Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said Sean O’Brien, president of the International Teamsters fraternal union, apologized to him after the two men famously challenged each other to a fistfight during a hearing last year.
Mullin told reporters at the Republican National Convention on Thursday that the two met after Trump told the senator several months ago that he wanted the two to meet again.
Recounting the call with Trump, Mullin said the former president said, “Hey, I just met Sean and I’d like you to meet him.”
“His point was that he wanted to bring the unions, the Teamsters, into the Republican Party, so Sean and I arranged to meet at a restaurant to discuss it,” he said, adding that when they did meet, O’Brien “stood up and apologized.”
The Hill has reached out to the union for comment.
“He said, ‘Of all the people whose bios I should have read, I should have read yours, but I didn’t,'” Marin, a former mixed martial artist, told reporters.
“I thought that was funny, and we sat down and had a great conversation for about two hours. He and I have spoken frequently since then,” he said. “He’s a workout fanatic. He’s a self-made guy, he grew up in a blue-collar family.”
He said he did not consider himself and Mr O’Brien “best friends”, but added that he was glad “to see him there”.
O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention earlier this week.
“That’s not a message you hear often at Republican conventions, is it?” Mullin said of the remarks. “But he got the message across nonetheless. In fact, he acknowledges that a significant portion of his party’s members, maybe 50 percent, are Republicans.”
Mullin and O’Brien drew national attention last November when they clashed at a Senate hearing on labor unions.
