GOP lawmaker draws backlash for telling Democratic colleague to ‘shut up’ during heated ObamaCare debate

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) drew backlash from some of his fellow committee members this week after telling a Democratic colleague to “shut up” during a heated discussion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The heated exchange began after Mullin remarked at a meeting that employees at his plumbing company told him their coverage under the Obama-era health care law “sucks.” 

Mullin called out New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D) during a discussion of the health care law, asking what Luján has proposed to resolve bipartisan efforts to change the ACA.{mosads}

Luján interrupted to ask whether Mullin would yield his time to allow him to answer the question. Mullin declined, saying Luján could “shut up now.”

GOP @RepMullin says that ACA coverage “sucks” and that bipartisan health care talks aren’t working.

[Democrat @repbenraylujan tries to cut in]

Mullin: “I said I wasn’t going to yield, you can shut up now.”

h/t @owermohle pic.twitter.com/xK4RZkH0vp

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) March 27, 2019

Several members of the committee could be heard voicing objections to Mullin’s remarks. According to The Oklahoman, Mullin was reportedly forced to retract some of his language from the congressional record after members complained that he had violated the House rules of decorum.

According to the paper, New Hampshire Rep. Ann Kuster (D) called for the “five-letter word” beginning and ending with “s” to be struck from the record because she found it offensive.

North Carolina Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D) also reportedly said the word “is inappropriate in this committee in the context in which you used it.”

Mullin said he would retract “sucks” from the record but added that he wouldn’t apologize for telling his colleague to “shut up” because he felt that “he kept trying to talk over me,” according to the local paper.