Everybody Hates Kristi
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Everybody Hates Kristi
by Andrew Egger
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has been feeling the heat. After one year running point for Donald Trump’s mass-deportation regime—a year marked by personal scandal , inexplicable management decisions , baroque internal feuds , and a management philosophy of theatrical cruelty that titillated the MAGA base while horrifying the rest of the country , culminating in the disastrous occupation of Minneapolis and the deaths of two U.S. citizens—Noem suddenly seemed to realize weeks ago that Republicans might be looking for a scapegoat for their immigration failures, and that she was a strong candidate. Suddenly, she was fleeing the spotlight she’d sought so aggressively all year and looking for others to take the blame.
It’s hard to imagine Noem’s appearance yesterday before the Senate Judiciary Committee reassured her.
Unsurprisingly, the secretary had no good answers for a barrage of withering questions from Democrats about her indefensible conduct in recent months. A few of these soundbites may leave her still more battered than before, particularly her stony refusal to apologize for accusing Renee Good and Alex Pretti of domestic terrorism. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) quoted Pretti’s parents. “One of the most hurtful things they could ever imagine was said by you about their son,” Klobuchar said, asking if Noem had anything to say to them.
“I did not call him a domestic terrorist,” Noem said. “I said it appeared to be an incident of . . .” she trailed off rather than finish the sentence with domestic terrorism .
But it was the questioning from a pair of Republican senators that really broke through yesterday. North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis—who is retiring next year—uncorked a whole Festivus’s worth of grievances on Noem, berating her on everything from her failures in Minneapolis to the fact that she infamously once shot her own dog. “What we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem,” Tillis said .
Meanwhile, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) took what seemed to be a more calculated line of attack. His pointed questioning seemed designed to exacerbate tensions between Noem and the White House, as he accused her of sending department funds to political allies, using her perch to burnish her personal brand, and—most hilariously—trying to throw Trump adviser Stephen Miller under the bus for the failures in Minnesota.
“To me,” he said at one point, “it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.”
It’s plain the, ahem, ice under Noem is getting thinner. And yet it doesn’t matter much how fed up congressional Republicans get with Noem’s leadership, so long as she can retain the backing of the only Republican who matters: Donald Trump, who has continued to give Noem regular votes of confidence.
But there’s something else going on here, too. Democrats actually have a bit of leverage over Noem at the moment: DHS remains unfunded, and they are so far holding firm to demand real reforms to ICE and Border Patrol before they’ll consent to release the money. And as we noted yesterday, there is chatter in Democratic circles of a Republican-floated deal: What if, instead of these reforms the White House doesn’t want to agree to, we just made a deal to get rid of Noem?
If those rumors are true, they cast Kennedy’s remarks in an interesting new light. Maybe there is a coalition of Republican senators who have an interest in driving as hard a wedge between Noem and Trump as they can.
Still, Democrats would be crazy to entertain any such possibility. And, indeed, two Democrats we talked to said there is little chance the party would agree to this.
The reforms they’re seeking from DHS—that immigration-enforcement officials wear badges and uniforms and body cameras, that they lose their masks, that they be transparently investigated for misconduct, and so on—are utterly reasonable asks with broad public appeal. They point to the fact that, for all Noem’s horrible leadership, the problems with the people under her supervision don’t stem from her. They’re systemic, and systemic changes are needed.
Americans don’t like what DHS has been up to, full stop. Democrats should aim a lot higher than just getting a scalp from Noem.
— Sam Stein contributed reporting.
Will Trump ever fire a cabinet secretary again? He used to claim his willingness to fire people was a superpower—but can he now afford to give his critics a win? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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A more deserving punching bag does not exist.
Loved them putting up the pictures of the luxurious bedroom and sitting room/bar with multiple large flat screen tv's and asking her if she recognized them. WHY would they spend tens of millions of dollars on this luxury jet to deport illegals when if true, jet would need millions more in renovations' to accommodate illegals being shipped out of here ?
Noem and Lewindowski have their own shaggin in the sky waggin the dead dogs tale of two classes, First and Last, cause one can't coach such pompous elite entitlemeant to blanket Cover the upper crusty, under where asz, they could fire the pilot for not grabbin her blankey, shot from the
limp pimpin stauled former head of Trumps camp pain in our asz the whirled turns past this and so much more, all for a pedophile porno star humpin and payin for playin to bang cause he is such a whore, as well as a pedo protectin and pretty sure we all know what For
I think Trump will keep Noem just because he knows all the Democrats hate her
She was appointed with instructions to piss everbody off.
What better reason could the POS have...
I'd say mission accomplished