Fired Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem sealed her fate with two answers at a pair of disastrous congressional hearings
Noem, who is the first cabinet secretary ousted during the second Trump administration, faced pointed questions from committee members on a range of thorny matters, from a recent DHS ad campaign with a Hollywood blockbuster budget to whether she’s sleeping with top aide Corey Lewandowski.
After answering the questions in a way that reportedly left President Trump “mad as a murder hornet,” she was out of a job less than 24 hours later
On Tuesday, GOP Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy grilled Noem over a massive taxpayer-funded ad campaign where she heavily featured herself during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“How do you square that with the fact that you have spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?” the senator asked.
Noem replied, “Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other countries with putting commercials out that if they were in the country illegally, that they needed to leave.”
Kennedy seemed gobsmacked by the possibility that President Trump would have approved such an expenditure.
“I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth. It’s just hard for me to believe,’’ he said, implying the now-former secretary had used the campaign – which she insisted was effective – to boost her profile.
“They were effective in your name recognition,” Kennedy remarked.
“It puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.”
Trump was reportedly angered by the exchange, and Noem’s claim that he had green-lit the controversial ad campaign, Kennedy telling reporters the president was “mad as a murder hornet” and already considering replacing her.
Here’s the latest on the firing of Kristi Noem
The final straw followed an uncomfortable exchange during Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing, in which Noem was asked point-blank if she ever slept with Lewandowski, who works as a special government employee.
“Have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) asked Noem, who batted the question away as “tabloid garbage.”
Ex-Secretary Kristi Noem’s most memorable photo ops during her tenure at DHS:
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“I am shocked that we’re going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today,” Noem said in response. “I would tell you is that he is a special government employee who works for the White House. There are thousands of them in the federal government.”
Kamlager-Dove pushed back, telling Noem, “You should be able to answer if someone asks if you or any federal official is sleeping with their subordinate. It’s the easiest. You should be wanting to answer that question.”
“It is garbage,” Noem shot back.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) kept up the pressure, asking Noem to explicitly deny the affair — but she wouldn’t do it.
“I think the ridiculousness of this and the tabloids that you are quoting and referencing are insane,” Noem said. “This is a thing I have refuted for years.”
“Is that no?” Moskowitz said.
“You say conservative women are stupid or sluts. I am neither,” she added.
Trump was already aware of Noem’s relationship with Lewandowski, who served as his first campaign manager in 2016, and has joked about it for years — but viewed her handling of the affair question as a disaster for her already crumbling credibility, sources inside and close to the White House told The Post.
On Thursday, he announced that she was leaving her post at DHS and would be replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin.
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