Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, slammed Democrats for their hypocritical lines of questioning towards Secretary Pete Hegseth at today’s hearing to examine the Department of Defense’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2026.
In his remarks, Senator Mullin addressed Senate Democrats’ refusal to hold the Biden administration accountable for anything the last four years, including the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the cover-up of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. Highlights below.
Sen. Mullin’s full remarks can be found here.
On the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan:
“Talk about accountability, I wonder who was held accountable for the disastrous withdrawal out of Afghanistan, where 13 soldiers died and we left thousands of Americans behind underneath Secretary Austin’s lead. Did one person get held accountable during that time? I don’t know of anybody that got held accountable for Afghanistan withdrawal.”
On the Democrat cover-up of President Biden’s cognitive decline:
“History is history. Look back at it, if you want to or not. But keep in mind every time you’re pointing fingers here, you got three fingers pointing back at you.”
“Because the previous administration you guys 100% turned a blind eye to and did nothing to hold them accountable, nothing. So don’t sit up here on the dais and pretend like you’re trying to hold the administration accountable now, because you didn’t for four years.”
“You literally covered up for a commander in chief that was absent. Absent minded and absent leadership. And you guys did absolutely nothing, even your left-leaning media is saying it was the worst cover up possibly in political history. Yet nothing from you guys. You all should be ashamed of yourself. Literally, you should be ashamed of yourself.”
On the difference between a failing Biden administration and a roaring Trump administration:
“Let’s talk about the turmoil to which my colleagues on the other side of the dais wants to talk about. Let’s talk about that turmoil. Underneath Secretary Austin, who was a general by the way, you had the lowest morale measured in our military history, you had retention absolutely disastrous, you had recruitments that wasn’t even meeting lowered standards that you guys lowered.”
“But let me see the contrast. We have the highest morale that’s been measured in decades in the military. We have recruiting numbers that are exceeding expectations that we’ve had. We have our enemies that fear us once again, and our allies that love us because they can trust us, but that’s not the narrative, Secretary Hegseth, that our Democrat colleagues want to draw.”
On the Trump administration cleaning up the mess of the last four years:
“You want to talk about, war powers, or the fact that during our reposturing in the Middle East against Iran, which would have never taken place if our colleagues on the other side would have held the administration accountable while they were giving billions of dollars back to Iran, and knowing good and well during the briefings that they were actually trying to develop a nuclear weapon, but we turned a blind eye to that.”
“And now the mess that was created by the Biden administration, this administration, underneath the Trump administration and the leadership of Secretary Hegseth, is simply trying to clean up.”
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