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Floor Speech

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Mr. MULLIN. Mr. President, today, I take to the floor for the first time. I really am not one to speak a whole lot on the floor. My time in the House was very limited as to how many times I spoke on the House floor. Then, being in the Senate, this is my first time to speak, but it comes on an occasion that I feel is, I guess, the right time to speak.

A gentleman whom I took great pride in knowing, whom I referred to quite often as a grandfather, Senator Jim Inhofe, passed away, unfortunately, this morning.

And I was asked right off the bat, ``Would you be willing to do some interviews?'' on it. And then, obviously, we were asked to speak on the floor.

And I didn't even know what to say. How do you describe Senator Jim Inhofe, right? How do you describe his family--Miss Kay, who, from the first time I ever met her, she made me feel as comfortable as if I was her own child, just someone who took time to pet on me and love on me when I was trying to learn just to be in politics because politics was new.

Senator Inhofe would often take me by the hand--literally, by the hand--and say: Hey, listen to me, son. And over time he became quite a mentor--I mean, quite a mentor of mine.

And I get asked all the time: How do you plan on filling the shoes of Senator Inhofe? And I say: How do you fill the shoes of a gentleman whose middle name was ``Mountain''? How fitting is that, right? Senator James Mountain Inhofe, because he was a mountain of a man.

He blazed his own trail. He was full of grit and tenacity. You always knew where he stood. I never doubted what his thoughts were. He would tell me right off the bat. When it was time for a decision to be made, he would get the delegation together. He would come in, and he wasn't someone that demanded you to go with him. He just let you know where he was at and why he was right. And you found a lot of respect in that. At the same time, if he didn't agree with you, he let you know he didn't agree with you. But you can respect a guy that you always know where he stands.

So it saddens me deeply to know that, today, this Earth is less one gentleman that I think we all learned from. Everybody in this Chamber who knew James or Senator Inhofe knew a guy as a friend. You knew he was someone that you could trust.

I remember one time--it was in 2016--my wife and I, we were making a decision if we were going to continue to stay in public office. Quite frankly, I was done. I had my fill. I came from the private sector. And just politics, in itself, to me, was not something that I enjoyed. I was ready to just throw in the towel.

And Senator Inhofe called me. He says: Hey, come into my office, which, coming over from my little Senate office in Longworth, I went into this Taj Mahal office of Senator Inhofe's, and I just was in shock.

And he said: Do me a favor. He says: Don't leave yet. And I looked at him. He said: Just give it time. He said: I understand it is bad right now. I understand it is rough. He said: But take it from a guy who came out of the private sector--from me--who at that time had been in office almost 55 years. He said: Take it from me, a guy that came out of the private sector, how frustrating it can be. But it can also be the most rewarding thing you will ever do. It can be more satisfying than anything you have ever built if you will just stay put because, I promise you, it will get better.

And I can't say it has actually gotten better, but I can say that he was right, because it is gratifying. What he did is he allowed me to change my focus from understanding that all the outside distractions that can take place, all the nasty things that can happen on social media, the things that can be written about you that are out of your control, things that people automatically assume about you because you are in public office--that can all easily go away if you will stay focused on what you were elected to do, which is to serve the great State of Oklahoma and just focus on constituent service, focus on building things for the State, focus on staying passionate about what your passion is, and you can create such a legacy for yourself.

I don't think Senator Inhofe ever set out to build a legacy that his name is built upon. He always wanted to serve, from being mayor of the city of Tulsa, to being a Congressman for three terms, to serving in the Senate for almost 30 years. All he did every day was work hard for Oklahoma, and I am grateful to get to know him.

His family, the whole time he served--I have just got to brag about his family because, the whole time he served--which was a big thing for me too--it was, how do you balance the political life and the family life? Because if you knew Jim, Jim was--or Senator Inhofe--always going home. Miss Kay was his priority. If she was ill, wasn't feeling good, he was headed that way. And every time I talked to him on the plane, when we sat beside each other, when we would land, the first person he would call would be Miss Kay.

And he would want to know how she is doing and want to make sure that this project is being complete. And sometimes he would even talk to me about some of the projects going on to his house. It was always a priority.

And for me, who had six kids at home--and at the time when I got in office, my oldest was 7 years old--that was a concern of mine of how you can balance it.

And he says: Markwayne, I have been doing this--like I said, at that time, when we first had that conversation, he had been in office for over 50 years. He says: I have done it, and I think I have raised some pretty good kids. His kids loved him. His wife loved him. His grandkids loved him.

And not to talk about the way that he necessarily left the world, but I think he left it the way he would want to, a guy that was always moving. He was always on the run. He always had a project. He never sat still. To be able to be here one day, go through a little trouble for a maybe a few days, and leave this Earth and people loving you and you had a great reputation--I don't know how any of us would rather be remembered.

And so, while I take the podium for the first time, I just want to say again, it is an honor to walk in that trail that he blazed because, as I said, I am not ever going to fill his shoes. But he built a trail, as people want to refer to it, as a mountain man. What did the mountain man do, right? The mountain man went up, and he blazed trails--new trails. He was in territory that no one else knew about. He blazed a trail that I could build a highway on, and I have full intentions of doing that.

So to Miss Kay, to his kids, and to his grandkids and to all his family, thank you for giving so much of your time to allow Senator Inhofe to serve. Thank you for giving him to me and allowing me to call him--even though he sometimes got mad at me because he thought I was talking about his age. I wasn't. I meant it in an affectionate way. Thank you for allowing me to call him my grandfather, because I lost both my grandfathers. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to know him and to know your family. May God bless you.

I think it is pretty evident when I say this: We are all going to miss him.

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