Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-Okla.) response to a question regarding previous statements he made about Renee Good during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday is alarming experts in American studies and civil rights.
Mullin, President Donald Trump’s pick to take over the Department of Homeland Security, was pressed by lawmakers for publicly smearing Good and Alex Pretti — two Minneapolis residents who were fatally shot by federal immigration agents — in the immediate aftermath of their deaths in January.
When Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) asked Mullin whether he regretted calling Pretti a “deranged individual that came in to cause max damage,” Mullin conceded that he “shouldn’t have said that” and that he made a mistake responding immediately “without the facts.”
He declined, however, to offer an apology to Pretti’s family, saying that an investigation was ongoing.
As it related to previous statements he’s made about Good, Mullin declined to retract his past remarks about the 37-year-old mother altogether.
