Unearthed Video Shows New DHS Secretary Telling Disturbing Story About Spanking His Daughter

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What to Know

01 A resurfaced clip from 2023 shows new DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin talking about "discipline" and corporal punishment.
02 He proudly asserted that he spanked his kids and said other parents should also discipline their children.
03 Clips of the speech have gone viral because of the disturbing way in which he talked about spanking his daughter.

Just before Markwayne Mullin was sworn in as the new head of the Department of Homeland Security, a disturbing video of him talking about disciplining his children resurfaced. The 48-year-old is a father of six, and during an October 2023 City Elders event, he boasted about how he had “no problem” spanking his kids. Obviously, spanking is controversial. Research has found that it has a negative impact on children, potentially leading to injury, aggressive behavior, and mental health challenges.

But regardless of how you feel about this form of punishment, the way that Mullin spoke about it really bothered people.

People were disturbed by the way he bragged about it publicly.

In the unearthed footage shared by MeidasTouch, Mullin talked about his own upbringing. “I was raised by the fear of a belt. OK?” he said. “And I deserved them, Dad. I did. Right? But I’ve never seen a man that can take the belt off so fast, double it up, and still hit you. I don’t know how in the world he done that. I tried it and I just can’t.”

He advocated for this kind of discipline, saying he “learned respect” from it. This philosophy has clearly influenced his parenting as well. “You‘ve got to be able to discipline and then move on,” he said. He was talking about letting go of his own anger, which people online found concerning.

“I can spank them and I’m still upset and they’ll come and crawl in my lap two minutes later and just hug on me,” he explained. “I’ve got to learn how to forgive more.” A clip from this speech has also been shared on Reddit. In one thread, someone noted, “Promoted to Homeland Security secretary but can’t even secure his own temper at home… cool cool. This is gonna go well.”

But his speech actually got more disturbing.

What bothered people even more than his comments about controlling his own anger was the way he described spanking his daughter Larra. He recalled how spanking her when she was a young child “was like a four minute ordeal” because of the way she begged him to stop.

“Because she’s like, ‘No, Daddy! No, Daddy! No, Daddy! I’m sorry, Daddy! I’m sorry, Daddy!'” Mullin described. “And then she’d get madder and madder, and she just couldn’t bring herself to even bend over for me to bust her butt. And I was like, ‘Hun, you got like two seconds, or you’re going to get two instead of one.'”

People had a lot to say about it.

Though some people on X defended him and said he was just disciplining his kids, many others called it “sickening,” “disgusting,” and a “bizarre story to recount to anyone in any context.”

Someone described Mullin as “a grown a– man bragging about hitting his little girl and how she begged him not to hit her,” then added, “What a guy.”

Addressing some of the people who were defending corporal punishment in the comments, one critic wrote, “Either way, doing it is your own bad choice, [but] flaunting it on a stage is just creepy to most normal people.”

While the whole thing seemed pretty horrific to lots of people, critics of President Donald Trump were not exactly surprised that he selected Mullin to lead the DHS. “Does Trump intentionally pick the most unqualified people for his administration?” one person questioned. “Seems like he does.”

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Paige Sheffield (she/her)