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We can now openly admit what has been happening before our eyes for a year: that Kristi Noem was a complete, utter disaster, that her tenure in charge of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was little more than a self-promotional crusade.
She was unfit for the job from day one, and is largely responsible for ICE’s appalling excesses and FEMA’s dismal failures.
President Donald Trump’s decision to fire her, which took too long, frees many Republicans to admit what many in the media, including Democrats and outside critics, have been saying all along: Noem was a slow-motion train wreck.
The former governor of South Dakota had no experience with national security issues, and that became painfully clear.
This is a woman who was so determined to project the image of a tough cowgirl that when she wrote a memoir, she claimed to have shot her dog because she hated the pet. Talk about self-inflicted wounds.
This is the woman who crushed two American citizens who were tragically killed by ICE by calling them domestic terrorists and, in one case, agitators. And refused to take it back.
The appropriate response was simple: This is terrible, we feel terrible for the family, we’re investigating, and I’ll report back when we have more information. How hard is that?
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
In the case of Renee Good, who was fatally shot after dropping off her child at school, there was no investigation. Noem simply announced that the ICE agent did the job properly, and that’s that.
Noem is also responsible for ICE’s overly-aggressive approach in Minneapolis, which led to innocent Americans being pulled out of their cars and homes. Agents have to work hard, but many agents were hired after ICE cut back on training for new recruits. He and the agency lied about this too.
Continued mistakes turned the public against ICE to such an extent that Trump had to bring in border czar Tom Homan to try to save the situation.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem addresses calls for her firing, new Alex Preti video
Noem also escalated the mess at FEMA. By insisting that he approve every contract or grant over $100,000, he created a huge backlog in which people going through the process in disaster areas had to wait for months and months and could not get their money. Some Republicans complained about this after taking heat from their constituents.
Meanwhile, DHS spent millions on advertising promoting Boss, not to mention the private plane used to transport him.
She posed in the infamous El Salvador prison, with a shirtless prisoner behind her wearing a $50,000 gold Rolex watch.
Images of Alex Pretty and Renee Good are displayed during a forum hosted by Democratic lawmakers on the use of force by Department of Homeland Security agents on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 3. (Stephanie Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
To further the gunslinger image he was photographed riding a horse to Mount Rushmore. Other agents nicknamed her “ICE Barbie”.
Noem was poorly prepared at the hearing, defensive and ill-prepared as lawmakers attacked her. She was even questioned about her relationship with her special government staffer, Trump’s first campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, although both dismissed the rumors.
But the ice was not broken until he blatantly lied about the President.
House Democrats hold ‘shadow hearing’ building case to impeach Kristi Noem
Under aggressive questioning by Republican Senator John Kennedy, she claimed that Trump had approved a $220 million advertising contract with her as the featured star. Even anyone with rusty political antennae would realize that Trump was the star of the show.
Only four firms were considered eligible to bid for this contract. And the award went to a firm that didn’t exist eight days ago. It had no website. It had no known office. He never worked for the government.
This company was formed for the sole purpose of winning this lucrative windfall of federal money.
The firm had a strong political connection to Noem. As ProPublica reported, this Delaware organization, Strategy Group, played a key role in Noem’s 2022 campaign for governor.
When Kennedy reported that Trump had called her and called BS on her account, anyone with 10 minutes of experience in Washington could have told that Noem was toast.
Anti-ICE protesters, blowing whistles to alert neighborhoods to ICE activity, face off with Minneapolis police officers in Minneapolis on January 24. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
The President was so angry that he transferred him to a previously non-existent job as Special Envoy for the New Security Initiative for the Western Hemisphere. Not exactly a golden parachute.
Trump addressed the radioactive contract, telling NBC News, “I wasn’t thrilled by it. I spent even less money than that to be president. I didn’t know about it.”
The president-elect’s replacement, Senator Markwayn Mullin of Oklahoma, is widely respected as a more experienced alternative with aggressive views on deportation. He was on good terms with reporters, saying that he and Noem were friends and that they did their best in difficult circumstances.
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It is not unusual to have some goons in a cabinet. For Trump, who fired top officials left and right during his first term, this was the first Cabinet dismissal of his current term, and it came while he was waging war against Iran.
The President was unusually patient with Noem, but he caused serious damage to her, the administration, and the country on her signature issue of immigration.
Virtually no one is defending him except close family and friends. The need for show off is gone.
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