Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), the five-term congressman who came in for criticism for trying to sneak into Afghanistan last year during the U.S. evacuation, won his party’s primary election to succeed the retiring Sen. Jim Inhofe.
Mullin, who owns a plumbing company in northeast Oklahoma, beat former state House Speaker T.W. Shannon to make it to the November ballot. He will face Democrat Kendra Horn, a former congresswoman from the Oklahoma City area, but the seat is considered safely Republican.
In his five terms in the House, Mullin carved out a reputation as a defender of former President Donald Trump and a staunch critic of President Joe Biden.
In a news conference with fellow Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee after the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Mullin asked why people should trust U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“What has caused him to think that the American people should trust him? Is it the way that they handled Hillary Clinton’s case with her emails? Is it the Russia collusion?” he asked.
Mullin also has bought into the false belief that Biden lost the 2020 election. In a televised debate with Shannon, Mullin said, “It’s absurd to think that Joe Biden received more votes than any president in history. We have to fight to make sure every vote is counted accurately.”
But Mullin may be best known for his actions in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic evacuation of U.S. troops and citizens from Afghanistan after the government fell surprisingly quickly to the fundamentalist Taliban.
“I’m not Rambo. I never pretended to be Rambo.”
– Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.)
Mullin tried to sneak into the country to help Americans who were trapped there and unable to get to the Kabul airport to evacuate. But his plan to hire a helicopter to fly into Afghanistan from neighboring Tajikistan went astray when a U.S. Embassy official in Tajikistan told the congressman he would not help him skirt limits on taking cash into the country, according to The Washington Post.
Mullin defended himself against criticism he was showboating with the attempt, which included an Instagram post explaining he had gone radio silent for a few days and the hashtag #Ordinarypeopledoingextraordinarythings.
“I’m not Rambo. I never pretended to be Rambo,” he said afterward.