'You are so influenced': Fox News host confronts GOP senator for bowing down to Elon Musk

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) attacked Hunter Biden when asked about billionaire Elon Musk's outsized role in influencing President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Mullin touted Musk as the solution to government spending after the billionaire temporarily derailed a bill to prevent a government shutdown.

"We're going to bring in Elon Musk and allow him to help us see what we aren't being able to see," Mullin told host Shannon Bream, referring to the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). "And so this is a perfect approach and this is why the people elected President Trump to come in and be the 47th president of the United States."

Bream noted that Democrats had suggested Musk killed the bill because it limited his ability to invest in China.

"The Shanghai plant in Tesla is its largest car manufacturing facility," the Fox News host explained. "Number of lawmakers, including our next guest, Senator Ben Cardin, your colleague, have expressed concerns about connections, about businesses where he has benefited on a foreign level, but also here at home, the U.S. contracts, the government contracts that he has."

"What do you say about that potential conflict of interest or appearance of it?" she asked.

"It's laughable," Mullin ranted. "Because these same Democrats turned a blind eye to the 27 shell companies that the Biden family had with [Burisma], with companies in Europe, with companies all over China who was buying ridiculous payments for access to the president when he was vice president through Hunter Biden."

"And now, when he was president through Hunter Biden and the tune of millions and millions of dollars," he continued. "Remember, that's why Hunter Biden was actually pardoned for a crime."

In fact, Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, was never charged with a crime connected to his business dealing with Ukraine energy company Burisma. He was pardoned after pleading guilty to gun and tax crimes.

"These same Democrats turned a blind eye to an absent, cognitive failing president," Mullin said. "And now they're pointing fingers at a president and his consultants around him."

"It makes me angry," he insisted.

Bream wondered if Mullin worried about Congress "giving up some of your authority or your legislative responsibility if you are so influenced by somebody outside of an elected branch."

ALSO READ: It’s time to decimate the Republicans’ standing with the public — and the press

"The only people that are saying they're being influenced by the by Elon Musk are the Democrats making accusations of that," Mullin replied. "We are going to listen to someone that's been very successful in life because that's what you do."

"But for them to start saying that we're going to make our decisions based on Elon, we're going to make informed decisions, what Elon gives us," he added. "And I really take a hard offense to the Democrats even accusing of us."

Watch the video below from Fox News.