In today’s episode of Everybody Haaaaaates Kristi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has spent the last couple of days defending herself and President Donald Trump’s aggressive, chaotic, often violent and demonstrably xenophobic immigration crackdown before lawmakers in both chambers of Congress.
To be fair, House Republicans were a little more welcoming to Noem during Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee than Senate Republicans were Tuesday, when some of them joined Senate Democrats in putting Noem’s feet to the fire as she evaded direct questions about why she’s so generally bad at her job and why the immigration operations in Minnesota have been so damn disastrous.
During the House hearing, however, Republicans like Rep. Jim Jordan, the committee’s chairman, praised Noem’s “amazing record,” which I can only imagine had congressional leaders asking themselves, “Is — is the record in the room with us?”
Rep. Becca Balint, a Vermont Democrat, questioned Noem about her agents complying with court orders and allegations that people who work under Noem have lied to federal judges.
“This conduct alone is impeachable, and I want you to know that Americans will get accountability for the damage that you have done, for the lawlessness of aspects of DHS, for killing innocent Americans, for terrorizing children,” Balint said. “They will get accountability.”
Balint said “you’re the secretary of DHS — for now.”
“And you think you’re immune from accountability. But I promise you this — one day, he is not going to be president anymore,” Balint said. “He is not going to be in charge. And when that day comes, we will still be here. And we will still be seeking accountability. And in hearings like this, we are going to continue to prove your guilt.”
Daaaaaamn, stall her out, Debo — I mean, Balint.
As we previously reported, Noem was hit from both sides of the political aisle with questions regarding federal agents behaving wild and reckless while in the performance of their duties, especially in Minnesota, where brazenly lying about incidents such as the high-profile killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good resulted in a public relations nightmare for the Trump administration.
Noem probably wasn’t done licking her wounds from that political beating before having to go through it all over again before the House.
“DHS is supposed to be protecting our residents and upholding constitutional protections, but you’ve turned that on the head,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said to Noem. “You have actually turned the United States government against its own residents and you’ve had multiple chances to take accountability, to apologize to these folks and others across the country, but you have failed to do it.
“Yours is a case of failed leadership, secretary,” she went on to say. “You need to resign, be fired or be impeached because you don’t have the right to lead this nation.”
It’s worth noting that Jayapal had presented four individuals in the audience who she said were detained by ICE “simply for legally protesting or monitoring ICE activity,” much like Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) presented three U.S. citizens who were detained by federal agents just because they appeared to be Latino, according to one of the individuals, who is suing the government over his detainment.
Look, the House hearing might not have been quite as hostile toward Noem as her Senate hearing was, but there were certainly some Democrats in the building who appeared to be picking up the baton where Sen. Cory Booker left it.
Hell, Noem is lucky they didn’t roast her like this.
Still, House Dems went at her pretty hard, too. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) even got Noem to somewhat soften her tone regarding the deaths of Pretti and Good.
More from CBS:
Raskin asked whether Good and Pretti were domestic terrorists, based on what the DHS secretary knows today.
“What happened in Minnesota in those two incidents was an absolute tragedy,” Noem said, while offering condolences to their families.
Raskin repeated his question, to which Noem replied, “there [are] ongoing investigations.”
Noem and Raskin repeatedly spoke over each other as Raskin criticized the comments, while Noem criticized Democrats for going after federal agents.
“You told a lie about them. You said that they were domestic terrorists. Do you regret that?” Raskin asked.
“I offer my condolences to those families,” Noem said.
Raskin didn’t let up, though, going on to declare that Noem “turned our government against our people” and continuing to hammer her over her “smear campaign” against Good and Pretti.
“You provided no evidence to back up your defamatory lie against either of these American citizens,” Raskin said.
He also accused her department of refusing to cooperate with local authorities in investigating the killings and other incidents involving ICE and Border Patrol.
“Rather than work with state and local authorities to solve these homicides, you barred Minnesota’s investigators from the crime scenes,” Raskin charged. “You’re denying them access to all the evidence that you have about the deaths of their citizens. It smells like a cover-up, and it makes me wonder who the real domestic terrorists are.”
Of course, Noem spent much of the hearing continuing her defense of her agents and the Trump administration while trying her best to deflect to funding issues, the behavior of anti-ICE protesters, and whatever else might, in her mind, take blame off of her and place it elsewhere. But that’s a tactic she has been deploying, and it hasn’t worked out for her so well as of late.
That lady must really hate her job sometimes — especially when she’s being challenged to do it with some semblance of competence, which simply isn’t part of the MAGA brand.
