Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin has said he is ‘excited’ after Donald Trump nominated him to take over from Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary.
Mullin said he had called his father after learning the news, telling reporters: ‘A little kid from west Oklahoma gets to serve in the president’s cabinet – that’s pretty neat.’
The 48-year-old said Noem, who he considers a friend, had been ‘tasked with a very difficult job’ and said ‘she has done the best that she could do under the circumstances.’
Trump settled on Mullin in part because he comes from a safe seat in heavily Republican Oklahoma and ‘looks good on television,’ a source told the Daily Mail.
‘This is super high-risk. The department is shut down,’ the source said. ‘They went to the reddest state in the union to replace her.’
Noem’s firing comes as the vast majority of the department remains shuttered due to a lapse in congressional funding. The source said Mullin could be the figure who gets DHS up and running again.
US Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) speaks to reporters as he arrives at the U.S. Capitol Building on Thursday
Mullin (R-OK), tapped by U.S. President Donald Trump to replace U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, greets a U.S. Capitol Police officer as he departs the U.S. Capitol after a vote in the U.S. Senate on funding for DHS on Thursday
