After two Republican lawmakers called for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to step down, President Donald Trump called them “losers.” When he appointed her to the position in 2024, Trump remarked that Noem was “strong on Border Security.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said Tuesday that the believe Noem should step down following a second shooting of a U.S. citizen by federal agents deployed to crack down on immigration in Minneapolis, Minn., per POLITICO. Renee Good was fatally shot on Jan. 7 and Alex Pretti, a VA nurse, was fatally shot by Customs and Border Protection agents on Jan. 24, CBS News said. Both were just 37 years old, and Good is survived by young children.
“I think what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis told reporters of Noem. “It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad.”
“Well, they’re both losers,” said Trump of Murkowski and Tillis, according to ABC News reporter Rachel Scott. “You know, what can I tell you? They’re terrible senators.”
Trump also noted that Tillis has decided not to run for re-election and said that Murkowski is “always against the Republicans anyway.”
However, Audacy reported this week on other members of the GOP who were breaking ranks with the Trump administration after Pretti’s death. In Minnesota, Sate Rep. State Rep. Nolan West told WCCO News Talk’s Adam & Jordana that “a lot of Secretary Noem’s statements… have been less than helpful at bringing the temperature down and actually ending this crisis.”
While Noem and White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller initially claimed that Pretti, a protestor, was armed and dangerous, video widely circulating online appears to contradict that narrative. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) even called for Trump officials to be more “measured” in their response to the recent shootings.
Not surprisingly, Democrats have also called for Noem to step down. Sen.
John Fetterman (D-Penn.) called on Trump to fire Noem this week, as did New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“Donald Trump’s handpicked leader of the Department of Homeland Security has proven to be unable and unwilling to follow the law to stop these killings,” said Hochul. “Kristi Noem has referred to these peaceful protestors as ‘domestic terrorists’ and lied about the shooting victims being the aggressors. She told law enforcement officers to put on masks and military fatigues to basically treat the American public as the enemy.”
Hochul also said that Noem has demonstrated “a profound disregard for human life.”
There has been another call to oust Noem from the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that Pretti was a member of. AFGE National President Everett Kelley issued a statement Monday.
“In the immediate aftermath of Alex’s killing, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem betrayed the public trust by slandering the good name of our union brother and calling him a ‘domestic terrorist.’ Alex Pretti was a patriotic ICU nurse at a VA hospital who devoted his life to serving America’s veterans,” said Kelley. “That claim was reckless, defamatory, and unsupported by the facts. Noem was preceded in this false statement by Stephen Miller, Deputy White House Chief of Staff, who is also the architect of the chaotic and failed immigration policy in Minnesota.”
Quinnipiac University polling conducted before Pretti’s shooting but after Good’s showed that more than half of Americans disapproved of how Noem was handling her job leading the DHS. Emerson College polling conducted shortly before Pretti’s death also found that Noem had one of the lowest net favorability ratings of public officials at -7.
Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino too came under fire this week following Pretti’s death. According to reports, Bovino was demoted. Trump sent Border Czar Tom Homan to Minneapolis after the shooting.