Jacob Francy, '26
The first rule of Republican Fight Club is don’t talk about Republican Fight Club.
Even though politicians are supposed to act as role models for our citizens, the Republicans in Congress seem to have forgotten about that. Let’s look at these “tough” guys.
On November 14, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin was questioning the President of Teamsters in a Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee session, when things got out of hand. Mullin brought up the 5 tweets the Teamsters President had posted that criticized the Senator in which he as a metaphor, challenged Mullin to a fight. Senator Mullin said, “Well, now’s a time, now’s a place... We're two consenting adults,” challenging him to an actual fight in the Capitol in front of the media. As he was rising up to take off his wedding ring, Senator and Chairman of the committee, Bernie Sanders, told Mullin quickly, “No, no, no... Sit down, you are a United States Senator.” When the Teamsters' President asked for permission to respond, Sanders immediately rejected it and didn’t allow either one of them to continue.
The same day, more chaos unleashed amongst the “Party of Lincoln.” Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett, one of the 8 Republicans who voted to expel Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, accused McCarthy of elbowing him in the back. Two other members of Congress declined to comment if the story was false, leading many to believe it was true.
It would be easy to say the United States Congress needs to get their stuff together, but it’s really one side. The United States Republicans need to get their act together. No matter what side you are on, you need to encourage them to step up their professionalism and their effectiveness because when both sides are at their best, America is at its best.