The Good, Bad, And Ugly Of “Noem En Culture”
Kristi Noem has been relieved of her position as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and Democrats think they see blood in the water. It might be ketchup or red food dye, but it definitely isn’t blood.
Even after acknowledging her flaws, it can’t be denied that Noem was still effective at her job. She inherited a nightmare thanks to Joe Biden and his do-nothing, destructive administration.
During her time at DHS, they reported 670,000 deportations and another 2.2 million who self-deported. DHS also seized more than half a billion pounds of illegal drugs. Because of those efforts, the end result was the most secure border in American history, by every metric the administration has put forward.
Gaging from the starting point they were gifted by Biden and Harris to where the country is now, the results are nothing less than remarkable. Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who is also a former cop, put it plainly during the House hearing: “Madam Secretary, you inherited a disaster, and you turned it around.”
The bad was that along the way, Noem got caught up in the invisible net of power and vanity. On Tuesday, the net would become visible when she sat down at a Senate Judiciary hearing, and she was asked to explain a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign that cast herself as the lead.
The man doing the questioning was none other than the no nonsense Republican Senator from Louisiana, John Kennedy, who is known for his truth-seeking, probing questions that have both exposed and intimidated many in the past.
Kennedy informed Noem that his research showed the ads featuring her on horseback at Mt Rushmore, which emphasized the success of the number of self-deportations, never went through a competitive bidding process.
He highlighted that Safe America Media, the main contractor that received $143 million, was incorporated less than two weeks before the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded it the contract. He also pointed out that a significant portion of the funds subsequently went to the Strategy Group, a company whose CEO is married to Tricia McLaughlin, the former DHS spokeswoman under Noem.
Kennedy pressed further and asked Noem directly whether President Trump approved of her spending $220 million on TV ads featuring herself. Noem said yes and that it was approved before she was sworn in.
However, Trump disagreed, and the White House wasted no time shooting down the allegation. In fact, a White House official told reporters directly that the president never signed off on the campaign. Not even close.
Other sources close to President Trump stated that he was not only “pissed” but had been frustrated with Noem for a while over her lack of control in Minnesota and the decline in immigration poll numbers. However, when Noem stated that he had approved the $220 million for the ads, that was the final straw.
The ugly aspect of the story involves Corey Lewandowski. Internal DHS records indicate that Lewandowski had been approving contracts even though Noem had told the Senate he had no involvement in the approvals. However, you probably won’t hear much about that. To Democrats and the MSM, those are just details; they are all about character degradation, so what you will hear about is the alleged affair between Noem and Lewandowski.
Rumor has it that the affair has existed for years, and on the second day of her testimony, at the House Judiciary Committee hearing, she was asked if she ever had “sexual relations” with Lewandowski. Noem accused lawmakers of spreading “tabloid garbage.”
“Mr. Chairman, I am shocked we are going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today.”
Democrats are foolishly looking at this as a victory. To them, removing Noem and having the opportunity to disparage her reputation is akin to Christmas morning. That bubble will burst quickly. The person replacing Noem is Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, and he will not be the easy target Noem represented to liberal Democrats.
Mullin is hard-nosed and focused. He is a former professional MMA fighter and the only Native American currently serving in the Senate. Throughout his more than ten years in Congress, he has been a steadfast loyalist to Donald Trump. Notably, he once confronted a protester who interrupted Trump’s State of the Union address. He tends to avoid creating headlines that distract from his primary mission.
Democrats have a short and self-denying memory. Despite her flaws, Kristi Noem accomplished a great deal in the fight to deport those here illegally and secure the border. Don’t kid yourself, the left despises her for those accomplishments.
Their hatred demonstrates their deep hypocrisy. It’s almost impossible to name a Democrat who doesn’t have a scandal following them like a shadow. The country just endured four years with a president who was mentally unfit to hold any office, let alone the Oval Office, and yet every single Democrat and liberal lied and protected him while they unilaterally drove the country into the ground.
The point is that Republicans are not immune to screwing up, but unlike Democrats, they don’t blindly lie in unison when those mistakes are exposed. The most pressing questions that brought the Noem situation to a head were asked by John Kennedy, a Republican. No Democrat would ever have done that; they would have been too busy lying and making excuses for the person under fire.
Noem’s tenure at DHS has ended, and Mullin’s will begin at the end of March. Democrats would be wise to consider the cautionary saying, “Be careful what you wish for, you just may get it.” For Republicans, this may be a case where the grass IS greener on the other side of the fence.
