Markwayne Mullin's hearing plunges into chaos: 'Everybody calm down!'

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin turned his first House budget hearing into a shouting match Wednesday, repeatedly interrupting a Democratic congressman grilling him over his use of what the lawmaker called an $80 million luxury jet — forcing the Republican chairman to threaten to shut the whole thing down.

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA) came loaded for bear, confronting Mullin over flight logs showing the secretary regularly uses a Gulfstream G700 — one of two luxury jets purchased by his predecessor, Kristi Noem, for up to $200 million during a government shutdown — to make near-weekly trips home to Oklahoma.

"Have you used the Gulfstream jet to fly to Oklahoma, Mr. Secretary?" Walkinshaw asked pointedly.

Mullin tried to cut him off. "Sir, under statute, I'm required to provide you —"

"To use the G700?" Walkinshaw shot back. "Okay. Thank you."

"No! No," Mullin fired back. "You asked me a question, sir. Can I answer the question?"

The crosstalk spiraled. Walkinshaw repeatedly reclaimed his time. Mullin kept talking over him. Committee Chairman Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) ordered the clock suspended and banged his gavel — loudly, and more than once.

"I will adjourn this until everybody calms down!" Garbarino warned, before lecturing both men: "We will not talk over each other."

Mullin eventually confirmed what the flight logs already showed.

"Of course I have," he said of flying the Gulfstream to Oklahoma. "I'm required to." He added, almost as an afterthought: "Well, actually, I don't fly it personally myself — because I'm not a pilot."

Walkinshaw wasn't done. He pressed Mullin on whether he'd commit to selling the Gulfstreams and the $70 million Boeing 737 MAX 8 — a jet Noem had nicknamed the "Big Beautiful Jet," complete with a queen bed, bar, and showers — and redirect the money toward housing allowances for DHS employees.

Mullin declined. "Why do I need to sell them, sir? We need assets inside the Coast Guard."

The exchange underscored a deepening pattern. Insiders told The Daily Mail that Mullin typically leaves Washington on Thursday mornings and doesn't return until Monday, running the department from his Oklahoma ranch. One DHS source put it bluntly: "Mullin seems to think DHS requires less work than a senator, and it shows."