Hayes: Noem’s tenure is ending in ‘spectacular and humiliating’ fashion

Good evening from New York. I'm Chris Hayes. Well, the tenure of the worst Secretary of Homeland Security since the agency was formed has come to an end in spectacular and humiliating fashion. Kristi Noem and we assume her special government friend Corey Lewandowski are out fired today on truth social by Donald Trump. Quote, The current secretary, Kristi Noem, who has served us well and has had numerous and spectacular results, especially on the border, will be moving to be Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, a thing I didn't know existed until today.

Our new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere, we are announcing on Saturday in Doral, Florida. I thank Kristi for her service at Homeland. He also announced her replacement. That would be current Oklahoma Senator Mark Wayne Mullen, the guy who has been all over cable news in the past week for some reason, although we all know who else watches a lot of cable news. He may be no better, but tonight is for reflecting on the end of Christine Ohm's ignominious

cabinet career. She made it 14 months, almost exactly as long as cricket, the deer-departed dog she bragged about shooting in her memoir. Christina, with tenure is ending in complete humiliation. You could see from the look on her face this week as she was grilled by members of both parties. She very much looked like someone who knew she was in danger of losing her job, and you could be forgiven for

finding it all satisfying, considering just how corrupt and vile DHS has been under Nome's watch. From defending the violence and mass raids and kidnappings that have come to dominate headlines for a year, to posing in the Salvadoran Gulag where she deported hundreds of men with zero process, using them as props as they rotted behind her while the gold Rolex on her wrist glinted in the light. To staging elaborate photo ops of herself armed and on

fast boats and joining raids to create social media content. To slandering Renee Good and Alex Pretty, Americans who were shot and killed in broad daylight on camera by her masked agents. A slander that she didn't even have the decency to take back yesterday under questioning from House Judiciary Member Jamie Raskin. You stated the conclusion two hours after they were killed that they were domestic terrorists. I wanted to give you an opportunity to correct the record, not just for their family, but

for everybody in America who believes in the truth and fairness and honesty.

In every situation, as facts come out, we relay them.

You know, your acting ICE director, Todd Lyons, came before Congress. He said he had no knowledge whatsoever that Alex Pretty and Renee Good were domestic terrorists. None. This is your guy.

He said that. He admitted that that was wrong. Why won't you admit it?

I will tell you the investigation is still ongoing.

So do you regret speaking before the investigation?

I would say that in those situations, the chaotic scene on the ground, we relay information to the American people that they're asking for. And as things change, situations change.

People were asking you whether they were domestic terrorists? And you decided that they were before the investigation? As we learn more we don't want to say anything to their families? I did. I said I'm condolences.

For what? How about an apology for what you said about their loved ones? My heart

is with them and we will continue to stand with them as they get a complete

investigation into these situations. All right. But it appears why all of those things contributed to her termination, and they really did. It wasn't any of those things specifically that actually was the thing that got Nome fired, the straw that broke the camel's proverbial back. It wasn't because she oversaw multiple Americans, multiple Americans being shot and killed, not just Renee Good and Alex Pretty, including one we just found out about in Texas many months after the fact, because DHS apparently hit it. And it wasn't because so

many people have died under the custody of ICE, the organization that she manages. That includes a Haitian man who died in an Arizona detention center Monday, after officials denied him any treatment for a tooth infection for weeks, according to his brother. Noem was not even fired over the $70 million Boeing 737 MAX 8 luxury jet that she reportedly used for private travel along with the special government employee acting as her de facto number two, Corey Lewandowski. Does however appear to have something to do

with that now notorious $220 million DHS media contract for Gnome to cut a series of ads like this.

Anyone who searches for freedom can always find a home here, but that freedom's a precious thing and we defend it vigorously. You cross the border illegally, we'll find you. Break our laws, we'll punish you.

Harm American citizens, there will be consequences. But if you come here the right way, your American dream can be as big as these endless skies. From President Trump and me, welcome home.

Oh, I'm sorry, is that you there? Sorry, you just caught me on my horse amidst this gorgeous view. Nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money was set aside for that kind of stuff. And as ProPublica reported last summer, most of it went in a no-bid process to a Republican consulting firm with, you guessed it, longstanding ties to Noem and her aides. Lewandowski worked extensively with the firm.

In fact, the CEO of that firm is married to Nome's recently departed DHS spokeswoman. Who'd have thunk? Nome spent the last two days on the Hill insisting to members of commerce she did not have anything to do with the contract personally

and anyway, it had the president's blessing.

The president approved ahead of time you spending. $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.

Yes, sir.

We went through the legal processes.

Did it correct?

The president? No, you're going to do this?

Yes.

Did the president know you're gonna do this? Yes. That may have been the thing that was her stepping on the landmine. It appears, at least. That's the story. This morning, Reuters got Trump on the phone,

and he told them, quote, I never knew anything about it. Reuters went on to say shortly after the president commented then, he posted to Truth Social that Noem would be replaced. Apparently suggesting he had approved approved for wildly corrupt, self-glorifying propaganda campaign, well, that was it. That was a bridge too far. Who's telling the truth? Who knows?

Donald Trump, Kristi Noem. Still, what is clear is Trump pays attention to the news and public opinion, and both were bad for none. As one White House official made quite clear to Fox News reporter Peter Doocy in a text today.

What I am about to read is both spicy and not subtle. The text reads as follows. It was time. Replacing Christie was based on the culmination of her many unfortunate leadership mishaps, including the fallout in Minnesota, the $200 million ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies,

including CBP and ICE. Christie's drama sadly overshadowed and distracted from the administration's extremely popular immigration agenda, which will continue full force.

Now, of course, we have not independently confirmed that reporting from Ducey, son of Ducey, but it is useful here because it is all spin. The White House knows they had a problem. That's a testament to, first of all, really good accountability reporting.

I mean, investigative pieces in ProPublica and Wall Street Journal, as well as local and independent outlets. I mean, local papers did an incredible job in Los Angeles and Chicago and Minnesota. Across the country, tracking DHS,

documenting its activities. And combined with that, thanks to public outcry and organizing and protests and dissent from ordinary Americans against those activities. I mean, think about this, right? Remember when they sent all those people

to the Gulag in El Salvador, hundreds of illegally disappeared men? They got released from that CICOT camp in Salvador, even though they, Christine Ohm said they'd never be released. And then they deployed to Los Angeles and Chicago, and DHS had to roll back its operations

in both those places. It had to admit defeat in Minneapolis, greatly reduce its serge there, although there are still many, many more agents than Tom Homan said there would be. We have our eyes on that, but they lost a bunch. And now the person who oversaw those losses. Well,

she's gotten just a little bit of a come up. Come up. Maryland Congressman Jamie Raskin serves as the ranking member on the Judiciary Committee, where he led yesterday's grilling of Christine Oman. He joins me now. First, Congressman, your reaction to the news. Well, there's a little bit of exhilaration profound damage that we still need to be working on. I mean, there have been dozens of injuries and deaths under her leadership of ICE.

And we need to turn that situation around. I mean, it is a clear and present danger to the lives of a lot of people who are being swept up in their dragnet policies. But also, $220 million for a P.R. ad contract? When I first saw it, Chris, I thought it was $220,000, which sounds like the kind of ad P.R. contracts I have heard about before.

Even that one's pretty handsome. But $220 million, like, that corrupt bargain deal needs to be investigated from top to bottom, as my colleague Joe Neguse was saying yesterday in questioning. We need to investigate the entire thing. And the taxpayers have got to get their money back. But it is riddled with corruption over there. And then I raised the question yesterday of dozens of cases where federal judges have castigated the Department of Homeland Security for lying in affidavits

and testimony before the court. All of that has got to end. All of that's got to stop. I mean, if you just trade one corrupt mega-clone for another, that's not progress. But if Senator Mullen can come in and actually begin by saying, no, these two victims of ICE killings were not domestic terrorists and that will never happen again, OK, that will be some progress.

And we'd like to see it.

NICK SCHIFRIN Yeah, I mean, on that, you're obviously in the House and not the Senate. The Senate will have to confirm Mark Maymullin. And you know, it's generally the rule, as I'm sure you would agree and as I've observed over my journalistic career, that fellow senators get pretty wide berth in that body. They're all part of the club. But it does seem to me, if you're sort of speaking to your colleagues over in the Senate

who are going to confirm him, all the things you said, this does seem like a bigger opportunity now for actual congressional oversight, just even in the confirmation hearings, which is all of the things you've said should be precisely at issue before anyone's just going to say, yeah, go get a Mark Wayne. Yeah, his confirmation comes in the immediate aftermath of both chambers of Congress being totally absorbed with the details of her tenure. And so everybody in the Senate will have just been through this. His confirmation hearing should be essentially a continuation of Secretary Noem's questioning.

And he should talk about what he's going to do to make a radical break from what has taken place before and to disavow and recant so many of the things she just said. In terms of getting to the bottom of all this, you mentioned Joe Neguse, this is a pro publica which again has done great accountability reporting on this, that she misled Congress about her top aides role in DHS contracts.

She said Lewandowski had nothing to do with it, and then they're able to produce a contract that Lewandowski signed. He's the signature on the contract, her special government employee friend with benefits. So it seems to me that while there has been a lot

of reporting, and clearly there's some whistleblowers in DHS, I'm not convinced, and I wonder if you are, that we know the full scope of precisely what went on in DHS for 14 months, precisely who got which contracts under which conditions, and whether there's anything else that hasn't been reported that we should probably know

about.

That's absolutely right. And there's tremendous interest in what Lewandowski's role was and how much he participated in decisions about federal government contracts, including that $220 million ad buy contract. You know, I'm a little less interested in the Salacious personal stuff. It almost doesn't make much difference to me what their personal relationship was. But his public role is fair game.

And we need to be investigating that and getting to the And we need to be investigating that and getting to the bottom of it and what kind of personnel practices are taking place in the Trump