Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders shut down a would-be fight during a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday as tensions boiled over.
So, what on earth happened between Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and the president of the Teamsters union, Sean O’Brien? You’d think a meeting for the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee wouldn’t be this exciting.
According to reporting on the matter, friction has been building for months between Mullin and O’Brien, per NBC News:
The exchange occurred when Mullin, a former MMA fighter, recalled an interaction he had with O’Brien in June on Twitter, now known as X.
At the time, they discussed engaging in an MMA fight for charity after they had gotten into a heated back-and-forth at a previous congressional hearing.
Mullin read aloud O’Brien’s original tweet at the hearing Tuesday: “Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self made. In reality, just a clown & fraud. Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy.”
The tweet also said “#LittleManSyndrome” and showed a photo of Mullin at a debate where he was standing on a pedestal at a podium.
It all started with this post from O’Brien back in June and escalated from there:
Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self made. In reality, just a clown & fraud. Always has been, always will be. Quit the tough guy act in these senate hearings. You know where to find me. Anyplace, Anytime cowboy. #LittleManSyndrome pic.twitter.com/JNvT7IsA6m
— Sean M. O'Brien (@TeamsterSOB) June 21, 2023
To which Mullin replied, let’s fight:
An attention-seeking union Teamster boss is trying to be punchy after our Senate hearing. Okay, I accept your challenge. MMA fight for charity of our choice. Sept 30th in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I’ll give you 3 days to accept. pic.twitter.com/9WpvuTpDlG
— Markwayne Mullin (@SenMullin) June 26, 2023
Which then finally culminated in this exchange on Tuesday. Here’s the full video, it’s worth every minute of your time just to watch Bernie repeatedly bang the gavel in a threatening manner while the meeting devolves into yelling:
What happened at the end? Are they fighting or having coffee together? It’s hard to tell. O’Brien would remind you of a class clown type in a committee hearing setting. He’s got a sarcastic mouth and quite frankly produced the best laugh lines of the exchange.
In the end, it almost seemed like Mullin regretted opening this line of combativeness as Grandpa Bernie shut it all down and put everyone back in their corner.
Good times on Capitol Hill. As Bernie says, is this the way a Senate committee hearing should operate? Was Mullins out of line? Sean O’Brien, perhaps the most Irish union boss name ever, is a caricature throwback to a time of knocking heads around to get stuff down. It’s an old New York mentality usually relegated to a character played by Joe Pesci in a Martin Scorsese film. O’Brien is a union thug spouting off against anyone who supports empowering workers, not union bosses.
C’mon Bernie, Let them have their charity fight on the committee hearing floor and get on with it. For the record, my money’s on O’Brien since I doubt he’ll fight fair.
Just another day in Washington circa 2023.
