U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) appeared on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” to discuss the ongoing government shutdown and his views on Democratic leadership in Congress. Mullin criticized Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats, claiming they are prioritizing political interests over reopening the government.
“Bill sometimes you just can’t make sense out of crazy. I mean, how many times have they pulled that fire alarm? Remember, OBBB was going to kill thousands and thousands were going to lose their health care, and hundreds of rural hospitals were going to go out. I mean, they cry this ridiculous war cry, rally cry, that does nothing,” Mullin said during the interview.
He accused Democrats of misleading the public about the situation in Washington: “They continue to lie to the American people because they can’t actually fight on substance. They can’t fight on facts. What they know for a fact is, they have voted for this CR 13 times… They voted for this exact clean CR, this exact language, exact numbers– a year ago, they voted on it in December, they voted on it in January, and they voted on it in March, and now they’re saying that they’re going to hold the American people hostage unless they get $1.5 trillion to defund basically everything that the one big, beautiful bill pulled out of the fraud, waste and abuse. And they’re saying now they want to put it back in, it’s a really hard argument to make.”
Mullin also addressed Democratic spending proposals: “And by the way, what they’re wanting $1.5 trillion for, which is $600 billion above the defense budget, is only to open the government up for four weeks. It’s very hard for them to explain. So instead of actually arguing about facts, Dana, what they do is they go out there and they make ridiculous claims like this. And at some point you have to ignore them because Elizabeth Warren, Chuck Schumer, they lost their ever loving mind, and they’re saying the most ridiculous things possible because they’re pandering to this extreme left.”
On reopening government operations quickly if more Democrats support bipartisan efforts: “This has all happened, Schumer shutdown, because he’s fearful of AOC running against him in 2028. If the Democrats are really concerned, they could open the government up in five minutes. Literally five minutes. We already have a bipartisan bill that three Democrats have voted for. We just need five more of them to join with us, and we can open the government up; literally we can open it up immediately.”
Mullin described ongoing talks with Democratic colleagues: “We have had a group working for about three days… You know we’re not negotiating on trying to reopen the government. We’ve already said this is a clean CR you can vote to open it right now… but we’re not going to allow you to hold the American people hostage because of your political fears.”
He also commented on measures taken during the shutdown regarding federal employee pay: “What we have to do is make sure that we continue to move forward… What Russ Vought did yesterday is he went ahead and paid the military in full. Today he went ahead and paid all federal employees in full… Now he runs out of money… So on the 15th and 16th… Are [Democrats] going to continue this political fight for Chuck Schumer because of his fear of AOC or are they going decide…to pay military and pay federal employees? I think their spirits will break at that point and say Chuck Schumer is not leading for American people but leading for his political agenda.”
Discussing health care policy moving forward: “Well we know Obamacare ‘affordable health care’ didn’t work because it made health care prices go through roof… If we want solve issue how about use president that’s in office right now because he’s art of deal… If want solve health care crisis … then use business guy that’s in office right now set away your hatred … realize he’s business guy may be able help American people solve health care crisis bring free market back into working for health care…”
