After “joking” that violence could solve “fake news” in an April 4 video posted on Twitter, U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin is facing pushback from editorial boards and advocates for freedom of the press.
The video, which made national headlines, opened with Mullin (R-OK)Â telling a story about a reporter who shot and killed a congressman-turned-lobbyist in 1890. However, as the story came to an end, it took a dark turn.
“Now, there’s a lot we could say about reporters and the stories they write,” Mullin said, “but I bet they would write a lot less false stories — as President Trump says, ‘fake news’ — if we could still handle our differences that way.”
This story was reported by Gaylord News, a Washington reporting project of the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Oklahoma.
Freedom of Information Oklahoma executive director Kurt Gwartney called the whole matter “disheartening.”
“When political leaders joke about violence against those they disagree with or dislike, they demean their elected roles in American public life and the people they represent,” Gwartney said in a statement.
Across the United States in 2024, journalists were assaulted 80 times, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Of the 1,100 incidents of assault that have been reported since the organization started keeping track in 2017, three happened in Oklahoma.
“Each assault can be viewed as an attack on First Amendment freedoms,” Gwartney wrote. “Using violence against journalists is an established chapter in the anti-democratic playbook used by politicians across the globe and here at home.”
FOI Oklahoma was not the first organization to air grievances about Mullins’s comments.
On Sunday, April 6, The Oklahoman published a news article about Mullin’s remarks, and a couple of hours later, Mullin responded on Twitter, calling the newspaper “out of touch with Oklahoma.” The Oklahoman followed with an editorial Monday, saying Mullin is “out of touch with the dignity of his office and the volatile environment our country currently finds itself in.”
“In a time when Mullin could have gone before the cameras to help alleviate all the fears that consume Oklahomans in these uncertain times — worry about their Social Security benefits, whether their Medicaid insurance will be cut, among others — he chose to talk about the potential benefits of harming journalists,” The Oklahoman editorial board wrote.
The editorial contrasted Mullin’s remarks with the Oklahoma Standard and the upcoming 30-year anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19.
“Markwayne Mullin’s response to an argument is violence,” The Oklahoman wrote. “But thousands of Oklahomans, including survivors, families, friends and others affected by the bombing responded to an unspeakable horror 30 years ago with dignity, grace and kindness.”
Tuesday in another post on Twitter, Mullin again responded to “the few reporters pretending to be upset about this video.”
“If you watched … it was a *reporter* who shot a congressman in 1890. You don’t see me crying,” Mullin wrote, using asterisks for emphasis. “Take a joke and quit trying to find a reason to be offended. Focus on your low readership and declining relevance.”
Gwarteny said violence isn’t something about which public officials should joke.
“Expressions of violence in our political system are something you don’t joke about or expect from a member of the U.S. Senate unless you’re willfully ignorant of civics and history,” Gwartney wrote.
