Republican Senator Who Tried to Fight Teamster Boss Says He’s “Not Afraid of Biting. I Will Bite”

In the real world, if you threaten to assault someone up at work—and literally utter the words “you wanna run your mouth…stand your butt up”—as your colleagues look on in horror, you can reasonably assume you’ll be unemployed or at least on unpaid leave by the end of the day. Not so in the US Senate! In fact, not only does Oklahoma senator Markwayne Mullin, who tried to fight the head of the Teamsters during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, still have his job; he’s currently using the work day to make additional threats re: fighting people, and is openly talking about the kind of weapons he’d use to do it, i.e, his teeth.

Speaking to podcast host Kyle Thompson on Wednesday, Mullin, a real-life member of Congress, said that should he and union boss Sean O’Brien ever actually settle their beef with a physical altercation, he’d bite the guy. Is that the most insane sentence you’ve ever heard? Just wait!

“I’m not afraid of biting. I will bite,” Mullin, a former mixed martial arts fighter, told Thompson. “I’ll bite 100%. In a fight, I’m gonna bite. I’ll do anything. I’m not above it, and I don’t care where I bite, by the way, it’s just…gonna be a bite.” Is Mullin saying he’d bite O’Brien’s nose? Finger? Genitals? That he’d take a bite out of the guy’s ear Mike Tyson–Evander Holyfield style? Perhaps he’ll clarify at an upcoming Senate hearing.

By the way, the “I’ll bite” comment was not the only one Mullin has made since turning Tuesday’s congressional hearing into a biker bar at 3 a.m. On X, responding to an invitation to come onto a podcast to discuss his fight with O’Brien, he wrote “Let’s do it. Anyplace, anytime” next to a picture of him holding a gun. On Fox News, he told Sean Hannity: “What did people want me to do? If I didn’t do that, people in Oklahoma would be pretty upset at me. I’m supposed to represent Oklahoma values.”

Mullin’s attempt to fight O’Brien wasn‘t the only brawl-related matter that occurred in Congress on Tuesday. The same day, Representative Tim Burchett accused former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of “sucker” punching him in the kidneys. (McCarthy has denied that any contact his hand made with Burchett’s body was intentional, telling reporters, “If I kidney punched him, he’d be on the ground…let’s be realistic about life.”)