GOP Senator Who Nearly Physically Threw Down with Teamsters President During Hearing Says They’re Now Buddies Thanks To Trump

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OH) credited former President Donald Trump with squashing the beef between him and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien following the two nearly physically throwing down during a Senate hearing.

In November 2023, Mullin challenged O’Brien to a physical fight on the Senate floor after reading some of their fiery exchanges on social media.

“You want to run your mouth. We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here,” Mullin said at the time.

“Okay, that’s fine. Perfect,” O’Brien replied.

“You want to do it now?” Mullin said, eventually telling O’Brien to “stand your butt up then.” The senator jumped out of his seat and began making his way to O’Brien until Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chastised both men for their behavior. Mullin later told CNN he had every intention of getting into a fistfight with the union boss.

In an interview with Axios this week, Mullin said he and O’Brien are actually friendly now and regularly talk. Trump called Mullin months after the confrontation with O’Brien and encouraged the senator to make nice as Republicans tried to win over the union vote.

“[Trump] actually called me and called him and said, ‘Hey, I need you guys to work this out,'” Mullin told Axios.

He and O’Brien met at a DC restaurant and smoothed things out, with O’Brien admitting he is a die hard Democrat, but he acknowledged many of his members felt abandoned by the party.

“He has a unique personality, very tough personality, but you can say the same thing about me, too,” Mullin said.

The Teamsters refused to make an endorsement in this presidential race and internal polling released shows a majority of the union members prefer Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.