Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) says Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, apologized to him after they both made headlines for challenging each other to a physical fight at a hearing last year.
Mullin told reporters at the Republican National Convention on Thursday that the two met after Trump told the senator months ago that he wanted the two to meet one more time.
Recounting the call with Trump, Mullin said the former president told him, “Hey, I just met with Sean. I would like you to know yourself.”
“What he wanted to say was that he would like to bring the unions, the Teamsters, into the Republican Party, and so Sean and I made a deal to go sit down at a restaurant and talk,” he said. He added that when they met, O’Brien “stood up and apologized.”
The Hill has reached out to the union for comment.
“He said, ‘Of all the people I should have read their biography, I should have read yours and I didn’t,’” Mullin, a former MMA fighter, told reporters.
“And I thought it was funny and we sat down and had a great two-hour conversation. Since then, he and I have talked a lot,” he said. “He’s an exercise fanatic. He’s a guy who overcame himself and grew up in a blue-collar family.”
Although he said he wouldn’t consider him and O’Brien “best friends,” he added that he was happy “to see that he was there.”
O’Brien made comments at the RNC earlier this week.
“It wasn’t a message you normally hear at a Republican convention, right?” Mullin said of the comments. “But he still brought the message and the fact is he will admit that a large portion, perhaps as much as 50% of his members, are Republicans.”
Mullin and O’Brien drew national attention last November after the two clashed at a Senate hearing on unions.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
