‘You Used To Be Able to Cane’: Republican Senator Who Nearly Threw Down With Union Chief Discusses the Good Old Days

During a revealing Newsmax interview, former MMA fighter and current U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) reminisced about the good ol’ days when caning was once used to solve differences in Congress.

The discussion with anchor Carl Higbie centered around Mullin’s near-prize fight with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien during a Senate hearing on Tuesday over social media barbs the two had exchanged for months.

Mullin challenged O’Brien to a fight right there and then, and he only sat back down after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) put an end to the posturing.

“Sir, you know what? I’ll be honest,” Higbie began. “There’s a lot of people, and you have to be professional on the House floor [sic] and on the news media, but Mike Tyson said it best: social media has given us this anonymity and people forgot what it’s like to get punched in the face.”

“That’s right. You know, some people are real strong behind a keypad, but when they get called out, it’s completely different,” Mullin said. “People’s asked me, too, ‘Is this becoming of a U.S. senator.’ And, I’m like, man, I’m a guy from Oklahoma first. In Oklahoma, you don’t run your mouth like that, and if you do run your mouth like that, you’re expected to be called out on it. And, what would happen if I didn’t call him out on it? I’m not looking for a street fight; the last time I got in a fight, I got paid for it.”

Mullin summed up his argument by agreeing with Higbie: “Every once in a while, you need to get punched in the face.”

Higbie then asked if there were any Senate rules that allowed “two consenting adults” to “duke it out” if they wanted to.

“Well, we looked into the rules, and you know, you used to be able to cane,” Mullin said, referring to the 1856 beating given to
Sen. Charles Sumner (R-MA) over his anti-slavery views. (The caning was deemed wrong at the time, despite Mullin’s claim.) “You gotta remember, President Andrew Jackson challenged nine guys to a duel and won nine times.”

Mullins continued, “And, so, at the end of the day, there is precedence for it if that’s what someone wants to do. And in this case, I challenged him once — you and I talked about it — he didn’t answer, he continued to run his mouth after that, continued to send out tweets. And so, this was the first opportunity we’ve seen.

“At the end of it, he’s like, he tried to say, ‘Hey, I didn’t mean it like that. You know, I’d rather just go have a cup of coffee.’ And I was like, ‘Fine, let’s go have a cup of coffee if that’s what you want.’ But, I don’t think that’s what he means, I think he got called on the carpet and I think he got really nervous. Because when he stood up, the look on his face was a little bit different.”

Watch the clip above via Newsmax.