Frustrations and anger with Kristi Noem’s horrific “leadership” of DHS appear to be boiling over in Congress, and it’s starting to become a bipartisan affair. Appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee today, Noem got an expected and welcome grilling from a number of Democratic Senators, including Sens. Klobuchar, Booker, Durbin, Whitehouse and Blumenthal. But some of the harshest treatment of Noem came from Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina. Yes Tillis is retiring so is feeling freer to defy the Trump regime, but still he was full of anger towards Noem and threatened to shut down Senate business if he doesn’t get some straight answers from Noem about an immigration crackdown in Charlotte.
“If I don't get an answer that you've had a month to respond to, and the remaining ones … as of today, I'll be informing leadership that I'm putting a hold on any en bloc nominations until I get a response, and in two weeks, if I don't get a response, I'm going to deny quorum and markup in as many committees as I can until I get a response,” Tillis said.
The announcement from Tillis, who has called repeatedly for Noem to leave her post, would represent a rare escalation from any senator — in particular one from the president’s party — in the face of frustrations with a member of the Cabinet. Such a move, if he follows through with his threat, would hijack much of the Senate’s standard operating procedure.
Politico notes that in addition to being a member of the Senate Judiciary committee, he is a member of the Finance, Banking and Veterans’ Affairs committees of the Senate. “Disruptions to the latter three’s work could prove especially disruptive for the Senate,” per Politico.
Tillis wasn’t the only Republican to rip into Noem today. Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana (!!!) also had some choice words for Noem, which Politico reports is particularly notable because, unlike Tillis, Kennedy has not been a consistent critic of Noem.
“What got my attention was you blamed your ‘domestic terrorist’ statements on Stephen Miller,” Kennedy said.
Noem responded: “Where you saw that was in a news article of anonymous sources, and they say a lot of things. But I never said that.”
Kennedy then proceeded to read the quote out to her and then tell her twice that it was an on the record quote in a Jan. 27 news article.
Kennedy also pushed the secretary to respond to accusations that she spent hundreds of millions of dollars on television ads that seemed primarily focused on raising her personal profile.
When Noem argued Trump approved the ads and added they were effective, Kennedy shot back that they were “effective in your name recognition.”
Given Noem’s ongoing intransigence it’s unlikely that she’ll give Tillis the answers he’s looking for. If so, I hope that he follows through on his threats. I also continue to pray that a reckoning will eventually come for the horrors and cruelty that Noem has unleashed in our country.
UPDATE
Here’s a video of Tillis’ blistering questioning of Noem:
UPDATE 2
A few more choice words that Tillis had for Noem today:
