Congressman Trolls Kristi Noem During Testimony With Brand New Coast Guard Blankie

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) brought a special gift for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

In an apparent troll of Noem, Moskowitz presented the secretary with a new U.S. Coast Guard blanket – a reference to an incident last year involving Noem’s senior adviser, Corey Lewandowski, firing a Coast Guard pilot due to the secretary’s lost blanket.

“Now I want to end on a happy note,” Moskowitz said. “Mr. Chairman, real quickly, you know, the president gave all sorts of stuff out at the State of the Union. I don’t want you to leave. I got you a new Coast Guard blankie, the one you lost. This is for you. You don’t leave empty-handed when you come to Judiciary.”

The incident Moskowitz was referring to was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper claimed that Lewandowski had fired a Coast Guard pilot last spring after Noem’s blanket was left behind when the pair switched planes due to technical difficulties with their original plane. When the pilots entered the cabin later into the flight, Lewandowski approached them and asked which one of them should be fired because Noem’s blanket had been left behind.

One of the pilots, later identified as Coast Guard Cmdr. Keith Thomas, by The Daily Mail, took responsibility for the mistake and was fired on the spot by Lewandowski, per The Wall Street Journal.

However, once Noem and Lewandowski reached their destination, Coast Guard leadership realized there was nobody to fly the pair back to Washington, D.C., and Thomas was reinstated by the agency, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The Coast Guard and DHS declined to comment to Reuters on the reasons for the pilot’s firing and reinstatement.

Thomas also declined to comment on the matter to The Daily Mail, telling the outlet: “As a military officer, I do not comment on past or current missions.”

This is not the first time Moskowitz has used props while grilling Trump administration cabinet members. During Attorney General Pam Bondi’s testimony before the Judiciary Committee in February, Moskowitz lambasted Bondi for a claim made by FBI Director Kash Patel that President Donald Trump’s name appeared in the Epstein Files fewer than 100 times.

“We now know that’s not true. Trump’s name appears more times in the Epstein files than God’s name appears in the book about God,” Moskowitz said while holding up a Bible. “OK, by the way, this is the Trump Bible – move over, King James.”