Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s (R-Okla.) response to a question regarding previous statements he made about Renee Good during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday is alarming experts in American studies and civil rights.

Mullin, President Donald Trump’s pick to take over the Department of Homeland Security, was pressed by lawmakers for publicly smearing Good and Alex Pretti — two Minneapolis residents who were fatally shot by federal immigration agents — in the immediate aftermath of their deaths in January.

When Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) asked Mullin whether he regretted calling Pretti a “deranged individual that came in to cause max damage,” Mullin conceded that he “shouldn’t have said that” and that he made a mistake responding immediately “without the facts.”

He declined, however, to offer an apology to Pretti’s family, saying that an investigation was ongoing.

As it related to previous statements he’s made about Good, Mullin declined to retract his past remarks about the 37-year-old mother altogether.

When Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) asked him if he regretted saying he believed the shooting was “absolutely” justified days after Good was killed, Mullin repeated talking points similar to those he’s used in the past, stating that he believed it was “very clear that an officer had to make a split decision, in that case, where a car was running towards him and did strike him.”

“At that point, the car becomes a lethal weapon,” Mullin continued.

“You’re saying you do not regret that statement?” Blumenthal pressed further moments later.

“I’m saying the investigation is going on,” Mullin responded.

“There is no investigation, senator. In fact, my next question to you: Don’t you think there should be an investigation?” Blumenthal questioned.

“My understanding is that there is, I will find out, if I’m able to get confirmed,” Mullin said.

Blumenthal then referenced the fact that state and local officials in Minnesota have said that they have been prevented from taking part in investigations into Good’s and Pretti’s deaths. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at the Department of Justice had said in a statement in January that there was “currently no basis for a criminal civil rights investigation” into Good’s fatal shooting.

Mullin said during the hearing on Wednesday that he believes the FBI is currently “looking into” Good’s case.

The Oklahoma Republican, Trump, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and others in the administration quickly disparaged Good shortly after she was killed by Jonathan Ross, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

Mullin had defended Noem for saying in the immediate aftermath of Good’s death that the Minneapolis resident had appeared to commit an “act of domestic terrorism” at the time she was killed. He had also said that Good used her vehicle in a “lethal manner” against the ICE agent days after the incident. Trump similarly said that Good “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer.” But these descriptions of events have been disputed by video footage of the incident.

Noem had similarly refused to retract or apologize for publicly ridiculing Good and Pretti when she was grilled by lawmakers at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing and a House Judiciary Committee hearing earlier this month. Trump fired her shortly after and selected Mullin as her hopeful replacement.

Civil rights attorney Alexa Van Brunt, a clinical professor of law and director of the MacArthur Justice Center Clinic at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, said that she found Mullin’s refusal to retract his statements about Good “concerning.”

“I think that Senator Mullin, like many people in the Trump administration, made statements [about Good] that didn’t accord with the evidence, and also made clear that they had no intention of participating in, or hearing the results of an objective investigation into the shooting,” Van Brunt told HuffPost. “That’s clearly where he still stands, and that’s what’s so concerning — he’s going to be in charge of an agency that has had such violent attacks. And he’s had the chance to disavow his prior statements .... and he didn’t.”

Kari J. Winter, a professor of American studies at the University at Buffalo whose expertise includes gender, feminism, race and class, emphasized that “genuine leaders in law enforcement are judicious, impartial, deliberative, and capable of analyzing complex situations calmly” — all characteristics that Mullin does not have.

“In contrast, Mullin is impulsive, fanatically partisan, and ideologically vaccinated against evidence,” she told HuffPost. “In January, seeing no need to investigate, he immediately declared Renee Good and Alex Pretti deserving of death.”

Van Brunt said that it was troubling to hear Mullin, again, trying to “vindicate the officer” who killed Good when Blumenthal asked whether he’d retract his previous statements about the shooting.

“He made a comment about the officer who shot Renee Good being hit by a car and the car being used as a lethal weapon. Well, all the footage that has come out of that shooting does not show him being hit by a car, there’s very clear evidence that there was space between the car and that officer,” she said. “And that line is just factually wrong.”

Van Brunt said that by Mullin repeating those talking points, he undermined any optimism that “he would engage in a more objective inquiry into this shooting.”

“I really worry it’s going to be more of the same,” she said about Mullin’s leadership of DHS if confirmed.

“He gave some conciliatory remarks about having a more open relationship with Congress, but when the rubber hits the road, his beliefs about the propriety of ICE officer tactics seem no different than Kristi Noem’s,” she said, noting that several of his responses to questions about how he’d lead ICE operations during Wednesday’s hearing were “incredibly worrisome.”

As an advocate for immigrant rights and as someone who does advocacy against excessive force by law enforcement, Van Brunt said advocates are “looking for somebody to be in charge who is going to cut a completely new path, one based on de-escalation, one based on respect for human life and dignity — and [Mullin] hasn’t shown any desire to engage in that conversation.”

Winter questioned why Mullin backed away “from his pronouncement that Pretti was a ‘deranged individual’ while maintaining his precipitous verdict that Good, a beloved 37-year-old mother, deserved to be shot?”

“We might consider Mullin’s long history of misogyny, homophobia and transphobia,” she said. “He supports banning abortion under all circumstances, including incest, rape, and danger to the mother’s life. He voted against reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). He supports banning trans athletes from women’s and girls’ sports.”

And speaking about his behavior at Wednesday’s hearing, Winter said that Mullin has a “troubled relationship” with the truth. “Does he really not know that DOJ blocked investigations into Renee Good’s shooting?” she questioned. “We are faced with a routine Trump quandary: is he lying, uninformed, or incompetent? The answer is usually all three.”

Winter pointed to some of Mullin’s “anger issues” that Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called out during the hearing, saying that when “officials violate professional ethics, they help prepare the ground for tyrants and fascists.”

“Sen. Markwayne Mullin appears to have no training in or understanding of what it means to uphold professional standards in the fields of law and law enforcement,” she said. “The first rule of law enforcement is to build trust and legitimacy within the community. Under Sec. Kristi Noem, ICE shattered all remnants of trust and legitimacy.”

“It’s hard to imagine Sen. Mullin as someone capable of rebuilding trust and legitimacy,” she continued.

Winter said that Mullin suggested during his testimony that “under his leadership ICE agents would violate our constitutional rights less often than they did under Noem.”

“It doesn’t seem to have occurred to him that some of us believe the federal government should be upholding our rights, not trampling them,” she said.

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