After Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly called out President Donald Trump's racist response to the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan national, Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin defended Trump's rhetoric by claiming that Trump can't be racist because Mullin, who supports him, is part Cherokee.
The shooting took place on Wednesday, just a short distance from the White House. Once authorities confirmed that the detained shooting suspect was a 29-year-old Afghan citizen who had relocated to the U.S. after serving in a CIA-supported Afghan military unit, the Trump administration announced an immediate freeze on all pending asylum rulings.
Trump then took to Truth Social to announce that he "will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover." He claimed he would “terminate all of the millions” of "illegal admissions" allowed under former President Joe Biden, his predecessor.
When asked for a response to Trump's rhetoric, Kelly explained what Trump is "really saying":
"He said he was going to go after drug dealers, gang members, criminals. What we've seen is a little bit of that and a lot of breaking up communities."
After noting that Trump's immigration crackdown is targeting people, undocumented or not, who do not pose threats to their communities, he said:
"This president, when he says things like 'third world countries,' what is he really saying? I think what he's saying is he doesn't want brown people in our country. And that's disturbing. It's un-American."
You can hear what Kelly said in the video below.
Mullin later appeared on CNN to comment on Kelly's remarks, particularly Kelly's accusation that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has committed war crimes by bombing boats carrying alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean without due process, saying:
"Listen, you're once again making assumptions that's not even kind of accurate, I don't believe. All we're doing is talking about an assumption. This isn't proven, this hasn't been said to be true."
"As far as Mark Kelly, as far as what he says, Mark Kelly is saying the most ridiculous things I've ever heard right now. He's encouraging men and women to question the orders of superior officers. He just got done saying that the president is racist because he doesn't like brown people, yet I sit in front of you as a Cherokee Indian and I'm very close friends with the president."
"It's ridiculous what Mark Kelly is saying and he's losing credibility every single day."
You can hear what Mullin said in the video below.
That final personal tidbit had people giving Mullin major side-eye.
Senator Mullin is indeed 1/128 Cherokee through a maternal great-grandfather and is indeed a Cherokee Nation citizen given that the tribe has not blood quantum requirements.
But a friendship with President Trump doesn't automatically mean that he isn't racist.
Nice try but no dice, Senator.
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