News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed

Markwayne Mullin Has Made Trump Administration Nominees His Social Media Brand

Published

2 months ago

February 21, 2025

Staff Editor

oklahomawatch.org – Em Luetkemeyer – 2025-02-21 06:00:00

Markwayne Mullin Has Made Trump Administration Nominees His Social Media Brand

by Em Luetkemeyer, Oklahoma Watch
February 21, 2025

Sen. Markwayne Mullin has been ceaselessly tweeting the last few weeks, providing real-time updates on nominees confirmed to President Donald Trump’s administration.

“It gives me something to do,” Mullin told NOTUS on Thursday, before the Senate confirmed Kash Patel and after he’d posted a video about Patel’s nomination on Instagram.

“I’m not kidding … It gives me a purpose, a drive, but I’m more personally connected than I’d say most people are,” Mullin said.

Mullin was elected to the Senate in 2022, making this the first time he’s gone through the process of confirming nominees at the start of a new administration. He’s voted yes on every Trump pick to come through so far, and he’s gone out of his way — and beyond what most senators do — to cheer the nominees across the finish line.

He’s been consistent in that role: talking with other senators about them, boosting them in media interviews, inviting them to his office and posting a promotional video or picture.

Mullin’s X posts read like Senate cloakroom scheduling announcements, detailing when the Senate would vote on them.

Sen. John Cornyn told NOTUS he’s seen Mullin’s frequent posts.

“If I want to know what the schedule is, I can check out my Twitter feed, but obviously we all kind of do our own thing when it comes to social media. And [Mullin]’s found a niche that he seems to enjoy, and I think it can prove to be useful,” Cornyn said.

In Mullin’s telling, his relationships with many of the major nominees, like Tulsi Gabbard — who he calls his “sister” — and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who he said he got to know while traveling on behalf of the Trump campaign — go back further than their relationships with many other senators. It’s given him a head start in advocating for them, he said, when some of his colleagues are only sitting down to talk to them for the first time after they’re announced as up for their jobs.

Mullin told NOTUS on Thursday there are “very few” nominees he didn’t know “way before this.”

He said conversations he had on the 2024 campaign trail have been formative for his approach to confirmation season in the Senate.

“President Trump never wanted to put the cart before the horse, so he never talked about cabinet positions at all, but us on the plane did,” Mullin said to NOTUS. “Just a group of us talking just about it. ‘Who do you think would be good at this one?’ It was a constant conversation. And I’m not saying everybody we discussed, obviously, got in, but a lot of them we just — like I said, it’s been an intriguing nomination process my first time to go through it.”

Mullin told NOTUS that the Teamsters union leader, Sean O’Brien, came to him with the idea of nominating Lori Chavez-DeRemer as secretary of labor — a step in reconciling with O’Brien, whom he challenged to a fight at a Senate hearing in 2023. The senator said he and O’Brien separately pitched her to the president, and Trump apparently liked the idea so much he nominated her.

The White House and the Teamsters union did not respond to a request for comment.

Several of Trump’s nominees have faced steep odds, and Mullin has stuck his neck out for them. Mullin advocated for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth when many senators were agonizing over whether his past conduct was disqualifying — or trying to figure out who Hegseth was in the first place. Mullin even pushed back during Hegseth’s hearing, accusing some of his colleagues of voting while drunk and cheating on their partners.

As of now, he’s not showing any signs of stopping until every nominee is through.

“He’s been very active in cabinet nominees, and that’s good,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville told NOTUS. “He’s helped President Trump, as we all have tried to, and he’s done a good job as well as everybody else in our conference.”

This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

The post Markwayne Mullin Has Made Trump Administration Nominees His Social Media Brand appeared first on oklahomawatch.org

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News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed

Storms bring record-setting rain, flooding across parts of Oklahoma

Published

7 hours ago

April 30, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – KOCO 5 News – 2025-04-30 22:08:07

SUMMARY: Storms caused record-setting rain and flooding in parts of Oklahoma, leading to dangerous conditions and fatalities. In Pottawatomie County, one person died after driving around flood barriers and being swept off the road near State Highways 102 and 59. Lincoln County saw another fatality when a vehicle was swept away by floodwaters near a creek northwest of Prague. In Cleveland County, homes in Lexington were underwater, prompting rescue efforts by local firefighters using boats. Logan County experienced significant flooding as well, with officials urging residents to report any damage. Additional rain could worsen flooding in the metro area.

Storms bring record-setting rain, flooding across parts of Oklahoma

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News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed

‘A Real Good Test For the First Amendment’ Comes to the Supreme Court

Published

23 hours ago

April 30, 2025

Staff Editor

oklahomawatch.org – Em Luetkemeyer – 2025-04-30 06:00:00

by Em Luetkemeyer, Oklahoma Watch
April 30, 2025

The Supreme Court will hear a case on Wednesday that could pave the way for a much closer relationship between church and state. Some members of Congress from Oklahoma, where the case originated, are eager to hear updates on the case from across the street.

Rep. Kevin Hern said he’d “certainly be getting updates every chance I possibly can.”

“This is going to be a real good test for the First Amendment, and we will see where it goes,” Hern said. “There are a lot of people watching this in Oklahoma on both sides. I would argue there are people watching this across the country — and not just Catholics, but other religions as well.

“I think we’re all waiting,” he said.

Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond will determine whether St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School can contract with the state of Oklahoma and receive public funds. The case could expand the use of public funds on religious schools when it is decided later this term.

It’s a case that’s split Republicans into several camps, and it’s getting close attention from lawmakers outside of Oklahoma and religious-rights groups.

“The court is a very hard body to predict,” Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who filed an amicus brief in March in support of the school, said. “I really do not have a good sense of how they’ll come out of this. Obviously, they granted it, which is, I think, fantastic.”

While lawmakers go about their business on Capitol Hill this Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on behalf of the school from lawyers, including some affiliated with the Alliance Defending Freedom and from Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic. Gregory Garre, a former solicitor general, will argue on behalf of Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, who has said the school could “force taxpayers to fund all manner of religious indoctrination.”

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who wrote an amicus brief in support of the school, plans to attend the arguments, his spokesperson told NOTUS. Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction and an outspoken supporter of religion’s role in public schools, will likely not be at the hearing due to “last minute changes,” a spokesperson said.

Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, who was also among the conservative lawmakers who filed the amicus brief supporting the school, told NOTUS he won’t be able to attend the hearing Wednesday, but he’d be watching for updates on the case.

“This court, for the last really 15 years, has taken on a lot of issues dealing with religious liberty. It’s not just been even since the new members were added during the Trump administration or the Biden administration,” Lankford said. “This is a very niche-type question, but a pretty significant question of cooperation between a state entity and a religious entity. What can that relationship be?”

Not all members of the Oklahoma delegation have weighed in. Rep. Stephanie Bice’s office did not respond to NOTUS’ request for comment. Reps. Tom Cole and Frank Lucas, as well as Sen. Markwayne Mullin, said they had not been following the case.

“I haven’t been paying attention to it at all,” Mullin said. “Probably should’ve been, but I’m not.”

Rep. Josh Brecheen said that the understanding of the First Amendment has changed over time from “what our founders” intended and has grown beyond this intent due to “liberal interpretation.” This case, he said, could help bring back that “original intent.”

“We’ve, for decades, taken what the founding era believed about God’s place in the public square and we turned it on its head. They never meant for God to be kicked out of the public square,” Brecheen said of the case.

This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post ‘A Real Good Test For the First Amendment’ Comes to the Supreme Court appeared first on oklahomawatch.org

Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

The content presents a primarily factual and measured overview of a Supreme Court case concerning public funding for religious schools, highlighting perspectives from Republican lawmakers and conservative-leaning groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom. It emphasizes constitutional and religious liberty arguments commonly associated with conservative and right-leaning viewpoints. However, it maintains a neutral tone by including different opinions and background information without explicit editorializing, situating it in a center-right position rather than far-right or partisan advocacy.

News from the South - Oklahoma News Feed

Rain totals continue to climb as storms move across Oklahoma

Published

1 day ago

April 29, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – KOCO 5 News – 2025-04-29 21:39:17

SUMMARY: Rain totals are rising as storms move across Oklahoma, with no current tornado warnings. Thunderstorms and heavy rain are impacting areas including Edmond, Oklahoma City, Yukon, Mustang, and Piedmont. Edmond has received two inches of rain in a few hours, with significant amounts also reported south of Lawton (3.5-4 inches). A flash flood warning has been issued, indicating a wet night ahead. Severe thunderstorm warnings include 70 mph winds affecting Slaughterville, Lexington, Wayne, Paola, and Pauls Valley. Western Oklahoma expects more storm development this evening, with ongoing rain and flood risks particularly in Oklahoma, Cleveland, and McClain counties.