Fired Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem likely sealed her fate with one answer to the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday — and it wasn’t the one about sex with her aide Corey Lewandowski.
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Noem, who is the first cabinet secretary to be ousted during the second Trump administration, faced pointed questions from GOP Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy over a massive taxpayer-funded ad campaign where she heavily featured herself.
“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.
On Thursday, he announced that she was leaving her post at DHS and would be replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin.
