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--:-- Host (John Bickley): Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Wire, and I'm joined by my co-host Georgia Howe. It's Sunday, February 23rd, and we're bringing you a weekend edition of the show.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's right, John. Today, we're discussing the rapid-fire series of confirmations for President Trump's cabinet nominees. Joining us is Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin. Senator, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: Thank you, it's my honor.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So let's start with Kash Patel. You've been a strong advocate for Patel. Why do you believe we need somebody that's been called a disruptor like him to lead the FBI?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: I wouldn't describe him as a disruptor. I would say he's someone that chases the facts and exposed the wrongs or the hypocrisy or the cover-ups that the FBI was doing. He did this way before he was even being considered to be the director of the FBI.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You take somebody like him who understands the intel system, understands the mission of the FBI and has been concerned about them, concerned enough back years ago that he was willing to expose it. Why would you want somebody like that?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: Because he's not there to destroy the FBI. He's there to get them back on mission focus. He's there to support the field agents and put them back on mission focus of protecting American people, not taking directive orders from a Democrat party that's wanting to investigate students for showing up to school board meetings or classifying Catholics.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That's a pretty strong statement. What's your take on the Democrat opposition? Do you think they've been weakened by Trump's mandate?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: I think you got a little bit of both. I think the American people spoke very loud on November 5th when he won the popular vote and obviously electoral vote. I think the Democrat Party is trying to reorganize and find themselves and they can They keep reverting back to 2017 rhetoric And I hope they stay there because they stay there We going to continue to win elections But at the same time, what you've seen is a new leader in the Senate. With Leader Thune, he is just 100% grinding the Democrats down.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Can you explain what you mean by "grinding the Democrats down"?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: From the get-go, he said, we can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way. It's up to you. And so once the president got confirmed and sworn into office on the 20th, what we did is we immediately started the clock on these nominees and these nominees haven't stopped. And what I mean by the clock, just explain to your listeners, after they get out of committee, which we already had people preset. So first of all, Leader Thune directed the chairs of the committees to get started on the hearings early, even before Trump was sworn into office, which that normally doesn't take place.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That's interesting. You mentioned Kash Patel's confirmation hearing. What's your take on Labor Secretary Linda Chavez-Doremer's confirmation hearing? She was somewhat controversial on the right because of her past support of pro-union policies and her past work for Planned Parenthood.
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: Well, you have to go back to the coalition that President Trump has built. So President Trump has brought a unique coalition together, right? Let's just look at Tulsi. That conversation started over two years ago between President Trump and I when he asked, how do I get libertarian and independents to vote for us? We don't have to win their vote, but we need to increase their percentages. I said, let's bring Tulsi in. Immediately that relationship started.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You mentioned that President Trump has built a unique coalition. How do you envision this coalition impacting labor relations in the current political climate?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: We have to understand that we can't always use this conservative purity test when the president has got a mandate from the American people that he's working for everybody. And that means this new coalition, we have to stay true to our values, but understand we're accepting individuals that we may not 100% agree to, but we got to show them some love. And Lori represents that. We have our differences. Obviously, we're a right to work state. I'm a very proud right to work state.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That's an interesting point. What are your top legislative priorities for the 119th Congress?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: Well, deregulation is my biggest focus. In the deregulation on the business sector, you got to start with certain focuses. My certain focus is in energy. And by the way, President Trump is all on board on this too, not just because it's my agenda, because he sees it the same way because we both come from a business perspective.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a great point. You mentioned deregulation in the energy sector. Can you explain why that's so important?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: I tell everybody you make decisions in this world based on two things, the way you raise your life experience. My life experience is business. And you understand when you're in business that everything that you factor as a cost starts and begins with energy. You can't build a product and you can't deliver a product without factoring in the energy cost because it takes energy to build it and takes energy to deliver it.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That makes sense. What about Doge and its leader, Elon Musk? How do you and your Republican colleagues in the Senate feel about how it's going about its business?
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: I can't speak for everybody in the Senate, especially my colleagues, but I'll take it back to what I said earlier. We all make decisions based on race and our life experiences. So when you look from a business perspective, not a political perspective, you understand that every successful business out there, large or small, has hired a consultant at some point to come in and overlook their business operations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's a great point. Senator, thanks for taking the time to talk to us today.
--:-- Markwayne Mullin: Thank you, appreciate it.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): That was Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. And this has been a weekend edition of Morning Wire.
