"Noem’s lying in and of itself should be grounds for termination"

Kristi Noem dresses up as a Texan. (Department of Homeland Security)

After a nationwide backlash to the extralegal killings of two Americans, Gregory Bovino, the thuggish face of the Customs and Border Patrol, was kicked out of Minneapolis. Now Democrats are rallying to force Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to quit, get fired, or face impeachment. It is easy to cynically dismiss Donald Trump’s personnel shuffling as nothing more than rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, but there are very good reasons to go after Noem, especially now.

Neera Tanden, head of the Center for American Progress, demanded Trump pull Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection out of Minnesota and fire Noem. “She directly lied to the American people about these killings, has overseen an agency that is endangering Americans, and is interfering with local police efforts to keep communities safe,” Tanden said in a forceful written statement.

Noem’s lying in and of itself should be grounds for termination. After condemning her for abjectly smearing two innocent Americans; making false, incendiary comments about “domestic terrorists”; and lying about her agents’ actions, defenders of democracy and truth cannot very well turn around to say she should face no consequences simply because there are worse offenders (e.g., Stephen Miller). We either accept grotesque lies as the new norm or we demand liars — especially people who are supposedly engaged in law enforcement — get fired.

Frankly, Noem should have been canned for deciding not to turn around planes heading for the Salvadoran prison camp CECOT in defiance of a district court order. Lawlessness and phony excuses (the plane was out of U.S. air space!) beget more lawlessness and dissembling.

Lying certainly is not Noem’s only sin. “Noem is absolutely unfit to lead an agency tasked with keeping Americans safe,” Tanden’s statement continued. “She bears responsibility for the agents under her command who killed two people and should face the consequences.”

Again, we cannot demand accountability for the underlings who killed Renée Good and Alex Pretti but not demand accountability for the person who sent unhinged, irresponsible shock troops into American cities, with the vice president promising immunity. (That would be like prosecuting the foot soldiers on Jan. 6, 2021, but refusing to indict Trump, who summoned them.)

Ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) was one of many Democrats demanding she resign, be fired, or be impeached. “Far from condemning these unlawful and savage killings in cold blood, Secretary Noem immediately labeled Renée and Alex ‘domestic terrorists,’ blatantly lied about the circumstances of the shootings that took their lives, and attempted to cover-up and blockade any legitimate investigation into their deaths,” he said in a written statement. The former manager in Trump’s second impeachment trial explained what additional benefits come from impeachment:

Rep. Robin Kelly’s H. Res. 996, a resolution to impeach Secretary Noem, has galvanized Members of the House of Representatives to express their outrage at Secretary Noem’s conduct and has properly propelled our committees along this path.

We must build on this resolution, through fact-finding, public hearings, and committee reports detailing all of Secretary Noem’s potential high crimes and misdemeanors and take our case to the American people. This process — which the House has followed in every successful impeachment — will afford us the best opportunity to build the most fitting and powerful case for impeachment and removal for office. 

It will also enable us to conduct a broad campaign to educate the American people about this sequence of oppressive governmental actions, to counter and ‘impeach’ the Administration’s persistent lies, and to develop legislative solutions to prevent any future assaults on the rights and liberties of the American people by an increasingly autocratic and out-of-control Executive Branch.

In short, the process of impeachment is as important as the decision itself because it serves to galvanize the public’s disgust over Noem’s outrageous conduct and reveal other Trump flunkies’ culpability for outrageous and potentially illegal conduct.

Even the threat of Noem getting sacked has apparently prompted her to start pointing fingers at an even bigger fish: Miller. (“Noem has complained to others that she feels she’s being hung out to dry over the episode and has made sure to emphasize she took direction from Miller and the president,” Axios reported.) Organized crime prosecutions traditionally begin by nailing lower-level suspects in hope they reveal incriminating information about higher-ups. To the extent the Trump regime has come to resemble a mob family, this tactic is especially effective.

Let’s remember that pro-democracy forces are in the battle for truth as much as anything. Creating a record, presenting the evidence through credible witnesses, and forcing Republicans to defend the indefensible (just as the original videos of the killings did) are part and parcel of rallying the people, throwing Republicans on defense, splitting the Republican cult, and, candidly, throwing Trump’s party and underlings into panic that others could also face Noem’s fate.

From a purely political standpoint, the calls for her to quit are already sowing divisions among Republicans. “Sens. Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign Tuesday, making them the first Republicans in Congress to say she should step down,” NBC reported. And, to boot, Tillis called out Miller for the same treatment. (“GOP Sen. Thom Tillis on Stephen Miller: ‘Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence,’ he said, later adding, ‘I can tell you, if I were president, neither one of them would be in Washington right now,’ also referring to Noem.”) Squeeze Noem and watch her drop the dime on others, including other Cabinet members, Vice President JD Vance, and Trump.

By making Noem’s ouster a necessary but not sufficient condition of dismantling Trump’s police state, Democrats should also force Republicans up for reelection (e.g., Sens. Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Bernie Moreno of Ohio, and John Cornyn of Texas) to justify why they are covering for her (and Trump). That should make for some effective debate moments.

Finally, without the White House or majorities in either chamber of Congress, Democrats do not have a surplus of “wins” to tout. To reassure the base that elected Democrats are fighting for them and to encourage protestors to achieve progress through nonviolent action, a win of this magnitude — knocking out a Cabinet secretary in charge of arguably the most important domestic initiative of Trump’s second term — would be an invaluable sign of momentum. And for a regime that survives on the aura of invincibility, each stumble, loss, and scandal should be treasured.

The complaint about intermediary progress (“In the long run, the only thing that matters is Trump [or Stephen Miller]”) reminds one of Maynard Keynes (“In the long run, we are all dead.”). Well, if we wait until the biggest fish gets hooked, our democracy may be dead.

Political change and community organizing require leaders to build momentum, show results, and keep their foot on the gas. To sustain the mass movement sweeping the country, Democrats must knock out Noem and then mount even greater assaults on the Trump fascist enterprise.

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