- In 2015, Senator Markwayne Mullin traveled to Israel with several colleagues and their spouses.
- Two people on the trip said he picked the noses of sleeping family members and their spouses on the bus.
- “It was just high school,” said one of the tour participants.
The wife of a former Republican congressman said Sen. Markwayne Mullin stuck his fingers up the noses of sleeping congressional spouses to take photos during a trip to Israel.
Kappy Trott, wife of former MP David Trott, reported this story Policy on Friday. She said the incident occurred during a 2015 trip to Israel with the U.S. Israel Public Affairs Committee along with nearly 40 members of Congress and some of their spouses.
When the group landed in Israel, following a tight travel schedule, she told the newspaper they immediately hopped on buses to the kibbutz for a demonstration of the country’s Iron Dome defense system.
She said many spouses of American legislators, already exhausted from the trip, took the bus to catch up on sleep.
Mullin, then a member of the House of Representatives, reportedly had other plans.
Trott said she and her husband personally witnessed the Oklahoma legislator walking “back and forth” on the bus and sticking his finger in the noses of several dozing passengers.
“This idiot starts walking up and down the bus with his camera, and whoever falls asleep sticks his finger up his nose and takes a picture,” she said.
There was a mixture of anger and laughter in her voice, but she stated that she personally didn’t think it was appropriate.
“It was just high school.”
Representatives from Mullin’s office did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
The story of the eight-year-old’s journey comes days after Mullin tried to fight the president of the Teamsters union during a Senate hearing but was stopped by 82-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders.
He has since done a press tour following the incident and said on a podcast that he is not afraid to bite opponents during a fight.
“I’ll do anything, I mean, I’m not above that,” he said. – By the way, I don’t care where I bite, it’s just going to be a bite.
Mullin’s also used the publicity to raise funds.
