The one Cabinet official Trump refused to speak to during meeting
President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is under fire for allegedly allowing a major security failure under her watch — and a conservative media outlet broke the big story.
“Noem for months failed to appropriately respond to the findings of an internal watchdog that one of her biggest changes to airport security—allowing passengers to pass through screening checkpoints with their shoes on—is creating ‘significant’ security risks, according to a letter from the inspector general” reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The Department of Homeland Security allegedly cracked down on leakers because of a previous Journal story about Noem’s attempts to “burnish her personal stardom,” including ending the free security detail for White House border czar Tom Homan and administering polygraph tests to Homeland Security staff. Despite these attempts to stop whistleblowers, the Journal also reported that Noem was called out by an inspector general’s report for ending a “shoes-off” policy used by airports to beef up security.
“The old shoes-off rule was instituted nearly 20 years ago, after Richard Reid, who became known as the ‘shoe bomber,’ attempted to detonate an explosive hidden in his shoe on a flight from Paris to Miami,” the Journal reported.
In response to this report, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Journal that President Trump has full confidence in Noem.
“Our homeland is undoubtedly safer today than it was when the president took office last year,” Leavitt said.
The inspector general’s report is not the only criticism of Noem to come from sources other than Democrats. Even many members of Noem’s own Republican Party believe that Trump may need to fire her, although they are afraid of him doing so too close to the upcoming midterm elections.
"Folks are going to want to know that the team’s going to stay together through the election,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told Semafor earlier this week. “We’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting close. You don’t want to be trying to hire people to train them in, going into an election. All your attention needs to be on the election.”
Hoeven was joined by other Senate Republicans.
“I just don’t think he’s going to do that before the election,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told Semafor. “I just think it’s perceived as too disruptive.”
Similarly an outgoing senator, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said that if anyone in Trump’s cabinet should be fired at the “top on the list is Kristi Noem.” Although he acknowledged others probably deserved it too, he added “I’m a very disciplined person, I can’t get past that one.”
The Journal has also broken embarrassing stories about Noem’s alleged misuse of power. Earlier this month, they revealed that Noem reprimanded and temporarily fired a Coast Guard pilot who forgot to get her personal blanket off of a plane. Reuters then reported that Noem’s top aide, Corey Lewandowski, violated safety guidelines by entering the cockpit of a government jet without invitation.