Republican Senator Grills Kristi Noem Over Self-Glorifying TV Ads
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem faced a bit of heat from an unexpected source Tuesday during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
That’s because Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) grilled her about a $220 million ad campaign for the agency that featured her wearing chaps and a cowboy hat while riding a horse at Mount Rushmore, telling undocumented immigrants, “Break our laws, we’ll punish you.”
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Noem has insisted the taxpayer-funded ads were essential to stemming illegal immigration. But Kennedy didn’t pull any punches when he asked Noem about her efforts to curb “waste and abuse.”
“How do you square that concern for waste when you have spent $220 million on commercials that feature you prominently?” Kennedy asked.
Noem, who later claimed to Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) that she had “conversations” with the administration about the campaign, told Kennedy that it “would be helpful to know how effective” the campaign has been.
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Kennedy snarkily noted the ads “were effective in your name recognition,” before saying the money spent on the ads “puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.”
Although Kennedy claimed he wasn’t accusing Noem of lying, he admitted that it was hard for him to believe that, “knowing the president as I do,” Trump would agree to spending $220 million on the DHS ads.
“I don’t think Russ Vought at [the Office of Management and Budget] would have agreed to that. It’s something we have to defend. I’m on the Appropriations Committee. I mean, my research shows that you did not bid them out,” Kennedy said.
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HuffPost reached out to the White House to confirm whether they approved the ad campaign, but no one responded immediately.
A ProPublica report from November noted that part of the no-bid ad campaign contract was awarded to a company called the Strategy Group. The company’s CEO, Benjamin Yoho, is married to Tricia McLaughlin, who, until very recently, was Noem’s chief spokesperson at DHS.
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McLaughlin responded to Kennedy’s questioning of her former boss with a post on X telling him he had “better” have his “facts straight” about her husband’s involvement with the campaign.
She said that Yoho’s company never had a contract with DHS and instead worked as a subcontractor for Safe America, the company that was given the no-bid contract.
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