‘You’re Tweeting Like a 12-Year-Old’: Jake Tapper Challenges Union Boss Who Nearly Came to Blows with GOP Senator
There were several threats and accusations of physical violence on Capitol Hill today, made by duly-elected, sitting members of Congress. And CNN’s Jake Tapper called out one person involved in a near-fray for poking the bear. Or the elephant? (Because: Republicans.)
That person with the poking stick was Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, whose disagreement with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) nearly ended up in the octagon until Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told Mullin to stand down, reminding him, “You’re a United States Senator!”
Appearing on The Lead with Jake Tapper, O’Brien explained what was going through his mind during the kerfuffle:
You know, what went through my mind was “You’re one of 100 of the most powerful people in the country and you’re acting like a 12-year-old in a schoolyard because you didn’t get your way.” I mean, look, he actually has the ability, and he’s one of the elite, to actually effectuate change in this country, and he’s focused on being a bully. You know, we’re not going to stand for it. And we definitely were brought up differently.
Which led Tapper to respond: “Ok. But can I say, you’re tweeting like a 12-year-old?”
He went on, after recognizing that, no, O’Brien is not a United States Senator, and his tweets are not the same as making threats of violence on the Senate floor. But Tapper read O’Brien’s tweets back to him:
But, you know, “You know where to find me. Any place, any time, cowboy.” You’re making fun of him for not being the tallest senator. I mean, you represent 1.3 million workers. You really think that tweet… There’s the tweet right there, with your pink circling of the apple box he’s standing on. Do you really think that that is best serving, best representing the members of the Teamsters Union?
O’Brien went on to explain that the Twitter battle between himself and Mullin went back to March, and Mullin wasn’t telling the full truth in between his attempts to set up a friendly Oklahoma rumble for the two of them. But having avoided Tapper’s question, the host asked O’Brien: “You were at the hearing today, Bernie Sanders’ hearing, which is about how unions improve the lives of workers. Are you afraid that that message was lost because of this?”
This time, O’Brien answered, while still getting in digs at Mullin:
Not at all. I mean, we had some great dialog and they’re about issues that affect working people, about organizing collective bargaining, unionizing America. And there was a lot of different opinions, a lot of different debate. And it was great until Markwayne Mullin, obviously we were renting space and his head, decided to erupt. You know, we do have a lot of difference of opinions on both sides. But the one thing that’s clear is that today’s dialog outside of what happened was fruitful, productive.
Watch the video above via CNN.
