Noem, During Senate Committee Hearing, Bombarded With Questions About Minneapolis, Taxpayer-Funded TV Ads, Killing Her Dog

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem on Tuesday had few friends on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Democrats and Republicans alike going after her for everything from the killing of two Americans in Minnesota to her admission in 2024 that she had once killed a family dog for misbehaving. She was also asked about new luxury planes being purchased for the department, as well as a $200 million ad campaign featuring Ms. Noem herself. The secretary was chosen to lead the department shortly before President Trump returned to the White House, despite having no real experience in immigration enforcement or border security. Her department’s budget exploded last year after the One Big Beautiful Bill Act provided tens of billions of additional dollars for President Trump’s deportation operations. According to polling, Ms. Noem ranks as one of Mr. Trump’s least-popular top administration officials. A YouGov poll from September found she was ten points underwater, with a 43 percent disapproval rating. Only Mr. Trump himself, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had higher unfavorability ratings. On Tuesday, Ms. Noem appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about how her department is operating one year into the job. Over the course of several hours, it became clear that even many Republicans were not willing to defend some of her actions. Senator Thom Tillis, the retiring Republican from North Carolina, had the harshest criticisms for Ms. Noem on his side of the dais. He has called for both Ms. Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to be removed from their positions, citing a number of concerns around immigration enforcement and emergency disaster response in his home state. “I want to submit this letter from the Office of Inspector General that cites ten different instances under Ms. Noem’s leadership where they’ve been misled and not allowed to pursue investigations that they think are critically important. Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the [inspector general] in this agency to come out and do this publicly?” Ms. Tillis said, his voice rising. “That’s a failure of leadership and that is why I’ve called for your resignation.”Mr. Tillis is one of the few Senate Republicans over the course of the last year to threaten to use his power to delay or even kill some of Mr. Trump’s executive branch nominees. He put a hold on all DHS nominees until Ms. Noem appeared before the Judiciary Committee to answer questions about FEMA and the response to Hurricane Helene, which ravaged western North Carolina. He is also promising to block any nominee for the Federal Reserve chairmanship or the board of governors until the criminal investigation into Chairman Jerome Powell is “resolved.”On Tuesday, he announced that he would not support any en bloc nomination votes — which are votes on tranches of nominees as one group rather than as individuals — until Ms. Noem answers questions in writing about the Inspector General complaint to which he referred during the testimony. Mr. Tillis did not just go after Ms. Noem for policy issues, but for shooting and killing a family dog, as well. She admitted she had done so in a 2024 memoir, highlighting it as a moment of decisive leadership. Mr. Tillis did not see it that way, saying that it spoke more to her recklessness. “I train dogs,” the senator said. “A 14-month-old dog is basically a teenager in dog years. You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices!”He also mentioned how Ms. Noem listed in the book her decision to kill a poorly behaving goat as another example of leadership. “Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis,” he said. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, pressed Ms. Noem on the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by immigration authorities. When asked if she wanted to say anything to Pretti’s parents after calling him a domestic terrorist, Ms. Noem declined to do so. One of the committee’s biggest supporters of mass deportations, Senator Eric Schmitt, defended the administration’s actions and said that the aggression in enforcement was necessary because of President Biden’s policies. “We’re not kneecapping ICE,” Mr. Schmitt said, shaking his head. “We’re not doing it. We’re not gonna take away the tools that they have to deport criminals in this country who are raping and murdering sons and daughters.”Senator John Kennedy, a conservative lawmaker from Louisiana, went in a different direction, instead asking about how Ms. Noem is spending her department’s money. He raised concerns about the department’s decision to spend $220 million on anti-migrant ads featuring Ms. Noem. “How do you square that concern with waste, which I share, with the fact you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?” Mr. Kennedy asked Ms. Noem. When she said it was important to get the administration’s message out, Mr. Kennedy cut in to ask if Mr. Trump was aware of these expenditures. “You’re testifying that President Trump approved this ahead of time?” Mr. Kennedy asked. Ms. Noem did not explicitly answer, saying only that she had had “conversations” about the ads. “No, ma’am,” Mr. Kennedy said, cutting her off, asking again if she explicitly got the president’s approval. “Yes,” she eventually responded. When she said that the ads had been effective, Mr. Kennedy quipped, “Well, they were effective in [boosting] your name recognition.”Mr. Kennedy brought up the fact that an outside organization called the Strategy Group received some of the money as a subcontractor on the advertising contract. The firm which subcontracted to the Strategy Group had been created just days before it was awarded the contract. The Strategy Group happens to be led by the husband of Ms. Noem’s former spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin. “It troubles me,” Mr. Kennedy said of that coincidence.

Noem, During Senate Committee Hearing, Bombarded With Questions About Minneapolis, Taxpayer-Funded TV Ads, Killing Her Dog

Noem, During Senate Committee Hearing, Bombarded With Questions About Minneapolis, Taxpayer-Funded TV Ads, Killing Her Dog

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