'Blankies,' ICE tactics, and luxury jets: Top moments from Noem's House testimony

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem forcefully defended her department’s immigration enforcement policies Wednesday before Democratic lawmakers — part of a heated and contentious House Oversight Committee hearing that, at times, grew deeply personal.

The hearing is the second in back-to-back DHS oversight hearings centered on the agency's actions on immigration enforcement and Noem's leadership of the department, and comes as members of Congress remain deadlocked on how to proceed with fully funding the sprawling federal agency.

Here are the top moments from the action-packed hearing. 

Some Democrats on the panel zeroed in on the responsibilities Corey Lewandowski has assumed as a special adviser for the Department of Homeland Security. Rep. Sydney Kalmager-Dove, D-Calif., cited a Wall Street Journal report from last month, that said Trump allegedly rejected Lewandowski's request to be Noem's chief of staff "due to reports of a romantic relationship" between the two.

Both Noem and Lewandowski have denied reports of an affair. 

Kalmager-Dove asked Noem, point-blank, about the nature of their relationship. "This person has no experience running anything close to the Department of Homeland Security, or even advising someone in your position," Kalmager-Dove said, noting his role as a special government employee has extended a "well beyond the allowed 130-day" period. 

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"He is unqualified, which has left my constituents and I wondering why he is your top official," she added. 
"So, Secretary Noem, at any time during your tenure as Director of Department of Homeland Security, have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?" 

Noem turned to address House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan briefly before responding. "Mr. Chairman, I am shocked that we're going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today," she said. 

To Kalmager-Dove, she said: "Ma'am, one thing that 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."

The panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., pressed Noem for details about Lewandowski's role at DHS, though in the context of the question of DHS's use of so-called "luxury jets." Noem had defended use of the jets one day prior during Senate testimony, noting they were used for both executive travel and mass deportations.

Raskin said Wednesday that he had nearly been prepared to buy that story. "And then I heard about an airborne episode of entitlement, arrogance and contempt that I could hardly believe."

"Apparently, when your special blanket — your blankie — was left on one of the government jets and not transported over the new one, your special government employee, Corey Lewandowski, chivalrous, stepped forward to fire the pilot, mid-air," Raskin said.

"A 2003 Coast Guard Academy graduate and distinguished U.S. Coast Guard commanded … [who then] had to be rehired immediately because there was no one else who could fly the two of you on the rest of the journey back home," Raskin said. "Secretary Noem, you're flying high now, maybe even a little bit too close to the sun."

The exchanges were markedly tense, largely due to the presence of Noem's husband, who was sitting in the gallery for the duration of the hearing. 

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Later in the hearing, Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., confronted Noem about the case of Miguel Lopez, a migrant who had been living illegally in the U.S. for some 30 years prior to his deportation last year. Lopez is married to a U.S. resident. "I went and saw Miguel in Mexico," Swalwell told Noem. "He doesn't have a job … and it's hard for him to communicate" after being away from his home country for roughly three decades.

Noemi interjected: "Did he have a criminal record?"

Swalwell acknowledged that Lopez had pleaded guilty to a "lesser nonviolent charge" in 1995, but asked Noem to recognize "the pain" caused by the administration's broader deportation policy. 

"The pain?" Noem responded. "And I wish people would do things correctly. If they're not in legal status in this country, they can return home. We will pay for them to return home." 

As for Miguel, she said, "I hope he got the $2,600 he could have" by choosing to self-deport. 

The sharpest exchange came when Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., pressed Noem on the Trump administration’s repeated pledge to target "the worst of the worst" offenders in its removal efforts.

"Tell me about the worst of the worst," Cohen said.

Noem fired back: "The worst of the worst served. I think you've offended the families behind me today with that."

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Cohen responded that he did not intend to offend anyone and said it was wrong for Noem to suggest he had. But Noem doubled down, arguing that critics were downplaying the consequences of illegal immigration.

"I was commenting on the fact that the individuals aren't violent offenders, and you keep talking about the fact that these individuals that are in this country illegally don't harm families," she said.

Cohen noted that undocumented immigrants are statistically "less likely" than people born in the U.S. to commit crimes.

Noem then gestured to family members seated behind her, invoking stories of children lost to fentanyl overdoses and fatal car crashes involving undocumented drivers.

"The vast majority of these people behind me lost their children due to drugs, overdoses from drugs that came over the southern border," Noem said. "They died from their kids being hit, accidents on the roads that illegal drivers were driving."

Cohen acknowledged the tragedies but argued they did not address his broader point. "All that's true and given it's true," he said. "But you say you're only going after the worst of the worst, and you're not."