Kristi Noem received a summary demotion from President Donald Trump a day after a Senate hearing exposed a massive $220 million DHS ad campaign that seemed more about promoting Kristi Noem than DHS. Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) all but accused Noem of lying when she claimed President Trump approved the campaign in advance. Action by President Trump would indicate she did not, indeed, seek prior approval before she ran a pro-Noem campaign using American tax dollars to do it.
Noem will be reassigned as “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas,” which President Trump called “our new Security Initiative in the Western Hemisphere.” Trump has chosen Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) to replace him. The Senator is popular with the MAGA base. He is known for his firebrand confrontations with Progmericans during Senate hearings.
Here’s the Moment That Appears to Have Cost Kristi Noem Her Job as DHS Secretary – westernjournal.com
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy is much better known for demolishing Democrats than ridiculing Republicans, but Kristi Noem might be the exception.
The South Dakota Republican and the now-soon-to-be-former Cabinet official made headlines Wednesday as Kennedy used a Senate hearing to probe insistently about a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign that made Noem out to be some kind of heroine for Homeland Security.
And only a day later, Noem’s ouster was making headlines of its own.
Kennedy’s questioning was polite — almost excruciatingly so — but his skepticism was on full display over Noem’s answers when it came to whether President Donald Trump was fully behind the $220 million ad campaign.
Check it out here:
“Sorry to interrupt,” he said at one point. “But the president approved, ahead of time, your spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently?”