Monday aimed at resolving the budget standoff. A Trump administration official told the Guardian that the offer by Democrats was under review, although Republican lawmakers were quick to dismiss the proposal.

Democrats have previously demanded that federal officers obtain judicial warrants to enter private property. They’ve also pushed for immigration enforcement to no longer wear masks while patrolling and making arrests. This comes after agents fatally shot US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, in the streets of Minneapolis in separate cases in January.

Today, Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, will launch a discharge petition to force a vote for on a separate funding bill for the TSA, Fema, Cisa and the Coast Guard. It’s a long shot-effort from the lower chamber’s top Democrat since he would need 218 signatures to proceed.

Donald Trump has issued a short statement on his Truth Social, musing about what would happen to the strait of Hormuz if the US “finished off” what’s left of Iran. He suggested it would get “non-responsive allies”, presumably in Nato, “in gear and fast”.

European countries including the UK have pushed back on Trump’s demands to help reopen the strait of Hormuz by force after Iran shut down the majority of shipping through the critical trade route.

We’ll also be watching several events on Capitol Hill today. This includes the confirmation hearing of Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – Republican senator Markwayne Mullin at 9:30am ET. As that gets under way, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and FBI director Kash Patel will face questions from Senate lawmakers. They’ll be joined by CIA director John Ratcliffe, and we’re expecting questions about the administration’s first major defection over the Iran war – former counter-terrorism chief Joe Kent.

A reminder that Kent resigned on Tuesday in a letter that claimed Iran posed no imminent threat, and blamed Irasel for pressuring the US to initiate the conflict. The White House has rebuked Kent’s allegations, and the president branded him “a nice guy” who is “weak on security”.

Donald Trump will begin the day with meetings in Washington, before traveling to Dover, Delaware for the dignified transfer of more fallen US service members in the ongoing war on Iran.

He’ll hopefully speak to reporters as he heads off, so we’ll bring you the latest lines.

Illinois lieutenant governor Juliana Stratton won the Democratic primary race to succeed Illinois’ US senator Dick Durbin, beating out US representative Raja Krishnamoorthi.

With nearly 90% of the vote tallied, Stratton was leading Krishnamoorthi by more than six percentage points on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.

“We did it,” Stratton said of her upset victory. “Tonight we showed what’s possible when you listen to the people and give the people what they want.

“Courage inspired me to run. Courage powered this campaign and courage will bring this fight straight to Donald Trump’s front door,” she said, as the crowd in Chicago wildly applauded.

Stratton, a progressive with the support of governor JB Pritzker, had been behind Krishnamoorthi in polling until recent weeks, when an infusion of cash from the governor and a hardening sentiment on immigration pushed aside the relatively moderate congressman. Stratton also faced competition on her left from congresswoman Robin Kelly, which threatened to split the progressive vote. Kelly drew less than 20% of the vote, according to the Associated Press.

When Robert F Kennedy Jr ran for president as a Democrat in 2023, he found an unexpected ally in Scott Brown. A former Republican senator, Brown had begun a tradition of hosting Republican presidential candidates for barbecues in his New Hampshire back yard, where they could stump for votes and get attention ahead of the state’s crucial primary.

Kennedy became Brown’s first Democratic invitee. His appearance in September 2023 drew hundreds of people, Brown’s biggest crowd ever. Kennedy held Brown in such high regard that after he decided to run instead as an independent, he reportedly reached out to Brown as a possible vice-presidential running mate, though Brown declined.

Later, Brown – now running for Senate in New Hampshire – said he helped Kennedy prepare for his Senate confirmation hearings for the job of US health secretary.

Newly released records obtained by the Guardian shed further light on the men’s relationship and how Brown – who had been appointed to serve as ambassador to Samoa and New Zealand by Donald Trump during his first term – responded to a controversial trip Kennedy took to Samoa in June 2019. Months later, Kennedy’s visit would become a subject of public scrutiny when measles swept through the Pacific island nation. Samoan officials and health leaders said Kennedy, who made the trip when he was the head of a US anti-vaccine organization, bolstered the credibility of local anti-vaccine activists ahead of the outbreak, which killed 83 people, mostly children under age five.

Kennedy has said he had “nothing to do with people not vaccinating in Samoa” and that he never told anybody there not to vaccinate.

Senators will get the chance today to question top aides to president Donald Trump in public about national security, nearly three weeks into the Iran war as the Senate intelligence committee holds its annual hearing on worldwide threats to the United States.

The hearing is likely to focus on the Middle East conflict, as lawmakers – including some of Trump’s fellow Republicans, as well as Democrats – have said they want more information about a war that has killed thousands of people, disrupted the lives of millions and shaken energy and stock markets, Reuters reported.

Democrats in particular have complained that the administration has not kept Congress adequately informed about a conflict that has cost US taxpayers billions and demanded public testimony rather than the classified briefings held in the past two weeks.

The testimony from officials including director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe is also likely to touch on the shock announcement on Tuesday that a top aide to Gabbard had resigned, citing the war.

Joe Kent, who headed the National Counterterrorism Center, is the first senior official in Trump’s administration to resign over the conflict. The Office of the DNI oversees the counterterrorism center and Kent is close with Gabbard, who has kept a low profile since the Iran war began.

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

A Senate committee later today is expected to give a quick confirmation to Markwayne Mullin, a first-term Republican senator from Oklahoma, to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Mullin was nominated by US president Donald Trump after Kristi Noem was ousted amid public blowback against the administration’s aggressive approach to its mass deportation agenda, which resulted in the killings of two US citizens by immigration agents in Minneapolis.

The Democrats have forced the DHS into a partial shutdown until their demands for guardrails on immigration enforcement are met.

The issues at the heart of the standoff are set to come up this morning, when Mullin’s confirmation hearing begins before the Senate committee on homeland security and governmental affairs.

“I am grateful to President Trump for nominating me to lead the US Department of Homeland Security,” Mullin, who was elected to the Senate in 2022 after serving five terms in the House of Representatives, said on social media earlier this month.

“I look forward to earning the support of my colleagues in the Senate and carrying out president Trump’s mission alongside the department’s many capable agencies and the thousands of patriots who keep us safe every day.”

Republicans have praised his nomination, and their control of the Senate gives them the numbers to push his appointment through even if Democrats oppose him. Democrats have been quiet about Mullin, with party leaders saying that their demands for reforms to immigration operations won’t change regardless of who leads DHS.

The confirmation is expected to begin at around 9.30am ET.

Read the full story here:

In other developments:

• A top counter-terrorism official in the Trump administration resigned over the ongoing war on Iran. Joe Kent, who reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said in his resignation letter that he “cannot in good conscience” support the conflict.

• Gabbard responded in a statement that did not refer to Kent directly, but argued that Trump “is responsible for determining what is and is not an imminent threat”.

• The House oversight committee subpoenaed attorney general Pam Bondi to appear for a deposition on the Department of Justice’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.

• The Senate passed a measure to start debate on the legislation to restrict voting in US elections in a number of ways, by a vote of 51-48, along mainly partisan lines, with only Lisa Murkowski, the Alaska Republican, crossing party lines.

• During the annual St Patrick’s Day Shamrock ceremony at the White House, Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, gently made the case for free trade and a rules-based order before presenting Trump with a bowl of shamrocks.

• While Trump and his aides spent much of Tuesday deriding Kent, critics of the administration pointed out that Kent’s ties to rightwing extremists meant that he was never fit for the role in the first place.