Republican Sen. Thom Tillis said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “should be out of a job” given her response to the killing of a 37-year-old Minneapolis man by DHS agents Saturday.
“I think what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis told reporters. “It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad.”
The retiring North Carolina lawmaker is the first Republican to say outright that Noem should lose her Cabinet job. Trump is facing intense pressure to fire Noem in the wake of Saturday’s shooting, as well as calls from Democrats for her to be impeached.
In addition to Noem, Tillis faulted deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller for castigating victim Alex Pretti in the immediate aftermath of his shooting: “Those two people told the president before they even had any incident report whatsoever that the person who died was a terrorist. I mean that is amateur hour at its worst.”
Tillis also signaled he is open to operational changes at DHS in the wake of the shooting, including requiring an independent investigation. And he said he would be OK with a Democratic demand to split off DHS funding from a six-bill package up for debate in the Senate this week, with a stopgap measure in place while funding for the department is renegotiated. “I wouldn’t have a problem with its absence,” Tillis said about the DHS bill.
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