GOP senators tangle with Noem during heated hearing on her handling of deportation surge
Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem faced heat from Republican senators during a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, including criticism about her leadership during the Trump administration's deportation surge, with one GOP senator comparing past animal killings to decisions she has made as DHS secretary.
Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., both got into testy exchanges with Noem Tuesday during a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight hearing with lawmakers.
Thillis likened Noem's decisions as a farmer and dog-owner to what he described as Noem's disastrous leadership amid Trump's border crackdown. Meanwhile, Kennedy got into a back-and-forth with Noem over her decision to describe Renee Good and Alex Pretti as domestic terrorists in the early days after they were killed, and also her subsequent reasoning for doing so.
"Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. Not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis," Tillis said, comparing Noem's time as an animal owner to her leadership as Secretary of DHS.
Noem came under fire in the Spring of 2024 when reporting based on an advanced copy of her memoir, "No Going Back," described an incident of her killing her family dog Cricket, along with a separate incident during which she killed a goat. Noem explained that the dog had proven itself "untrainable" after several violent attacks and described the decision to eventually shoot the dog.
"I hated that dog," Noem recalled, according to The Guardian and other media reports that covered the pre-released copy of Noem's book at the time. "[Cricket was] dangerous to anyone she came in contact with."
"It was not a pleasant job," Noem reportedly continued, "but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done." Noem then went on to describe slaughtering the goat that Noem described as "nasty and mean," adding it smelled "disgusting, musky, rancid" and complained that it "loved to chase" her children.
The reporting on Noem's memoir led to a group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill to start a Dog Lovers Caucus, and Noem's memoir excerpt led to criticism against her from animal rights groups and other critics.
"You decided to kill that dog because you would not invest in the appropriate time and training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it's a leadership lesson about tough choices. It's in your book. We could play it if we had time," Thillis said amid his heated testimony about Noem's leadership, which also included criticism about her approach to the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA).
"And you killed a goat because you said it was behaving badly. You are a farmer. You don't castrate a goat. They behave badly. You should have probably done that before, but my point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. Not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis," he continued.
In addition to getting hounded by Tillis, Noem also got into a testy exchange with GOP Senator Kennedy, who signaled concern over who she was taking direction from amid her tenure running DHS.
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"At the time you said [what Renne Good and Alex Pretti engaged in] were acts of domestic terrorism," Kennedy clarified with Noem, who confirmed that was the intal assessment of what the pair's actions "appeared" to be. Noem attempted to interject that the assessment came at a time when there was a lot of information circulating about the Trump administration's deportation efforts in Minneapolis, but Kennedy stood firm and continued with his line of questioning.
"As I've said previously in this hearing is that –," Noem tried to say before Kennedy cut her off. "Did you say that? I think it's been widely reported. Did you say that?"
Noem continued to try and explain the reasoning for the domestic terrorism label, until Kennedy interjected. "I think it's safe to say you got some pushback on that," Kennedy said, adding he did not want to make a judgment on the fairness of it, but just wanted to point it out. "Yes," Noem agreed, before Kennedy got to the root of his question.
"What got my attention was that you blamed those statements on Mr. Stephen Miller at the White House, did you not?"
Noem fervently denied the accusation, arguing the claim was from an anonymous source that could not be trusted. "Where you're seeing that is in a news article of anonymous sources and anonymous sources say a lot of things, but I've never said that at all," Noem claimed. But Kennedy shot back that she "said on the record" that "everything I've done, I've done at the direction of the president and Stephen." Kennedy then provided an exact date on which Noem made the remark.
"Do you think it was fair to blame Mr. Miller for your words?" Kennedy asked.
Noem dismissed the question again, and continued to contest the legitimacy of the claim she made such statements, adding she "did not" blame Miller for her decision to call Good and Pretti domestic terrorists.
"You're reading from a newspaper article with anonymous sources."
"Are you denying that you said that?" Kennedy questioned.
"Sir, I am not going to speak to that situation that is relayed on anonymous sources," Noem said again.
The report in question is a January article from Axios, which wrote that the "episode illustrates the confusion that gripped the administration after the Saturday shooting death of Minnesota protester Alex Pretti. And it shows the influence of Miller, Trump's close and longest-serving political adviser whose dominion in the White House far exceeds his title."
"They're quoting you on the record saying it's Stephen's fault," Kennedy replied before the committee chairman gaveled that the senator's time was up. "Thank you," Kennedy said before a new Senator began their time to speak.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment on the testy exchanges Noem had during the hearing Tuesday, but did not receive a response in time for publication.