'String of embarrassments': How Kristi Noem is making 'America less safe'

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is drawing a great deal of criticism from Democrats as well as Never Trump conservatives in response to her comments on habeas corpus during a U.S. Senate hearing on Tuesday, May 20.

Far-right MAGA Republican Stephen Miller, a White House adviser to President Donald Trump, recently proposed suspending habeas corpus as part of the Trump Administration's mass deportations campaign. And Noem, struggling to define habeas corpus during the hearing, testified, "Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-New Hampshire) corrected Noem, telling the former South Dakota governor, "Excuse me, that's incorrect. Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea."

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In a scathing opinion column published the day after the hearing, MSNBC's Hayes Brown describes Noem's performance during that hearing as "merely the latest in a string of embarrassments that underscores that America is less safe with Noem assigned as its chief protector."

"Since her confirmation as secretary of homeland security in January," Brown explains, "Kristi Noem has appeared completely over her head at her new job…. Noem's department — hastily founded in a moment of fear — is charged with protecting the United States from threats both external and internal. With her focus turned almost exclusively toward executing President Donald Trump's mass deportation policy at all costs, the Department of Homeland Security has become a threat to our rights and liberties — many of which Noem apparently doesn't even know Americans possess."

Noem, Brown argues, is prioritizing photo-ops over public safety.

"Even when Trump has been skeptical of her qualifications, as during her brief time on the shortlist to be his running mate last year, he has rewarded her loyalty to the cause," Brown observes. "But her most Trumpian public relations efforts since she took office have backfired. Noem has been roundly mocked for her costume choices in her interviews and for wearing full-face makeup when she has tagged along on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids."

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Hayes adds, "The $50,000 Rolex flashing on her wrist while she posed in front of incarcerated men at a mega-prison in El Salvador smacked of callous cruelty. And the theft of her bag — along with $3000 cash and her work badge — while she was sitting in a Washington restaurant was peak irony for a top security official. But Noem’s performance in front of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday underscored how truly ill-equipped she is for this moment — or, at least, for a job to keep Americans safe."

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Hayes Brown's full MSNBC column is available at this link.