GOP Sen. Markwayne Mullin Challenges Teamsters President To A Fight During Congressional Hearing

On Tuesday, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) challenged the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Sean O’Brien, to a fight telling him to “stand your b— up” and settle a longstanding conflict during a congressional hearing.

“This is the time, this is the place,” Mullin said to O’Brien after reading a series of tweets that O’Brien had posted about the senator in the past. “If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”

Though the two men never got face to face, they went back and forth insulting each other for around six minutes while Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) yelled at them to stop.

“You are a United States senator!” Sanders scolded Mullin.

Earlier this year, O’Brien took to X, formerly Twitter, to call Mullin a “moron” and say he was “full of s—” after Mullin criticized O’Brien at another hearing.

In another post, which Mullin read aloud on Tuesday, O’Brien seemingly challenged the senator to a fight.

“You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy,” the post said.

Mullin then told O’Brien that “this is the place” for their brawl.

“I’d love to do it right now,” O’Brien replied.

“Well, stand your b— up then,” said Mullin.

O’Brien shot back, telling Mullin to “stand your butt up.” Mullin began to get up from his chair before Sanders banged his gavel and told both men to stop talking.

“This is a hearing, and God knows that the American people have enough contempt for Congress, let’s not make it worse,” Sanders said.

After a few more minutes of sparring, O’Brien suggested that he and Mullin meet for coffee to hash out their differences.

Tuesday’s Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing was held to discuss how unions can help working families.

Sanders, a longtime union ally, called the brawl of words between Mullin and O’Brien “absurd.”

“We were there to be talking about and did talk about, the crisis facing working families in this country, the growing gap between the very rich and everybody else, and the role that unions are playing in improving the standard of living of the American people,” Sanders explained. “We’re not there to talk about cage fighting.”