OK Sen. Markwayne Mullin defends Senate fight, tells Sean Hannity it's 'Oklahoma values'

U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Oklahoma, said he believed Oklahomans "would be pretty upset" at him if he hadn't threatened a union leader to a fight during a senate hearing,

Mullin, 45, and Teamsters leader Sean O'Brien had a heated exchange during a senate hearing on labor unions, at the end of which Mullin asked O'Brien if he wanted to fight. Mullin even stood from his chair, but was stopped by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, who was chairing the hearing.

The incident was ignited by a June tweet from O'Brien in which he said to Mullin, "You know where to find me. Anyplace, anytime, cowboy." Mullin responded at the time with a challenge to a charity MMA fight.

In an interview with Sean Hannity later Tuesday, Mullin defended his actions as adhering to the values he was raised with.

More: Oklahoma senator tries to fight union leader at Senate hearing, Bernie Sanders steps in

Mullin tells Hannity challenge to fight was representing 'Oklahoma values'

In the Fox News interview, Hannity told Mullin he didn't expect the incident would have a negative impact on Mullin's approval rating in Oklahoma.

"He called you out," Hannity said. "You called him out for calling you out. And that's kind of old school, the way it used to be."

Mullin said he had been asked afterward if his conduct was in line with a United States Senator, but he responded that he's "a guy from Oklahoma first." He also said that the issue is "political correctness," and that "the left can say whatever they want."

"In Oklahoma, you don't do this," Mullin said of O'Brien's social media posts. "Maybe you run your mouth in New Jersey, I don't know ... I'm sure not going to sit back and let somebody do that and not call them out on it."

Mullin said he believes O'Brien never expected Mullin to "answer the call," and that people need to be "called out on what they say."

"What did people want me to do? If I didn't do that, people in Oklahoma would be pretty upset at me," Mullin said. "That's how we were raised, I'm supposed to represent Oklahoma values."

Mullin: Let's bring back duels and canings in Congress

In a separate interview with Fox Business hosts Sean Duffy and Dagen McDowell, Mullin again defended his actions by pointing out that Andrew Jackson challenged nine people to a duel while he was president and "knocked one guy out at a White House dinner."

According to History.com, the number of duels the former president participated in is estimated between five to 100.

Mullin went on to cite a history of "canings" in the senate — in which one person beats another with a cane — and said "maybe we should bring some of that back" to "keep people from thinking they're so tough."

"Maybe if we have some type of respect because we know there's going to be consequences for your actions, then maybe we can move on with all this, I don't know, jargon that happens around this place," Mullin said.

Laura Ingraham calls Mullin, other GOP members behavior an 'embarrassment'

Laura Ingraham, host of the Ingraham Angle on Fox News, included the exchange between Mullin and O'Brien in a series of events that occurred at the United States Capitol Tuesday involving several GOP members.

First, Kevin McCarthy was accused of elbowing Tim Burchett in the back. McCarthy denies the accusation. During a House hearing, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told Democrat Rep. Jared Moskowitz, of Florida, he looked "like a Smurf."

Also, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, R-Georgia, posted a clip of Donald Trump saying "she said he's a p***y" in reference to her colleague Rep. Darrell Issa, R-California. Greene was calling out Issa for voting against her articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

Ingraham said the GOP members actions, including Mullin's, were not representative of Congressional behavior.

"I never thought I'd say this, but Bernie Sanders seems to be the voice of reason here," Ingraham said. "Everything you just saw was a complete and utter embarrassment. It should not be what is projected to our kids from our nation's Capitol. Reminder to all of you, yeah, the children are watching. You're supposed to be the adults in the room. So act like it."

Bernie Sanders, in an interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, said the almost-fight during a senate hearing was "pathetic."

CNN reporter says O'Brien was 'tweeting like a 12-year-old'

O'Brien discussed the exchange with CNN's Jake Tapper, who asked him what was going through his mind when the former MMA fighter challenged him to a physical fight during the senate hearing.

"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," O'Brien said.

Tapper then questioned O'Brien's tweets towards Mullin, pointing out he was "tweeting like a 12-year-old."

"Do you really think that that is best serving, best representing the members of the teamsters union?" Tapper asked O'Brien.

O'Brien countered by claiming Mullin started the feud himself back in March.

"He started the whole thing by coming into a hearing, looking at us and basically saying to me, 'I'm not afraid of physical confrontation. Matter of fact, I welcome it,'" O'Brien said. "So that's what perpetuated the whole incident. Never knew the man in my life, never met him. I was testifying in my first Senate hearing, and that was his first introduction to me."

Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert make fun of Mullin on talk shows

Late night talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert made fun of the clip of Mullin challenging O'Brien to a fight.

Kimmel called Mullin a "meathead" and said it was like watching "UFC-SPAN."

“That isn’t the first time Bernie Sanders was forced to play the role of peacemaker," Kimmel said. "You know, when he was originally elected to the Senate, he tried to convince Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton to hug it out, and that didn’t work, either. That didn’t end well at all.”

Colbert called it "an embarrassing day down in Congress," and prefaced the clip with "I want to warn anyone with young children, what we're about to show you is extremely stupid."

"If there's gonna be a fight, I'd like to warn that Senator, you look pretty big," Colbert said. "But historically, people who take on the Teamsters end up with season tickets to Giants Stadium, underneath the end zone. Luckily before things came to blows, cooler heads prevailed — and for once the cooler head belonged to Bernie Sanders."

Markwayne Mullin's history in MMA

Mullin, 45, previously served 10 years in the House before winning the Senate seat vacated by Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe.

Mullin owns a plumbing business and has been an MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter in the past.

Mullin’s Senate biography says he had an undefeated 5-0 record in The Octagon, the eight-sided MMA ring, and is a member of the Oklahoma Wrestling Hall of Fame. MMA sites Tapology and Sherdog each list him with a 3-0 record in matches in 2006 and 2007. The reasons for the discrepancy weren’t immediately clear.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Sen. Markwayne Mullin defends Senate fight as showing 'Oklahoma values'