MAGA Senator Markwayne Mullin bragged about breaking the law on live TV after admitting he doesn’t wear a seatbelt while driving in D.C. due to a fear of being carjacked.
He praised Donald Trump for seizing control of the city’s police department and deploying 800 federal agents after former DOGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine was “beaten mercilessly” in an alleged carjacking.
“If you look at car theft only, if Washington, D.C. was a state, Washington, D.C. would be three times higher than any other state,” Mullin said. “And we’re talking about a city. And we’re comparing it to full states.”
The Oklahoma senator then made a bizarre leap of logic and said he doesn’t buckle up when driving around D.C. in case he needs to make a swift exit from his vehicle in the event of a carjacking.
“And by the way, I’m not joking when I say this,” he told Fox News on Wednesday. “I drive around in Washington, D.C. in my jeep and, yes, I do drive myself. And I don’t buckle up. And the reason why I don’t buckle up, and people can say whatever they want to, they can raise their eyebrows at me, again, is because of carjacking.
“I don’t wanna be stuck in my vehicle when I need to exit in a hurry because I got a seat belt around me. And I wear my seat belt all the time, but in Washington, D.C., I do not because it is so prevalent in carjacking. And I don’t want the same thing to happen to me what’s happened to a lot of people that work on The Hill.”
Although he hasn’t been caught in the act, Sen. Mullin appears to have confessed to a crime with the admission. Under D.C. law, it is mandatory to wear a seatbelt while driving under all circumstances, with a minimum penalty of $50 for violations plus up to 3 points for multiple infractions.
Quite how driving without a seatbelt is meant to reduce the risk of carjacking remains unclear. It is possible that Mullin has misunderstood a (heavily discredited) military tactic in which some soldiers refuse to wear seatbelts in case they need to exit a vehicle quickly in the event of a roadside ambush or incoming explosions and gunfire.
The Daily Beast has contacted Mullin’s office for further comment.
The admission was not the first time Mullin has admitted breaking the law. Earlier this month, he was found to have violated the STOCK Act by failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock and bond trades in a timely fashion, according to a disclosure made by the Senator’s office.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK) requires members of Congress to disclose any stock, bond, or cryptocurrency trade done by themselves, spouse, or dependent child within 45 days. Mullin’s disclosure was two-and-a-half years late.
