Linda McMahon, Donald Trump’s pick to head the Small Business Administration, brought her famous pro-wrestler son-in-law to her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday.
Paul Levesque ― better known as the wrestler Triple H ― is a former member of rebellious wrestling group D-Generation X and a past WWE champion. He’s now an executive vice president at the company, and is married to McMahon’s daughter, Stephanie, who also works for WWE and attended the hearing with her husband.
McMahon introduced Triple H and Stephanie right after her hearing in the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee began. His presence at the hearing, naturally, drew a reaction on Twitter:
McMahon and Trump have both touted the success of WWE, which grew from a small company into a national titan of the wrestling industry, as an example of her qualification for the job. But small business groups have pointed to WWE’s efforts to crush its smaller competitors as a reason to challenge her nomination to the post.
McMahon left the company in 2009 to run for a vacant U.S. Senate seat for Connecticut, but she lost to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) in the 2010 election. She ran another unsuccessful Senate campaign against Sen. Chris Murphy (D) in 2012. Murphy and Blumenthal introduced McMahon at the hearing.