Markwayne Mullin held a pink stress ball Thursday while testifying before a House Appropriations Committee panel. The hearing turned into a sharp exchange with Rosa DeLauro as she pressed him on children separated from families at the U.S. border.
DeLauro told him, “Let me just say this to you, sir, again it is my time,” before adding, “3,900 children were separated from their families...” Mullin answered, “450,000 kids were lost during the Biden administration, and you didn’t say a word about it,” then told her, “Don’t you point your finger at me” and “Don’t be a hypocrite.”
Markwayne Mullin and the pink ball
Mullin has said he has carried the ball since middle school and called it his “pacifier.” During his March 18 confirmation hearing, the ball sat on a wooden desk beside his smartphone and stacks of papers, and he was confirmed in a 54-45 vote.
On Thursday, the same object was in his hand as he took questions on oversight of the agency he took over after replacing Kristi Noem. The prop drew attention because it appeared in the middle of a public hearing, not away from it.
Rosa DeLauro and Mullin
The exchange with DeLauro began after she started speaking about families being separated from children at the U.S. border. Mullin cut in before she finished, and she responded that it was her turn to speak.
Rand Paul had described Mullin as “a man with anger issues” during his March confirmation hearing, pointing to an incident in which Mullin called him a “freaking snake” and was accused of appearing to excuse a 2017 assault on Paul that left him with broken ribs. Mullin also had a heated confrontation with Sean O'Brien during a Senate hearing in 2023, when he told him to “stand your butt up,” stood up himself, removed his wedding ring and said the two could “finish it here.”
House Appropriations Committee hearing
Thursday’s hearing put Mullin in the same setting where he was being questioned on Homeland Security oversight and was also showing the stress ball he has tied to himself for years. He described the ball as his “pacifier,” a small but visible detail that traveled with him from his March 18 hearing into the new one.
For readers watching the hearing, the immediate takeaway is simple: Mullin did not try to hide the object, and the exchange with DeLauro moved quickly from procedure to border-family separations and personal rebukes. The confrontation made the hearing about both policy and conduct at the same time.
