Markwayne Mullin made his first trip of his tenure as secretary of Homeland Security to western North Carolina — aiming to reassure the storm-battered community that his agency will now grant it more support, after months of complaints about his predecessor.
“No one in D.C. is forgetting about it,” Mullin said at a roundtable Tuesday with North Carolina state officials, first responders, lawmakers and Federal Emergency Management Agency staff in Chimney Rock, North Carolina.
North Carolina lawmakers had quickly requested that Mullin visit the region. Sen. Ted Budd said he talked to Mullin about the trip on the Senate floor during his confirmation, and Rep. Chuck Edwards invited him to his district, which covers much of western North Carolina.