From PBS NewsHour.

Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., questioned Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., President Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, about who won the 2020 election in Arizona in a confirmation hearing Wednesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

“Do you believe that Joe Biden won Arizona in the 2020 presidential election?” Gallego asked. “The reason I ask is because, again, you’re potentially deploying HIS (Homeland Security Investigations) agents to Arizona to check a result using our taxpayer dollars to follow up on a conspiracy theory.”

Mullin didn’t answer Gallego’s question, instead addressing the concern that agents are investigating unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the 2020 election in Arizona.

“I’m not familiar with what the former secretary did here, and nor am I here to debate what happened in 2020,” Mullin said. “I do know that there’s an opportunity to look at 2020 and make sure that anything that went wrong we can fix moving forward, because what we want to make sure is that in the next election, be it the midterms or 2028, the American people trust our election system.”

Trump tapped Mullin to take over the embattled agency from Kristi Noem, who was fired earlier this month after her leadership came under bipartisan scrutiny during tense congressional hearings.

Mullin was elected to Congress in 2012 and has branded himself as a businessman and a Washington outsider. As Homeland Security secretary, Mullin, a former business owner, would take charge of one of the biggest government agencies, leading the nation’s disaster response, counterterrorism efforts, border security and the president’s mass deportation agenda.

A former mixed martial arts fighter who once challenged the Teamsters president to a fight during a Senate hearing, Mullin has pledged to stay “focused on protecting the homeland" if he is confirmed.

The Republican Party is considering a pivot on how it approaches immigration enforcement as more voters grow concerned over DHS agents’ aggressive tactics, which has led to the shooting deaths of at least three U.S. citizens since Trump retook office.

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