Two Republican senators joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling for the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the death of a Minnesota man over the weekend at the hands of federal immigration agents.
GOP Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C., and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, on Tuesday called for Noem to leave her post leading DHS, the department charged with overseeing a surge of as many as 3,000 federal immigration agents to Minneapolis as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation push. Federal agents fatally shot ICU nurse Alex Pretti there on Saturday, only a few weeks following the fatal shooting of Renee Good.
In an interview with ABC Tuesday, President Donald Trump called both Tillis and Murkowski “losers.”
“They’re terrible senators. One is gone and the other should be gone,” Trump said. “What Murkowski says — she’s always against the Republicans anyway. And Tillis decided to drop out. So you know, he lost his voice once he did that.”
Earlier Tuesday, Tillis called on Trump to fire Noem because of her mismanagement of immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
“I think that what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis told reporters on Tuesday, saying he hadn’t decided whether to back a push to impeach Noem. “She should be out of a job.”
“I think it should be a management decision,” Tillis said. “She needs to go.”
“I think that what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Sen. Thom ristiTillis told reporters on Tuesday, saying he hadn’t decided whether to back a push to impeach Noem. “She should be out of a job.”
Murkowski stopped short of demanding that Trump force out Noem. But she did say she was “disappointed” in the DHS secretary and that it was time for Noem to move on.
“I’ve lost confidence in her… We would be better served with new leadership at [the] department… I supported her, I supported the nomination, I had great hopes for her in the department, and I’ve been disappointed,” Murkowski said.
The Republican lawmakers’ comments came after a statement from three members of the House Democratic leadership who said that Noem should be fired or they would launch impeachment proceedings. Even before Pretti’s death, an effort to impeach Noem was building on Capitol Hill with the backing of dozens of Democrats.
While silent on impeachment, many Republicans have pointedly criticized the administration’s response to Pretti’s death in which Noem and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller falsely accused Pretti of being the aggressor and acting as a “domestic terrorist.” President Donald Trump has sought to turn down the temperature in the days since the killing after video contradicting their statements was widely publicized, removing a key official from Minnesota and sending in border czar Tom Homan.
Not all Republican lawmakers were ready to jettison Noem, however. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told reporters Tuesday that he didn’t want to weigh in on whether administration officials rushed to judgment on Pretti because he wasn’t privy to the same information. He stated that Noem was “working her butt off” when asked if he still had confidence in the DHS secretary.
But other prominent Democrats — including Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., who calls himself a border hawk and supported Noem’s confirmation — called for Trump to fire Noem.
This isn’t the first time there have been reports that Noem would be ousted from DHS. MS NOW earlier reported that Trump administration officials were frustrated with her leadership. Some were annoyed she wasn’t moving fast enough to build immigration detention centers and others were unhappy with how she’s disbursed federal emergency funds to states.
Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor's and master's degrees from Arizona State University.
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.