GOP Senator Mullin challenges Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien to a fight in Senate!

A congressional hearing on Tuesday turned into a childish exchange of insults between Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Sean O’Brien. The hearing was meant to focus on Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, but was distracted by the feud between the two.

Mullin is a known critic of union leadership and O’Brien had posted on social media about him, calling him a moron and apparently challenging him to a fight, with one post saying, “You know where to find me. Any place, any time, cowboy.” That sentence was amongst some that Mullin read out loud during the hearing, getting defensive and telling O’Brien, “This is the time, this is the place. If you want to run your mouth, we can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here.”

When O’Brien agreed, Mullin told him to “stand your butt up”, to which he retorted, “you stand your butt up!” Mullin did stand up and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had to work hard to restore order, banging his gavel and reminding Mullin, “you’re a United States senator!”

Sanders continued, “This is a hearing, and God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress, let’s not make it worse.” Eventually, after suggesting to have the “cage fight” somewhere else, the two agreed to meet for coffee and settle their differences that way. That didn’t stop the bickering and an irritated Maggie Hassam (Democratic Senator of New Hampshire) just simply ignored them and spoke over them at one point.

“We were there to be talking about, and did talk about, the crisis facing working families in this country, the growing gap between the very rich and everybody else and the role that unions are playing in improving the standard of living of the American people,” said Sanders after the hearing. “We’re not there to talk about cage fighting.”