GOP lawmaker accused of picking colleagues’ noses on Israel trip

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A former House Republican lawmaker alleged that Sen Markwayne Mullin put his finger in sleeping lawmakers’ noses – and took pictures of himself doing it.

Ex Rep David Trott and his wife recounted to Politico that during an August 2015 trip to Israel with 40 lawmakers and their spouses, Mr Mullin, then a US congressman, acted strangely.

After the group landed, due to a series of delays, they immediately boarded buses to see an Iron Dome installation and a kibbutz, the outlet wrote.

Mr Trott’s wife, Kathleen “Kappy” Trott told the outlet: “We get on this bus, and it’s a couple-hour bus ride and people were kind of leaning on their spouse’s shoulder and falling asleep. And this idiot starts walking up and down the bus with his camera and anyone who fell asleep, he would put his finger in their nose and take a picture.”

She thought to herself, if “that idiot comes near me when I fall asleep, I’m going to punch him,” Ms Trott told Politico. “And I said to Dave: ‘This is a US congressman?’” She was referring to Mr Mullin.

“Some people were mad, and some people were laughing. There were a couple of women who were mad,” she continued. “You’re trying to fall asleep, somebody you don’t know has his finger … It was just middle school. And we were in Israel, and we’re going to go see the Iron Dome and go to a kibbutz. Just didn’t seem appropriate.”

The Independent has reached out to Mr Mullin’s office for comment.

The senator made headlines earlier this week over another controversy in a Senate hearing. The Oklahoma Republican tried to fight Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien, during testimony before a Senate panel.

The altercation began after Mr Mullin read out Mr O’Brien’s tweet, in which he labeled the Oklahoma senator a “clown and fraud.” Sen Mullin then said, “This is a time and a place. You wanna run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here. Do you want to do it now?”

That’s when Sen Bernie Sanders intervened, telling Mr Mullin: “Sit down! You’re a United States senator!”