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Throughout her contentious 13-month leadership, Republican legislators stood by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, but the unveiling of a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign seems to have been a step too far.
On Thursday, President Trump dismissed the former South Dakota governor from her position at the Department of Homeland Security. This decision came shortly after Noem’s testimony on Capitol Hill, where she asserted that the president had approved the advertising initiative. One of the campaign’s prominent 60-second commercials features Noem in full cowboy attire, riding a horse near Mount Rushmore.
During a hearing on March 3, Senator John Kennedy from Louisiana questioned Noem closely, asking, “Did the president know you were going to do this?”
To which Noem confidently responded, “Yes.”
“Did the president know you were going to do this?” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pressed Noem on Tuesday March 3.
“Yes,” she replied.
Trump contradicted her in subsequent interviews, telling Reuters, “I never knew anything about it.”
The optics of the expenditure at a time when the average Hollywood movie comes in under $100 million drew scrutiny partly because of Noem’s oversized presence in the commercials, which discourage undocumented immigrants from remaining in or coming to the U.S.
Noem ads benefited insiders with contracts: Report
The appearance of insider dealing also looms large. ProPublica reports that much of the money went to a murky company and benefited insiders with ties to Noem or DHS. For example, The Strategy Group, a subcontractor that performed some of the work, is led by the spouse of Tricia McLaughlin, who had served as a DHS spokesperson.
“It troubles me a fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money, when we’re scratching for every penny and we’re fighting over recission packages,” Kennedy told Noem, who said all legal processes were followed.
Observers have said the kerfuffle over the DHS ad buy was the proverbial last straw for Trump, who largely stood behind his DHS chief, even as public backlash grew about some of her department’s aggressive immigration-enforcement tactics.
Noem previously took heat for, among other moves, filming a commercial inside a notorious “super max” prison in El Salvador, where the U.S. shipped migrants with alleged gang ties.
In January, officers with DHS subagencies killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis amid an enforcement surge there. Noem characterized the residents who had been killed as domestic terrorists.
Trump has picked Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace Noem, who has been reassigned to another security-related role.
Could Noem testimony trigger perjury probe?
Noem also told lawmakers under oath that top adviser Corey Lewandowski did not approve contracts for DHS, but Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., says he has evidence to the contrary.
Blumenthal has said he’ll push for a perjury investigation, but it’s unclear whether such an inquiry would gain traction under a Republican administration at a time when the GOP controls both the House and Senate.
“Her firing doesn’t absolve her or relieve her of potential liability for perjury, and we are going to pursue an investigation of the evidence that she lied, because it relates to corruption in the administration,” Blumenthal said.