{"id":9146,"date":"2026-04-01T15:05:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/dhs-rips-jimmy-kimmel-for-mocking-secretary-markwayne-mullins-plumbing-background\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T15:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T15:05:55","slug":"dhs-rips-jimmy-kimmel-for-mocking-secretary-markwayne-mullins-plumbing-background","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/01\/dhs-rips-jimmy-kimmel-for-mocking-secretary-markwayne-mullins-plumbing-background\/","title":{"rendered":"DHS rips Jimmy Kimmel for mocking Secretary Markwayne Mullin\u2019s plumbing background"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"beyondwords-wrapper\" class=\"beyondwords-wrapper\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"speakable\">The Department of Homeland Security is firing back at comedian Jimmy Kimmel, accusing the late-night host of ridiculing Secretary Markwayne Mullin\u2019s blue-collar roots.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">In a statement to Fox News Digital, a DHS spokesperson defended Mullin\u2019s journey from a family plumbing business to the president\u2019s Cabinet.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Secretary Mullin represents the best of blue-collar America, and failed comedian Jimmy Kimmel chooses to ridicule him for it,&#8221; the agency said.<\/p>\n<p>The disagreement began after Kimmel mocked Mullin\u2019s qualifications during his show last week. He compared the former senator\u2019s qualifications to those of the famous Nintendo character Mario, a plumber.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEN RAND PAUL GRILLS MULLIN ON PAST COMMENTS ON ASSAULT: &#8216;TELL IT TO MY FACE&#8217;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s the now-former senator of Oklahoma. Before he was elected to the Senate, Markwayne Mullin was a low-level MMA fighter and a plumber. That&#8217;s right. We have a plumber protecting us from terrorism now. It worked for Super Mario. Why not Markwayne?&#8221; Kimmel said.<\/p>\n<p>Mullin attended college on a wrestling scholarship before leaving to take over his family\u2019s plumbing business when his father became ill. Before becoming Homeland Security secretary, Mullin represented Oklahoma in the House and Senate for over a decade.<\/p>\n<p><strong>FCC BOSS VOWS TO \u2018REBALANCE\u2019 MEDIA, URGES MORE PRO-AMERICA PROGRAMMING<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In what other country could a young plumber from rural Oklahoma get fed up one day, run for Congress, serve his community in the House and Senate, and then be called to serve in the president\u2019s Cabinet to protect the homeland?&#8221; DHS added.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>MULLIN FACES DEMOCRAT GRILLING IN FIRST HURDLE TO LEAD DHS AMID SHUTDOWN FIGHT<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kimmel defended his original comments on Thursday, directly addressing the backlash during his monologue.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let me make this very clear, I\u2019m not upset that the head of Homeland Security used to be a plumber. I\u2019m upset that he isn\u2019t still a plumber,&#8221; Kimmel said, accusing conservative commentators of twisting his words and arguing he was not trying to insult plumbers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-ct inline\">\n<div class=\"m\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;I wouldn\u2019t put a plumber in charge of Homeland Security for the same reason I wouldn\u2019t call a five-star general to pull a rat out of my toilet. OK? We all have our areas of expertise,&#8221; Kimmel added.<\/p>\n<p>The DHS statement also pointed to comments from President Donald Trump on &#8220;The Five&#8221; Thursday, where he called Mullin &#8220;country smart&#8221; and well-respected. Mullin was sworn in&nbsp;as DHS chief last week after his confirmation by the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n<p>A representative for Kimmel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-media fn-video\">\n<div class=\"video-container\">\n<div data-video-tags=\"on_air,on_air|the_five,personality|jesse_watters,review_app_vod,content_type|segment,primary_politics,politics,personality\" data-video-title=\"\u2018The Five\u2019: Kimmel doubles down on Markwayne Mullin plumber dig\" data-video-id=\"6391886267112\" data-video-domain=\"foxnews\" data-video-type=\"CLIP\" data-widget-type=\"embed\" class=\"m video-player\" style=\"width: 100%;height: 100%\"> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>  <!--&gt;--> <\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Department of Homeland Security is firing back at comedian Jimmy Kimmel, accusing the late-night host of ridiculing Secretary Markwayne Mullin\u2019s blue-collar roots. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a DHS spokesperson defended Mullin\u2019s journey from a family plumbing business to the president\u2019s Cabinet. &#8220;Secretary Mullin represents the best of blue-collar America, and failed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9147,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web3anchor.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}