President Donald Trump took a swing at Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) after they called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired, dismissing both as “losers.”
“They’re terrible senators. One is gone, and the other should be gone,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News posted Wednesday. “What Murkowski says — she’s always against the Republicans anyway. And Tillis decided to drop out. So you know, he lost his voice once he did that.”
Murkowski and Tillis became the first Republicans in Congress to publicly state that Noem should lose her job after her response to a second highly publicized shooting in Minnesota involving federal immigration agents.
“I think what she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis, who is not seeking reelection, told reporters Tuesday. “It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad.”
Murkowski told reporters separately that “she should go,” adding to mounting pressure for Trump to fire Noem following the killing of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti on Saturday.
Trump has remained supportive of Noem, telling reporters at the White House on Tuesday, “I think she’s doing a very good job.” When asked if Noem would step down, he replied, “No.”
Noem faced backlash for her comments soon after Pretti’s shooting, in which she labeled him a “domestic terrorist” and claimed without evidence that he intended to kill law enforcement.
While a growing number of Democrats in Congress have called for Noem’s impeachment, Trump signaled that he has little patience for Republicans joining in that narrative.
Trump also took a jab at Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) after she was attacked by a man and sprayed with an unknown substance Tuesday while she spoke at a Minnesota town hall. The man, later identified by local police as 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak, was tackled to the ground and detained.
When asked for his thoughts on Omar’s attack, Trump told ABC News, “I don’t think about her. I think she’s a fraud. I don’t really think about that.”
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