GOP Senator Who Savaged Gaetz For Sex Pest Allegations Caught In Middle of Trump-Led Pressure Campaign to Confirm Him

Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) found himself at the center of a pressure campaign Tuesday to help push controversial former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) through as attorney general.

Mullin, who was a fierce critic of Gaetz in the past, joined CNBC in the early morning and explained President-elect Donald Trump’s rationale behind appointing Gaetz to be the country’s so-called top cop – despite facing a House Ethics Committee probe over allegations of drug abuse and sexual misconduct. Mullin has called for that report to be made public, despite House GOP leadership wanting to squash its release. On Monday, Axios reported that Trump was calling Republican senators to lobby for Gaetz.

“I think the president wants a hammer at the DOJ and he sees Matt Gaetz as a hammer and all these other appointments. He is very confident at where they’re at and can deliver the administration that he’s wanting. I think his picks have been maybe unconventional, but we hired an unconventional president and the American people wanted that,” Mullin told CNBC’s Squawk Box, adding:

They don’t want politics as usual. They want someone that’s going to shake up Washington, D.C. And President Trump proved he could do that in 2016. And we had great results with the economy that followed, the American people saw what happened underneath the Biden administration and it went to– I am going to use good words here. It went to heck in a handbasket.

And then we see where the American people said we’re tired of that. We want something different. So the American people want it to be shook up. And the president is is is maybe using some picks for these positions. That’s not conventional, but it’s what the American people wanted.

The Trump campaign’s X account shared the clip and quoted Mullin saying, “His picks have been maybe ‘unconventional,’ but we hired an unconventional president. The American people *wanted* that.”

Prominent pro-Trump student organizer Charlie Kirk also shared the clip and captioned it, “BREAKING: Sen. Markwayne Mullin will vote to confirm Gaetz as AG: The president wants a hammer at the DOJ, and he sees Matt Gaetz as a hammer…We hired an unconventional president. The American people wanted that.”

Notably, Mullin never said he would vote to confirm Gaetz during the interview, nor did he suggest he had made a decision one way or the other.

Gaetz himself even joined in, sharing the clip on X and writing, “Senator Mullin is MAGA to the core!”
Mullin savaged Gaetz in the past, telling CNN in October of 2023 that he would show his fellow members of Congress videos of him having sex.

“You’ve gotta think about this guy. This is a guy that didn’t have – that the media didn’t give the time of day to after he was accused of sleeping with an underage girl,” Mullin told Manu Raju, adding:

And there’s a reason why no one in the conference came and defended him – because we had all seen the videos he was showing on the House floor that all of us had walked away, of the girls he had slept with.

He bragged about how he would crush E.D. medicine and chase it with energy drinks so he could go all night.

Mullin not only shredded Gaetz for his allegedly illicit behavior but also accused him of living off his “daddy.” Gaetz and Mullin sparred over banning members of Congress from trading stocks in December of 2023, during which Mullin wrote of Gaetz, “He should try building a business that gains value, it’s more gratifying than living off your daddy’s money.”