This is what MAGA has given us:
Presenting: a close reading of the most preposterous 65 seconds of C-SPAN to air this week.
The players: Markwayne Mullin (R), a U.S. senator from Oklahoma; Sean O’Brien, the general president of the Teamsters; Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an adult who needed Excedrin.
The themes: Misbehaving high school boys middle-aged men in suits, peacocking techniques of the aggrieved and powerful.
On Tuesday, a hearing for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions got weird when Mullin read out loud a tweet in which O’Brien had insulted him: “Quit the tough guy act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any place, Anytime, cowboy.”
Mullin, a 46-year-old man, then informed O’Brien, a 51-year-old man, that “This is a time, this is a place. If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”
“Okay, that’s fine, perfect,” O’Brien replied.
“You wanna do it now?” asked Mullin, who is also a former MMA fighter.
O’Brien responded that he would, in fact, “love” to do it right now, at which point Mullin instructed, “You stand your butt up, then.”
“You stand your butt up, big guy,” O’Brien said.
Mullin rose to his feet, even beginning to remove his wedding ring, before he was cajoled down by Sanders who bellowed, to the relief of everyone, “Sit down, sit down, you’re a United States senator.”
Let us note the clarity of communication in this exchange. Mullin’s invitation to throw hands came with clear designation of place (“here”) and time (“now”). He properly invoked the concept of “consent” (so important these days), and he kept his language PG (“butt”). Most importantly, whether out of deference to his wife, sportsmanship to his opponent or safety in the case of swelling in his punching hand, he had the presence of mind to take off his jewelry. It didn’t quite have the same dramatic effect as a Real Housewife removing her earrings before brawling but, Sen. Mullin, your efforts didn’t go unnoticed. As for O’Brien: Let us note that he, as any good invitation-recipient should do, remained agreeable. Was he ready to tussle now? Certainly, the timing was perfect! Would he stand his butt up? No no, after you. He even called Mullin “big guy,” which is not technically an insult.
As preamble to a fight, it was all very crisp and official. As a proceeding of a Senate committee, it was completely juvenile and absurd. What in the name of Vince McMahon is going on in Congress these days?
Skip to end of carousel
End of carousel
The Capitol has become, since the events of Jan. 6, 2021, much like an expensive sofa purchased by the parents of toddlers. In the beginning, there were rules — no food, no shoes — and an agreement that this object is to be treated with care and respect. But then someone has a massive diaper blowout on the center cushion — an insurrection, if you will — and the stain can’t be removed, and after that a few toast crumbs no longer seem like such a big deal. Before you know it, the whole Congress is spray-painting the couch with grape juice and Go-Gurt.
Around the same time that Mullin and O’Brien were deciding whether to knuckle up, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) brushed past Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and allegedly “shoved” him, according to the NPR correspondent who witnessed the scuffle. “Why’d you elbow me in the back Kevin?! Hey Kevin, you got any guts!?” Burchett yelled, according to the correspondent, Claudia Grisales, who wrote that Burchett then ran after McCarthy — whom Burchett had helped vote out of his former role as House speaker — and yelled, “What kind of chicken move is that? You’re pathetic man, you are so pathetic.”
McCarthy later denied that the altercation had happened as described: “If I hit somebody, they would know it,” he told the Associated Press. “If I kidney-punched someone, they would be on the ground.”
Sharp. Witty. Thoughtful. Sign up for the Style Memo newsletter.
And around the same time that was happening, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) was using his time in a House Oversight Committee hearing to angrily tell Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), “You look like a Smurf!”
Again, these are all events taking place in the same workplace, on the same day. We haven’t even gone back to, say, January, when a colleague felt the need to physically restrain Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.) as he confronted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on the House floor. Or to June, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) reportedly called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) a “little b----,” also on the House floor.
Perspective: Marjorie Taylor Greene called Lauren Boebert a . . . what?
Just gonna get this out of the way: This behavior is not happening because Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) started wearing a hoodie to work. This aggression is downstream of something else. Desperation, maybe, or insecurity.
“If I kidney punched someone, they would be on the ground” is the kind of thing you expect to hear from a weaselly high school student whose best fighting move is to pull the fire alarm and hope a teacher arrives to break things up. It is not a sentence you want to hear from a U.S. representative, no matter how wounded he feels because his friends took away his gavel.
Proposing that your Senate committee take an interlude so that you can bloody up the committee’s witness — this is the behavior of someone who has the power, the platform and the authority of a U.S. senator and doesn’t know what to do with any of it. He’s supposed to help manage the government; he can’t even manage himself.
Get it together, big guy.
“You’re a United States senator!” Sanders admonished him. Sanders clearly meant it as a reminder that Mullin should be the bigger man. But pretty soon it’s gonna be a reminder that we shouldn’t expect any better. The stains just become part of the couch.
Presenting: a close reading of the most preposterous 65 seconds of C-SPAN to air this week.
The players: Markwayne Mullin (R), a U.S. senator from Oklahoma; Sean O’Brien, the general president of the Teamsters; Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), an adult who needed Excedrin.
The themes: Misbehaving high school boys middle-aged men in suits, peacocking techniques of the aggrieved and powerful.
On Tuesday, a hearing for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions got weird when Mullin read out loud a tweet in which O’Brien had insulted him: “Quit the tough guy act in these Senate hearings. You know where to find me. Any place, Anytime, cowboy.”
Mullin, a 46-year-old man, then informed O’Brien, a 51-year-old man, that “This is a time, this is a place. If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”
“Okay, that’s fine, perfect,” O’Brien replied.
“You wanna do it now?” asked Mullin, who is also a former MMA fighter.
O’Brien responded that he would, in fact, “love” to do it right now, at which point Mullin instructed, “You stand your butt up, then.”
“You stand your butt up, big guy,” O’Brien said.
Mullin rose to his feet, even beginning to remove his wedding ring, before he was cajoled down by Sanders who bellowed, to the relief of everyone, “Sit down, sit down, you’re a United States senator.”
Let us note the clarity of communication in this exchange. Mullin’s invitation to throw hands came with clear designation of place (“here”) and time (“now”). He properly invoked the concept of “consent” (so important these days), and he kept his language PG (“butt”). Most importantly, whether out of deference to his wife, sportsmanship to his opponent or safety in the case of swelling in his punching hand, he had the presence of mind to take off his jewelry. It didn’t quite have the same dramatic effect as a Real Housewife removing her earrings before brawling but, Sen. Mullin, your efforts didn’t go unnoticed. As for O’Brien: Let us note that he, as any good invitation-recipient should do, remained agreeable. Was he ready to tussle now? Certainly, the timing was perfect! Would he stand his butt up? No no, after you. He even called Mullin “big guy,” which is not technically an insult.
As preamble to a fight, it was all very crisp and official. As a proceeding of a Senate committee, it was completely juvenile and absurd. What in the name of Vince McMahon is going on in Congress these days?
Skip to end of carousel
The Style section
Style is where The Washington Post covers happenings on the front lines of culture and what it all means, including the arts, media, social trends, politics and yes, fashion, all told with personality and deep reporting. For more Style stories, click here.End of carousel
The Capitol has become, since the events of Jan. 6, 2021, much like an expensive sofa purchased by the parents of toddlers. In the beginning, there were rules — no food, no shoes — and an agreement that this object is to be treated with care and respect. But then someone has a massive diaper blowout on the center cushion — an insurrection, if you will — and the stain can’t be removed, and after that a few toast crumbs no longer seem like such a big deal. Before you know it, the whole Congress is spray-painting the couch with grape juice and Go-Gurt.
Around the same time that Mullin and O’Brien were deciding whether to knuckle up, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) brushed past Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and allegedly “shoved” him, according to the NPR correspondent who witnessed the scuffle. “Why’d you elbow me in the back Kevin?! Hey Kevin, you got any guts!?” Burchett yelled, according to the correspondent, Claudia Grisales, who wrote that Burchett then ran after McCarthy — whom Burchett had helped vote out of his former role as House speaker — and yelled, “What kind of chicken move is that? You’re pathetic man, you are so pathetic.”
McCarthy later denied that the altercation had happened as described: “If I hit somebody, they would know it,” he told the Associated Press. “If I kidney-punched someone, they would be on the ground.”
Sharp. Witty. Thoughtful. Sign up for the Style Memo newsletter.
And around the same time that was happening, Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) was using his time in a House Oversight Committee hearing to angrily tell Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), “You look like a Smurf!”
Again, these are all events taking place in the same workplace, on the same day. We haven’t even gone back to, say, January, when a colleague felt the need to physically restrain Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Ala.) as he confronted Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on the House floor. Or to June, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) reportedly called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) a “little b----,” also on the House floor.
Perspective: Marjorie Taylor Greene called Lauren Boebert a . . . what?
Just gonna get this out of the way: This behavior is not happening because Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) started wearing a hoodie to work. This aggression is downstream of something else. Desperation, maybe, or insecurity.
“If I kidney punched someone, they would be on the ground” is the kind of thing you expect to hear from a weaselly high school student whose best fighting move is to pull the fire alarm and hope a teacher arrives to break things up. It is not a sentence you want to hear from a U.S. representative, no matter how wounded he feels because his friends took away his gavel.
Proposing that your Senate committee take an interlude so that you can bloody up the committee’s witness — this is the behavior of someone who has the power, the platform and the authority of a U.S. senator and doesn’t know what to do with any of it. He’s supposed to help manage the government; he can’t even manage himself.
Get it together, big guy.
“You’re a United States senator!” Sanders admonished him. Sanders clearly meant it as a reminder that Mullin should be the bigger man. But pretty soon it’s gonna be a reminder that we shouldn’t expect any better. The stains just become part of the couch.
