← All episodes

From the Senate with MARKWAYNE MULLIN | January 2025 (Ep. 708)

January 23, 2025 28m 41s Full transcript available
From the Senate with MARKWAYNE MULLIN | January 2025 (Ep. 708)
0:00 / 28m 41s
In this episode, Kyle Thompson welcomes back Senator Markwayne Mullin to discuss his recent fiery comments during a Senate hearing. They dive into the hypocrisy of political attacks and the importance of accountability and growth in leadership.
Transcript
283 segments
0:00 [Music]
0:20 This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson, let's get into it.
0:26 Mark Wayne Mullen, welcome back to the show. How are you? You're looking good, sir.
0:31 Of course I look good. I mean, well, I gave you a compliment last time. I'm not doing it again,
0:36 so don't bait me into that. I may have been fishing for it. I may have been fishing for it,
0:39 but look, in case I needed to look any better, would you look at this? Is this a Mullen Ranch vest?
0:46 Look at this. For those of you only listening to this, not watching on YouTube, you are missing
0:53 now, because I got the Black V-neck, which is the official uniform of Undaunted Life,
0:57 plus a Mullen Ranch vest. However, Mark Wayne, you know, I got that especially cut. It's a women's
1:03 cut small for you. Okay. That's just real cute. You got jokes this morning. You got lots of jokes
1:10 apparently here recently, but you have one of these? Look at this. What is that? No, I don't.
1:16 And how would I get that if my own senator from the great state of Oklahoma didn't send it to me,
1:20 but, but, but, I've got a bone to pick with you, okay? Because I've been reliably informed that
1:24 senators always follow through on what they're going to say, right? So if they say they're going
1:28 to do it, especially on the campaign trail, they're actually going to do it, because I go and open
1:32 up the box, and I'm thinking to myself, this box is mighty small, because we agreed on a cowboy hat,
1:39 and yet what I was sent was this trucker hat that I feel like someone could have bought at Lowe's
1:44 off of your travel stop exit 15. We did not agree on a cowboy. You wanted a cowboy. I was like,
1:51 I you're worth a lot, but I'm not spending that kind of money because I can't stand a cheap cowboy
1:56 hat, right? Cowboy hat's going to cause you cause you a few bills. Right. So I don't know what the
2:02 problem is because we digitally shook on it. We said cowboy hat. Now cowboy might wear this hat,
2:07 but that doesn't make it a cowboy hat. You see, this is a trucker hat as confirmed by your staff
2:12 before you even got on this call. This is clearly a trucker hat. What is the problem? What have I
2:16 not done to prove to you that I'm worth it? Um, I, well, I don't offer the pro for me to say that
2:23 here. So I'm just going to leave it alone. But you're a good friend, but there's there's dollars
2:28 that seem on that. And you have yet to, you have yet to hug me. I've also been reliably
2:33 informed that you literally make thousands of dollars per year. And here you are quibbling
2:38 about maybe having to drop a couple of bills on a cowboy hat for your buddy from Oklahoma.
2:42 I don't really understand it. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what, um, seeing that I got good taste,
2:50 I can, I can hook you up with a person that can actually get it for you and can do the,
2:57 engraving for you. And then you can just, you can work out, because it's you're a guy that
3:03 makes great deals. You can work out probably better price yourself. Okay. Yeah. So I like how
3:08 you stroke the ego to get me to change the subject, but it's going to work because I'm changing the
3:12 subject right now, because just to give everybody a peek behind the curtain, guys, we're recording
3:17 this one week before it comes out. That's just the way that the cookie crumbled on this. And so
3:21 we will have an inauguration in the meantime, hopefully not riots, but who the heck knows,
3:26 there will be more things and more opportunities to go viral. But we just have to talk about the
3:30 information that we know now, because here I am, minding my own business. And here I am getting
3:34 blown up on Instagram and blown up in my text messages like, you boys getting after them this
3:39 morning, you boys dropping bombs all over the Senate. I mean, these are not literal bombs people
3:44 chill out. But during Pete Hegcess, uh, hearing, uh, you decided that you were going to go scorched
3:50 earth on your colleagues and kind of get after them and remind them that they've, uh, they've got a
3:56 a log in their own eye, if you will, as they're trying to get after Pete Hegcess and pretend
4:00 like he's not qualified because of a moral failings that he's been very, very open about.
4:05 And so obviously everyone in the audience at this point has seen what I'm talking about, if not,
4:09 there's this magical thing called Google go and find it. My curiosity though, Mark Wayne is,
4:14 during these hearings, these are senators opportunities to have seven minutes to create
4:20 content that they can, you know, fundraise off of and try to get reelected and try to get their
4:24 gotcha moment and try to sell t-shirts. This seemed like there may have been some of that,
4:28 but part of it was just like, are we serious? It seemed like you had reached a point where you're
4:32 like, are we seriously sitting here wasting the American taxpayers money and time by talking
4:37 about this nonsense? So why did you make the commentary you did and why did you do it so pointed
4:43 and in that setting? Well, there was nothing planned about it. I had a whole list of questions
4:47 that I was going to do. And actually they were a pre list that I'd already worked with Pete on.
4:52 They were kind of softball questions because, um, leading up to this Pete and his wife Jenny,
4:58 but I refuse to call her Jenny because every time I say Jenny, I feel like I'm listening to
5:02 Forrest Gump. So I call her Jenny. Yeah. And so, um, I had been doing what they call murder boards
5:10 with him. And what we do is we have full mock up hearings and we play certain rows. And so I'm
5:19 playing a role of several Democrats. And I mean, we go scorched earth on those questions. We make
5:26 it very uncomfortable. And we go hard into it. And, uh, and he had handled himself well, but at the
5:32 same time, what we're wanting to do is give him an opportunity to reset when he came to Republican
5:37 questions so he can kind of relax a little bit in his head, uh, breathe again, bring down his,
5:42 his heart rate, bring, you know, get his, get his ears going to normal colors again,
5:47 and allow him to be ready for the next attack. The issue that I was having is I didn't, we didn't
5:53 expect the, the, the dams to take this moral high ground. And I'm not saying I'm more moral than
5:59 anybody else. I'm the most flawed individual that you've heard and part of the most flawed
6:03 individual in the Senate. So I tell people that I'm a Christian, but I, I am also one mistake from
6:10 being exposed from a big hypocrite that I am. So I am, I have had my mistakes. Don't, don't give
6:16 me wrong on this. But when these Democrats were taking this moral high ground and they were just,
6:21 just slaughtering, um, a full character assassination of Pete, when he has been openly, um, or not,
6:31 he is openly admitted wrong in his past, which we've all had passed and we've all had to go past
6:36 that. And I tell people I've never fired anybody for make a mistake. I've fired you when you can't
6:40 admit that you made a mistake. Right. And, and that doesn't mean that you got to admit it the first
6:45 time. But when you finally come to the realization that you made a mistake and you're willing to
6:49 change your life and be held accountable for it, man, that is growth. And that is someone that's
6:54 going to surround yourself with because they're probably destined not to do that again. And, and
6:59 so when his character assassination started going towards Pete, here is why Jennifer is sitting behind
7:05 her, or behind him. And she's taken the oncoming fire too. And she was sitting there,
7:11 it was her historic, I mean, a stoic and was able to, to, um, contain herself, I guess you could say.
7:20 And, but I was sitting there thinking, if that's, if that was Christie sitting behind me,
7:25 she would want somebody to stand up and defend me because Pete can't do that for himself because
7:32 he kept answering the question, but he kept admitting that he's made mistakes, but he's moved on
7:38 past that. And that these were, these were baseless allegations. They're anonymous individuals. No
7:43 ones come forward. By the way, you've had six weeks to come forward now. If you was going to come
7:48 forward, you'd come forward. It was just a full character assassination attempt on, on Pete. And
7:53 so I just got fed up. And, uh, and I wanted to call him out on the hypocrisy. And that's where,
8:00 that's where it went. I, I didn't know where it was going to go as far as being all over the media
8:07 and all over the news for the last 48 hours. I had, I had no idea that was happening. You know,
8:12 you can never really plan that kind of stuff anyways. It was just calling them out, uh, for
8:18 what it was. And I, and it, it, it resonated with the American people, but it also, um, I guess you
8:28 can say it took a lot of air out of the room because from then on, there was, uh, the moral
8:35 assassination stopped, uh, on, on Pete because they understood that they lived in a glass house.
8:41 Well, and I think one thing I was reminded of while we were doing this is like,
8:46 is the party of Teddy Kennedy and Bill Clinton really going to be lecturing this man about his
8:52 sexual Picodilies? And because the thing is, is like morally speaking, what he did and what he's
8:57 done in his life or in those areas has been reprehensible, but we do see growth and we do see
9:03 evidence of the gospel in his life because of his repentance and because of how he's living his life
9:07 now. But these individuals are saying he wasn't fit to serve because of his past. And, and they
9:13 were saying that they were saying that he had a drinking problem, which he adamantly admitted that
9:18 he didn't have a drinking problem. Now you tell me a combat that, that has come back from truly
9:23 combat, that has drug his buddies off the battlefield, who is noped by a battle cross,
9:28 who is buried is his buddies, who has had a visit with his friends, family, after he was killed in
9:35 action. Tell me some of those that that haven't come back and drank a little bit. That's why VFWs
9:41 exist. That's why American legions exist. That's why these, these different veteran associations
9:49 exist because it allows him to go to safe place and blow off some steam. But to say that he had
9:55 a drinking problem is absolutely absurd. And then they were accusing him of showing up drunk at work
10:00 and stuff and that never happened. And so for me, I was like, hold on a second, you're saying he's
10:06 not fit to serve. And because of this, and yet, have you ever called out your own colleagues
10:12 for showing up late at night drunk to vote? No, have, have you ever called out your colleagues
10:20 for getting divorced because they cheated on their wife while they were up here? Did you ever call
10:24 on them to resign? No. So why is it that we in the Senate are trying to hold other people at a
10:31 different standard than what we hold our own selves to? And that was where that was the whole,
10:37 the whole reason of me pushing in on this. Well, I'm glad you did. And from your read on this now,
10:45 again, we're recording this a week in advance. So a million different things could happen.
10:49 But in terms of HEGSATH and some of the other folks that are maybe fringe that people are like,
10:55 hey, we're not exactly sure whether that's RFK junior or Tulsi or any of these other people.
10:59 Do we see any issues with any of Trump's appointments not getting approved by the Senate?
11:04 No, I think since this is going to be a week late, I think you're going to already see
11:08 Pete has HEGSATH is going to be already confirmed. We're going to try doing that on the 20th of
11:17 January. Obviously right after President Trump is sworn into office, we're going to go right in.
11:22 We're going to try getting HEGSATH, Rubio, and Pam, and possibly John Ratcliffe all done on Monday,
11:31 if possible. If not, we're going to be doing it through this whole upcoming week, which is the
11:36 week of the 20th, obviously, like she said, we're weak behind here. But I think Pete was the hard
11:43 case to move forward. And there was a lot of mixed feelings on how to handle this, but this is just
11:49 Trump's typical style. A lot of people wanted to go with Rubio, Ratcliffe, Pam, and get some of the
11:56 easy ones out. And so we could, quote, build momentum. President Trump is like, no, we're going to face
12:05 this challenge right up front. We're going to call him out on it. We're going to get to him
12:10 confirmed, and then everybody else will be easy. And so because Pete is going to get confirmed,
12:15 because he handed himself so well in that hearing, I mean, he, if you wasn't a supporter of Pete
12:21 beforehand, to be able to see how that guy was able to hold composure underneath oncoming fire
12:30 and not get rattled showed that he can handle pressure. And I think more people supported him
12:36 going in or coming out of it than they did actually going into it. So now that he's going to get
12:42 confirmed, because he will be confirmed that the other ones will be the next big challenge, though,
12:47 will probably be. Tulsi could be a little bit of challenge. I don't think there's going to be an
12:52 issue there. But Bobby Kennedy will be the biggest challenge moving forward. And obviously, we're
13:00 not going to get any Democrat support in this one. But we're, you know, we have we have some problems
13:05 with a couple of our colleagues still. I'll be having meetings throughout leading up to his
13:11 confirmation. And with our colleagues just trying to, you know, get them to a good spot. I've had
13:17 the privilege of getting to know Bobby throughout the campaign as I was traveling with President
13:21 Trump and traveling JD, we spent a lot of time on the plane and a lot of time on the motorcade
13:25 together. And the more the more I'm with him, the more I enjoyed being with him. And he's one of
13:30 these guys that you could just set out and play cards with all night and never stop laughing.
13:35 I mean, he is that he's got more stories than than I've ever been around anybody with.
13:41 And the guy is just hilarious. He's got the best Irish jokes you've ever seen in your life.
13:45 Yeah, you've told me that, but you still won't tell me any of the jokes.
13:48 No, not all of them are really content friendly. Well, inappropriate jokes are my
13:54 favorite category of jokes. I never said that. I said, I did friendly. See, I said that I was
14:00 political and saying that. Yeah, you politicians are also down slick, but let's let's keep the
14:06 whole slickness thing going and let's get to go. Because again, by the time everyone's hearing
14:09 this, the inauguration will have happened, hopefully without a whole lot of hopefully
14:13 plenty of pomp and circumstance, but no, like negative fanfare. Let's let's say it that way.
14:17 But we can already at least feel the Trump effect happening a little bit right now.
14:22 There has been reports that Israel and Hamas have come to a ceasefire agreement. It's going to be
14:26 tronched out in a lot of ways, you know, it's still too early for a lot of people to give their full
14:32 on think pieces as to whether or not this is a good thing for Hamas or good thing for Israel,
14:36 good thing for the planet. We've got some don't care if it's a good thing for a Moss.
14:39 What's a good thing for a Moss is a person making a deal isn't dead, because if you're part of a
14:46 part of a Moss, you should be looking for a hole to go into. So the fact that they have an exit
14:53 strategy to still have their still have their heartbeat in place is a good deal for Hamas.
14:58 Other than that, don't care. Yeah, they should think they're lucky stars for sure. But no matter
15:03 what, no matter if this happens, you know, before Monday, right again, we're talking about this
15:07 in the future, but before Monday, no matter what, this is the Trump effect. Okay, because he meant
15:12 it when he said there will be all hell to pay if there's not a deal by the time I get into office.
15:17 And by the time he gets into office, there's not going to be this whole squishy thing. It's like,
15:20 we're getting our people back and we're going to kill every last one of you. And that's just that's
15:25 how this is going to work. There's not going to be a negotiation. But what is the feeling Mark Wayne
15:29 of the Trump team of the Republicans as we head in, because I mean, we're less than a week away
15:33 from the actual inauguration. Like it's happening. Biden is out. Like no more babysitters, no more
15:39 changing diapers in the Oval Office. This is big boy time that we're getting into. What's the feeling?
15:43 Well, we're excited. I think I think the expectations for the American people is extremely high.
15:50 The the ability for us to deliver and meet those expectations are not likely because it's you know,
15:57 not everything's going to change. And on the 21st of January, we have to we have to there's going
16:04 to take time to turn this this disaster administration, the Biden administration, where they've taken
16:10 us going to take time to turn us back around and get us going in the right direction again.
16:13 And so there's going to be a lot that's going to happen on day one, President Trump on the 20th.
16:20 We'll be signing right out a hundred executive orders and a hundred very directive and directed
16:27 executive orders, not like the Biden administration. Keep in mind this is a present that was the 45th
16:34 President of the United States. So he knows exactly what what he needs to do when he comes in the 47th.
16:39 So there's going to be a big change at the border. There's going to be a big change in energy policy.
16:44 There's going to be a big change in trade policy that's going to happen on day one. But those
16:51 executive orders are just executive orders and they're all temporary. And then we have to work on
16:55 making them and making them into law. So they're they're permanent. That's that's going to take
17:02 some time for the you know, the our our foreign policy and our stance around the world. That posture
17:09 changed November 5th. You saw world leaders start going to Mar-a-Lago on November 7th. Right. So
17:15 that's already happened and they craved it. The reason why they so many world leaders have come to
17:20 we come to Florida, which Florida is now the White House in Mar-a-Lago until President Trump takes
17:25 the White House over. President Biden has been absent. He has been nowhere as negotiations at all.
17:32 It's kind of funny that he went to Mike yesterday and and Secretary Blinken, who is the biggest
17:38 liar of any individual I've ever met in my life. Secretary Blinken is an absolute bold face
17:43 liar. And I've told that to his face and he cannot deny that because I've got him dead to right on
17:49 multiple lies. And and for him to sit there with a straight face and allow President Trump to take
17:55 credit for this hostage negotiation, the ceasefire that's taken place is and a bold face like Steve
18:02 Whitclough, which is President Trump's personal friend has been negotiating this since November.
18:09 And I have been privileged enough to be involved in some of those conversations and not involved
18:14 in the negotiations. But Steve has done a phenomenal job reporting back to the president. He's actually
18:18 been flying to the Middle East back and forth on his own dime. Has it been has it been official
18:25 money even doing this? Steve has been flying back and forth on his own dime to help negotiate this.
18:30 Now, what happens in the negotiation? And it does it does a hostage get released, mind you, we're
18:36 doing this before the 20th. And and so I think the hostages, the ones that are alive will probably
18:44 be released. I think what's happening right now is how do some Moss have safe face because
18:51 I don't know this for a fact, but we've only got proof of life on a very few of them. And
19:00 you know, the ones that that are still alive, great, they're going to come out. But what stories
19:05 are they going to are they going to tell? And from the males to the females, because we we know there
19:12 is a tremendous amount of of horrific abuse that took place, especially with the female
19:19 hostages. And and so I think they're they're kind of in damage control too at this point,
19:27 because when these hostages were taken, I don't think they ever intended to probably release any
19:32 of them, they thought that they were going to use a negotiating tool and just drag their feet out.
19:35 But they also fear President Trump, because they know that what he means he will do when we say we're
19:44 going all when he said all hell is going to be is going to come your way when the 20th are not
19:51 released. He means that and I can assure you there's already plans in place that will be executed
20:00 in a fairly quick manner. That doesn't mean that all hell is going to break loose on the 20th,
20:05 because he's he's not commander in chief yet. So he can't command that yet. But it'll be in a
20:12 fast manner that we will be going in there and returning either the bodies of the hostages or
20:18 getting the live hostages out. But I can promise you the world and the world leader is leaders are
20:26 paying attention, because you could see for when Trump was in office and I'll take you back to
20:32 what happened in 2017, mind you, every president comes in gets tested. You know, Biden got
20:39 Obama got tested with his red line, right? And with with Syria, you had Biden get tested multiple
20:47 times and felt horrifically. And then obviously the way he handled Afghanistan was a huge fell.
20:53 And he's felt in every foreign policy with with, you know, calling off being the lack that he was
20:59 able to call off Putin going into Ukraine. That was huge failure. The aggressiveness of China,
21:07 huge failure, the aggressiveness of Iraq, a huge or Iran, I mean, a huge failure. But President
21:13 Trump was tested in 17. And I just want to remind people two things happen in 2017. First of all,
21:19 the Taliban killed a Greenbury captain with 19th group and in Kandahar, and President Trump's
21:30 response was immediately as commander in chief, his first response was, he dropped the largest bomb
21:38 since World War II called the mother of all bombs that's made in McAllister, Oklahoma.
21:43 Can I please tell you is it wasn't designed for that type of warfare in the mountains.
21:48 It was just the shock and awe and importance that people need to know he's willing to go to that
21:55 extreme. What happened is the Taliban's eyes opened up and they're like, oh, well, we have a new guy
22:02 in place. I think we'll play cool now. And then you saw Syria and Russia, who President Trump made
22:12 it very clear that if you use chemical weapons, that is, that's not Biden's red line or Obama's
22:19 red line. This is my red line. We will make you pay. They did it. And within 30 minutes,
22:26 President, and by the way, at that time, Russia controlled the airspace over Syria. This is in 2017.
22:32 Biden or Trump goes in and says, within 30 minutes, we're coming to you. They destroyed
22:38 the airfield that the Russians were using, destroyed the airfield to where the chemicals
22:45 came from. And we took control over the airspace for Syria. And we had it up until Biden was sworn
22:50 in office and in 21 Biden gave the airspace back to Russia. So those are the two times he was tested
22:58 and both times he proved it. And after that, he was never challenged again. I don't think they're
23:03 going to test him again this time. But Hamas may just be stupid enough. They do. And President Trump
23:09 will will respond in the same type of fashion. Well, certainly be a change of pace and exciting
23:16 to have a man back in the White House, because I don't know what we've had for the last last
23:20 little bit. We only have a we've had a man in the White House. We just didn't have a leader in the
23:25 White House. Yep. Also true. Also true. We got time for one more question. This came up for me
23:31 at the Memorial Service for Jimmy Carter. Again, massive issues with Jimmy Carter as a politician,
23:37 as a president and all that. But he's one of less than 50 men that has represented this country
23:41 as our president. So he is to be honored in that way. And so obviously all the living presidents
23:45 and then current administration, all that they go there. But wasn't it so interesting that Donald
23:50 Trump is sitting right next to Barack Obama and they seemed downright chummy. Now I've been reliably
23:56 informed by wait a minute, check's notes. Barack Obama, that Donald Trump is Hitler, that he is a
24:02 threat to democracy, that he is a threat to the very fabric of this great nation. And yet he is
24:07 able to sit down next to Hitler and have a fun conversation and smile and giggle on camera and
24:14 cut a few jokes himself. Mark Wayne, help me understand. I'm a simple guy, but I still feel like I can
24:20 read people and words on a page. What happened? Is he not Hitler anymore? Yeah, well, no coat,
24:25 no, no kidding, right? What happened was this President Trump won the Popper vote and the
24:30 Electoral College overwhelmingly. And Obama recognized that. And he understood that he has to make him
24:39 men's there. What it also showed is that President Trump, his ability to be a leader and say, okay,
24:46 I can be cordial too. I can let the past be gone. And he's actually said that before. He said,
24:51 if I held a grudge against everybody that said something bad to me, I'd have no friends.
24:55 He's even said that and in settings in the Senate settings, he said, if I held a grudge against all
25:00 you guys that says something bad to me about my when I first ran in 2015 and 2016, I would have no
25:05 friends in this room. Of course, everybody started laughing. He says, I want to go past that because
25:10 the problems that face us are bigger than that. He's actually said that. I've heard him repeat
25:14 that multiple times. And I think he was gracious enough to to warmly receive the Obamas and and
25:27 Obama recognized as a former president United States that he is the next leader and the American
25:32 people chose that. And he needs respect it. And that's that's exactly what took place. What you
25:38 didn't see that same thing is you had a weak leader and Kamala Harris and and Mr. Harris
25:44 that refused to even look at him and refused to even look at him. Yeah. And that just shows how
25:51 horrific of an individual that our vice president has been to and how big of a disaster she would
25:57 have been if she God forbid would have got elected, but the American people saw right through her.
26:02 We we have certainly dodged a bullet as the American citizenry. But hey, that's all for me,
26:08 aside from getting a contact to your cowboy hat guy so I can start my negotiation.
26:11 Do you got anything left for me got anything? No, I'm a good mock brothers is where you need
26:16 to go to. That's for I bow my hats. My brothers shout out to my brothers. All right, Mark Wayne,
26:22 we'll talk again soon. All right, see you brother. Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to this podcast.
26:26 Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five star review.
26:30 If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email to info
26:35 at undonton.life. That's I N F O at undonton.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and
26:40 check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this
26:44 coming your way. Just go to www dot undonton.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name
26:49 for allowing us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,
26:53 which is off their self titled debut album on face down records. The links are in the description.
26:58 I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,
27:04 mental and physical resilience, keep seeking the lion of Judah.
27:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]
Key quotes
2
Markwayne Mullin
I am the most flawed individual that you've heard and part of the most flawed individual in the Senate.
Markwayne Mullin
I've never fired anybody for making a mistake. I've fired you when you can't admit that you made a mistake.
Free Resource
31-Day Resilience Reset
If this episode hit, the next 31 days will be the reset. Free PDF, instant download.
START FREE →
Brotherhood
Apply to Dominion
Six pillars. Application only. The men's program Kyle built around the show.
APPLY NOW →
Dig Deeper
Ask the Archive
"Which episodes cover this topic?" Get answers grounded in all 940+ episodes.
START A CHAT →