Republican Senator Thom Tillis came out swinging against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday, telling reporters that he thinks it’s time for her to resign.
Noem has found herself in hot water in the days following Alex Pretti’s shooting, which itself came just weeks after ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed 37-year-old mom-of-three Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.
“What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis told the Daily Beast. “She should be out of a job. It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad on policies that he won on.”
“He won on a strong message on immigration, and now nobody’s talking about that. They’re not talking about securing the border. They’re talking about the incompetence of the leader of Homeland Security and the other people — Bovino, whatever his name is, he needs to go back to California, get his retirement papers and go. These people are amateurs. They gotta de-escalate there and treat these communities with some respect.”
Speaking to other reporters, Tillis said that he has no confidence in Noem.
“To give you an idea of how incompetent she is, she actually thought FEMA should be eliminated, and when she had a FEMA director who said he didn’t think that was a good idea, she fired him within 24 hours.”
“These are amateurish, assistant manager sort-of thought processes going on in somebody who’s a secretary in a cabinet-level position, it’s unacceptable.”
Tillis had previously called for a “thorough and impartial” investigation into Pretti’s death in a Sunday social media post after the 37-year-old intensive care nurse was shot dead by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis over the weekend.
Tillis also directed some of his ire towards White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, who has been credited as the architect of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration policies.
“Stephen Miller’s in the same boat. This guy, after doing the stupid comments he made about Greenland, getting the president in a difficult circumstance, came out publicly and said that this guy was a terrorist before he’d even talked with anybody on the ground,” the North Carolinian senator said.
“Stephen Miller never fails to live up to my expectations of incompetence.”
Tillis had called Miller out for his comments on Greenland earlier this month, calling the Trump adviser’s assertion that the U.S. should own the territory “amateur,” “stupid,” and “nonsense.”
He broke ranks with his own party once more just days later, announcing that he would oppose any of the president’s future nominees to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors after the Justice Department opened an investigation into Chair Jerome Powell.
Tillis’ sentiments were echoed by Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski, who told CNN’s Annie Grayer, “I think the president needs to look at who he has in place as the Secretary of Homeland Security. I would not support her again, and I think it probably is time for her to step down.”
Speaking to MS NOW’s Mychael Schnell, Murkowski said, “It’s obviously up to the president, but I think we would be better served with new leadership at the department.”
Murkowski went on to say that her issues with Noem extended beyond her handling of the shooting of Pretti.
“I supported her nomination, I had great hopes for her at the department, and I’ve been disappointed.”
Louisiana GOP Senator Bill Cassidy was less forthcoming with his feelings on Noem’s leadership, only telling CNN’s Manu Raju, “I have confidence in the investigation‚” when asked if he had confidence in Noem.
Amid increasing pressure from Democrats and the threat of another government shutdown over the issue of ICE funding, the Trump administration has sought to walk back some of its most explosive rhetoric surrounding Pretti’s death.
Border Patrol commander-at-large Gregory Bovino was pulled out of Minneapolis on Monday and replaced with Trump’s own border czar Tom Homan, who will report directly to the president.
Noem and her top aide Corey Lewandowski subsequently met with the president for two hours in the Oval Office on Monday evening as calls for others responsible for the chaos in Minneapolis to face consequences continued to mount.
The Trump administration has continued to publicly affirm its support for Noem, directing the Daily Beast to a number of public statements made by the president when contacted for comment, including one in which he confirmed that Noem would not be stepping down.
“I think she’s doing a very good job... the border is totally secure. You forget, we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now, we have a border where no one is coming through,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
