Bill O’Reilly slams Mullin: ‘He’s worse than Noem’

Conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly blasted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s leadership after big Republican losses in the midterms, saying he “couldn’t have been worse.”

O’Reilly, a staunch conservative and usually a supporter of President Trump, said the administration went “too far” on the issue of immigration, blaming it for losses in Latino support around the country.

“When people are getting beat up in the streets by federal agents, you need to say why,” O’Reilly said.

In an interview on CBS News’s “60 Minutes” after the election, Trump said he did think immigration enforcement went too far in some cases and expressed openness to working with Democrats on immigration reform.

The former Fox News anchor blamed Mullin directly for how the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has carried out enforcement, arguing he is worse than former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who Trump replaced earlier this year.

“This Markwayne Mullin guy couldn’t have been worse. He’s worse than Noem,” O’Reilly said. “Never explained, arrogant as hell. What are you doing?”

The “No Spin News” host suggested that if he were in charge, Mullin would not be in the job.

“If it were me, Mullin would be in the Bahamas right now taking in the sun,” O’Reilly said.

Other Republicans, including O’Reilly’s former Fox News colleague Sean Hannity, called for a change in immigration policy. Hannity said after the election that Trump should seek public input to determine his immigration policy going forward.

Despite the political blowback, Mullin said after the midterms that “deportations will continue.”

While it was a strength for him in the 2024 campaign, immigration slowly became a political liability for Trump throughout his second term.

Controversial tactics, mass deportations and multiple fatal shootings slowly dragged down the president’s approval on immigration, even as border security remains a strong suit. A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted just before the midterms found that just 37 percent approved of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 55 percent disapproved.

It is one of a few issues that may have hurt GOP support with Latino voters in the midterm elections, a group that had been steadily shifting right in the past few cycles. Preliminary New York Times voter poll data shows that Democrats won Latino voters by 41 points nationally, a 30-point shift left from 2024.

And in Texas, a state with a large Latino population, the shift was even more pronounced. The Times found that Sen.-elect James Talarico (D) won Latino voters by 46 points in the Lone Star State, a 46-point shift left from 2024.