Donald Trump has fired Kristi Noem as Homeland Security Secretary, but seemingly for the wrong reason.
The firing followed a contentious Senate committee hearing that featured grilling even by Republican senators over the size of an unbid advertising campaign that featured her in western gear posing horseback at Mount Rushmore. She told Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., that Trump had signed off on spending $220 million, and Trump said he knew nothing about it. The contract went to the husband of her former spokeswoman.
Trump did not fire Noem because she has overseen the fatal shootings of two citizens protesting ICE tactics in Minneapolis, or for allowing undertrained, camo-clad, anonymized paramilitary Homeland Security forces to grab migrants for deportation without judicial warrants, or for overseeing detention centers where more than 32 detainees died last year or for separating babies from parents.
He fired Noem because her performance at a congressional hearing was the last straw in embarrassment over buying herself two luxury jet planes, for reportedly having a love affair with colleague Corey Lewandowski, the former Trump campaign manager with a Homeland Security job that no one understands. He fired her for bad press, not for calling Renee Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists to shield her own officers’ tactics in Minneapolis.
Trump did not fire her for failures to provide emergency aid through FEMA for what appear to be outwardly political reasons or for ridding her departments of people who know something about Iranian counterintelligence at a time when we are in a war – or a limited combat operation – with a retributive Iran that promises harm to Americans.
Worse, Trump invented some non-existent job title to keep her on the public payroll as special envoy for the Shield of the Americas, which he said would be a new security initiative for the Western Hemisphere.
He should be referring her to the Justice Department on criminal charges if he thinks the ad campaign was fraudulent. Or for perjury.
Nominating Mullins
As continuing evidence that Trump is ignoring the popular rejection of his massive deportation, he nominated Sen. Markwayne Mullins, R-Okla., as a replacement. Presumably, he sees Mullins as an easily confirmed nominee to his Senate colleagues, just as Mario Rubio won overwhelming support as Secretary of State.
It’s all happening amid the partial “shutdown” of annual budget approval for Homeland Security over demands for even modest restrictions on ICE and Homeland Security agents to identify themselves, wear body cameras, and stand down from warrantless entries into private homes and institutions. It is happening as dismissals by Homeland Security, the FBI and the Justice Department of counterintelligence units that had tracked security threats from Iran and other bad actors. It is happening as pressures build to deploy Homeland Security agents to more U.S. cities, even spawning reports about surrounding election precincts with ICE agents.
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked for a third time a spending bill to reopen Homeland Security, insisting that they would not approve the measure without new curbs on immigration enforcement even amid President Trump’s war in Iran.
Senator Mullins, a plumbing contractor from Oklahoma, may not have a fancy ad campaign to defend, but he will have to prepare for questions about recruitment and training of ICE agents, of allowable tactics, about targeting of migrants based on racial profiling, and about the enormous list of mistakes Homeland Security has made while ignoring courts and inspectors general reports.
This is the same Senator Mullins who has been spending this week avoiding the use of the word “war” to describe U.S. bombings in Iran because that word might legally require a congressional vote.
We can praise Trump for recognizing that Noem was not up to the job for which he chose her out of political loyalty. But we can also be clear that he is doing so for the wrong reason.
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