The Trump administration just became so much more Orwellian.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command,” George Orwell wrote in his cautionary tale about totalitarianism, 1984.
On Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took that command a step further, refusing to even acknowledge a doctored photo depicting alleged gang tattoos on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s knuckles, which the White House has repeatedly used to justify his deportation.
In a heated back-and-forth with Representative Eric Swalwell during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Noem repeatedly swerved away from answering direct questions about the photo, which was displayed on a massive poster board behind the California lawmaker.
Asked several times whether the photo was “doctored or not doctored,” Noem eventually said that she did not “have any knowledge of that photo you’re pointing to.”
But because she apparently refused to look at the image—which, in Swalwell’s photo, was held up by President Donald Trump—Swalwell decided to have one of his aides bring the image to her.
“My question is—the numbers and the letters: MS-13—can you look at the photo, please,” Swalwell said.
“Are you saying Abrego Garcia is not a wife beater? Is not a criminal? Is not a human trafficker?” asked Noem.
“It’s so telling that you won’t look at the photo,” said Swalwell. “Can you look to the right at the photo in front of you?”
“I have seen this photo as you held it behind you,” said Noem.
“The letters M-S and the numbers 13, are those doctored or not?” pressed Swalwell.
“You don’t want to talk about the facts? The importance of our national security?” tossed back Noem.
“Madame Secretary, this is not a hard question. Are those doctored or not? Is that actually on his hand or not?” Swalwell said.
Noem then said it was “unbelievable” to her that Swalwell was so focused on the photo, reiterating that she “did not have any knowledge” of it.
“OK, so it’s been hanging out there for four weeks,” Swalwell said, referring to Trump’s Truth Social page. “You are one of the chief law enforcement officials in the country. What have you done to investigate whether the president misrepresented the reason that this person has been detained? Have you done anything to try and figure out whether that was doctored or not?”
But Noem did not have an answer for that question. Instead, she repeated accusations that Abrego Garcia—who the Trump administration admitted had been deported as an “administrative error”—was a wife beater and a criminal.