Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who sparked headlines yesterday after renewing his fight challenge against Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien, revealed that he’d be willing to bite O’Brien.
“By the way I’m not afraid of biting. I will bite,” Mullin said in an interview.
“In a fight, I’m going to bite,” he added. “I’ll do anything. I’m not above it. And I don’t care where I bite by the way.”
O’Brien challenged Mullin, a former MMA fighter, in June, writing on X: “You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy.”
During a congressional hearing Tuesday, Mullin took O’Brien’s offer seriously and prepared to fight him on the spot.
“Sir, this is a time, this is a place. You want to run your mouth?” Mullin said Tuesday. “We can be two consenting adults—we can finish it here.”
O’Brien accepted the challenge, prompting the Oklahoma Republican to begin to remove his wedding ring before Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) intervened.
“You’re a United States senator, sit down. This is a hearing, and God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress.” Sanders said.
On Tuesday night, Mullin told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that O’Brien shouldn’t “run your mouth at me and expect me to just sit there.”
“You should’ve seen the fear in his eyes when I stood up too,” Mullin said. “I’m not joking, I’m not looking for a fight. I used to get paid to fight professionally. I’m not really looking for it, but I’m sure not going to sit back and let somebody do that and not call them out on it.”
Mullin doubled down in justifying the possible showdown in a separate interview as well.
“Some people say, is this behavior unbecoming to a senator? I don’t know,” Mullin said. “But I will tell you this for sure: That’s not we behave in Oklahoma, and I’m an Oklahoman first and so if you’re going run your mouth, you’re going to be called out on it, and that’s what happened here.”
Mullin added: “He was scared out of his mind. He was very thankful that Bernie Sanders stopped us … I was ready to shut his mouth up.”
