A Republican Senator Just Tried to Fight a Teamster in a Hearing

Thankfully, committee chair Bernie Sanders was there to shame both Senator Markwayne Mullin and Teamsters president Sean M. O’Brien into chilling out.

Well, you can’t say that C-Span is always boring. In a hearing on Tuesday before the Senate committee covering labor issues, Republican Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin and Teamsters president Sean O’Brien got a little testy.

Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, did not take kindly to a tweet from O’Brien in June in which he called Mullin a “greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self made” and said he should “quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings.” After reading the tweet, Mullin escalated the tough-guy act, offering to “finish it here.”

“You stand your butt up, then,” Mullin said.

“You stand your butt up, big guy,” O’Brien said, a 3-D chess retort.

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin @SenMullin just stood up and tried to fight labor leader Sean O'Brien @TeamsterSOB at a Senate Help Committee hearing after reading his tweet where O'Brien says he'd take him "any time, any place." pic.twitter.com/8oiPSNZJV8

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 14, 2023

Mullin stood his butt up. As if it were ever going to escalate into a Charles Sumner–level brawl, the senator even pretended to take his wedding ring off. But cooler heads prevailed. “You’re a United States senator,” said committee chair Bernie Sanders. “Sit down, please.” Sanders banged the gavel. “Hold it,” he yelled, in an effort to bring things back to order — as if the hearing would ever be remembered for anything else other than the time Bernie Sanders stopped two grown men from posturing to fight.