President Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary said 9/11 “isn’t a day that I love to celebrate,” three days before the 25th anniversary of the attacks that created his department.
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Markwayne Mullin, who was confirmed in March to lead the Department of Homeland Security, made the comment Tuesday during an interview on Fox News.
The department Mullin runs was created in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people. He acknowledged as much earlier in the same interview, telling the hosts that 9/11 “is a reason why DHS exists.”
Co-host Brian Kilmeade asked Mullin how he would personally reflect on the anniversary this week.
“Well, you know, 9/11 changed all of our lives,” Mullin said, adding that he would spend the day at the Pentagon with friends and family members.
“I’m not a big anniversary person, Brian, and to be honest with you, 9/11 isn’t a day that I love to celebrate, because some people do celebrate the success that America has,” Mullin told Fox News. “For me, it puts kind of a bad taste in my mouth, and I think it does to a lot of other people.”
Kilmeade also asked Mullin where he was when the attacks happened.
“I was doing construction at that time, and I was at a customer’s house,” Mullin said. “They came out and got me. We went and looked at it. My life drastically changed from that point. I took a totally different approach to life after that one.”
“Did that make you want to get into Congress?” Kilmeade wondered.
“No, not at that time,” Mullin replies. “I actually tried to join the military three times after that, and because of some previous injuries, they never would accept me — which is crazy, because I try to keep myself in good shape.”
Mullin has never served in the armed forces, PolitiFact said, after reviewing his record in March.
His Senate and campaign biographies described him as a businessman and a former professional mixed martial arts fighter, the fact-checking outlet found.
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Raw Story found no prior public account of Mullin saying he tried to enlist. Several fact-checks and profiles published this year examined his military claims in detail, and none mentioned a failed attempt to join the service.
The Oklahoma chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame said a recurring shoulder injury ended his hopes of wrestling at a major university.
He told Fox News in March that war “smells bad,” then said on a podcast that he did “special assignments outside of DOD,” referring to the Department of Defense, and that he “never wore the uniform,” PolitiFact reported.
Colleagues told Axios in March that Mullin had privately suggested he was involved in dangerous private security work in Middle East war zones before he ran for Congress in 2012. The outlet found no public record of that work.
The Washington Post reported that he had told versions of the story for years, including on the public affairs network C-SPAN.
“I’ve been in those situations before overseas,” Mullin said then, according to the Post, before declining to say more.
At his confirmation hearing in March, Mullin said the details were classified, according to The Daily Beast. He told senators that in 2015 he was asked to train with “a very small contingency” and travel to “a certain area,” and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said during the hearing that they had gone to Syria.
“But to be in this position today, Brian, as the secretary of Homeland, it does hit home even harder,” Mullin said of the anniversary. “Because back then, when I was wanting to get in the fight — because of President Trump today, he’s put me in the fight.”
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