Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem addressed calls for her resignation or impeachment during an interview Thursday with Fox News host Sean Hannity, saying, “These radicals are attacking me but I’m just doing my job.”
Why It Matters
Noem’s comments arrive as the Trump administration faces rising pushback — including from within the Republican Party — over immigration enforcement tactics following two deadly shootings in Minneapolis this month involving federal agents.
What To Know
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, said Thursday that Noem should be fired, telling reporters “she’s got to go,” and adding: “We are dead serious, she needs to be put on ice permanently.”
Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Thom Tillis have also publicly urged President Donald Trump to dismiss Noem.
Noem rejected the criticism in her interview with Hannity, saying: “Well, these radicals are attacking me but I’m just doing my job. I’m following the law, enforcing the laws like President Trump promised that he would do, to keep people safe in this country.”
She added that DHS will keep targeting criminals and removing them “before they have the chance to murder more Americans.” Noem later said she was “grateful and honored” to lead DHS during the current moment.
The White House, in an email Wednesday, shared earlier comments from Trump expressing confidence in Noem’s leadership. “I think she’s doing a very good job… the border is totally secure. You know, you forget, we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now, we have a border where no one is coming through,” Trump said this week.
Noem Walks Back Early Remarks on Alex Pretti
Noem has acknowledged that her first public comments about the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis may not have been accurate, attributing the confusion to the fast-moving and chaotic circumstances.
Earlier, Noem described the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism” against immigration agents. She later said she was relying on information she believed was accurate from Customs and Border Protection personnel on the scene.
“We were being relayed information from on the ground from CBP agents and officers that were there,” Noem said. “We were using the best information we had at the time.”
What People Are Saying
Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania wrote on X on Tuesday: “@POTUS @realDonaldTrump: I make a direct appeal to immediately fire @Sec_Noem. Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy. DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary.”
Democratic Rep. Delia C. Ramirez wrote on X last week: “After taking the first step to impeach Kristi Noem in December, I am leading 71 of my colleagues demanding that @JudiciaryGOP start the investigation hearings into her impeachable offenses. Whether by resignation, dismissal, or impeachment, Kristi Noem’s days as a civil officer are numbered. We will make sure of that.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican, told reporters this week: “What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying. She should be out of a job. I mean, really… it’s just amateurish. It’s terrible, it’s making the president look bad on policies that he won on. He won on a strong message about immigration, and now nobody is talking about that. They’re not talking about securing the border, they’re talking about the incompetence of the leader of Homeland Security.”
What Happens Next
Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, is now in Minneapolis and reporting directly to the president, as backlash and protests continue over federal immigration enforcement tactics.
