GOP Senator Yells at Kristi Noem Over DHS and Dog Murder

An irate Senator Thom Tillis offered a sharp rebuke of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a Senate Judiciary hearing on Tuesday afternoon, attacking her for her aggressive immigration quotas, her detainment of American citizens, and murdering her dog and family goat.

“Why am I disappointed with Secretary Noem? Because we’re not going after enough people who did this damage at the expense of running numbers that Stephen Miller wants out of the White House. We just want numbers! We want 1,000 a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day, because numbers matter, right? No, they don’t matter. Quality matters, not quantity,” Tillis yelled. “And what we’ve seen is a disaster. Under your leadership Ms. Noem, a disaster.”

“Time after time after time, I’ve been disappointed,” he said. Tillis also questioned Noem’s blocking or delaying of FEMA disaster aid, and criticized the DHS killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, saying that it “cast a pall” on other agents he thought were doing a good job.

Tillis then took time to specifically address the pet dog Noem casually wrote about shooting and killing for no good reason around 2004 in her book No Going Back.

“I read your book last week.… Some of it distresses me, and I’ll give you a good example of one that does,” Tillis continued. “The passage where you talked about killing a dog that was 14 months old. I train dogs, alright? And you are a farmer, you should know better. You should know that if you’re going out to a hunting lodge and you’re putting pheasants out and you’re putting dogs out, you don’t take a puppy out there. A 14-month-old dog is basically a teenager in dog years.

“You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices! It’s in your book … at that same lunch hour, you killed a goat because you said it was behaving badly.… My point is, those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis.”

In No Going Back, Noem wrote that the dog, Cricket, was ruining a pheasant hunt by “chasing all those birds and having the time of her life” and killing some chickens. For some morbid reason, Noem decided the only option was to shoot Cricket dead in a gravel pit. And then she killed a family goat because it was “disgusting, musky, rancid.”

Tillis ended his time by demanding Noem’s resignation.

“I wanna submit this letter from the Office of the Inspector General that cites 10 different instances under Ms. Noem’s leadership where they’ve been misled and not allowed to pursue investigations that they think are critically important. Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly? That is stonewalling, that’s a failure of leadership, and that is why I’m calling for your resignation. And if I don’t get an answer to these questions—”

Tillis was interrupted by applause.

“Please don’t do that for me. If I don’t get an answer to these questions … as of today, I’ll be informing leadership that I’m putting a hold on any en bloc nominations until I get a response. And in two weeks if I don’t get a response, I’m gonna deny quorum and mark up in as many committees as I can until I get a response.”

The Iran war could be entirely in vain, according to Donald Trump.

Seated beside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the White House on Tuesday, Trump spelled out that the worst-case scenario for U.S. involvement in Iran could see another authoritarian regime taking control of the country.

“What’s the worst-case scenario that you have planned for in Iran?” asked a reporter.

“Well, I don’t know if there’s a worst case,” Trump said. “We have them very much beaten militarily, from a military standpoint. They’re still lobbing some missiles, at some point they won’t even be able to do that because we’re hitting all of their carriers and missile stock.”

Staring at the ground, Trump took a moment to think. Then he spoke again.

“I guess the worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen,” Trump said, leaning toward Merz. “We don’t want that to happen. That would probably be the worst.

“You got through this, and then in five years you realize you put somebody in who was no better. So we’d like to see somebody in there who would bring it back to the people,” Trump added.

Just one in four Americans say they support the war in Iran, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll published Monday. In the same survey, 56 percent of respondents said they believe Trump is too quick to use military force as a foreign policy solution.

That could very well be true, considering that the White House has yet to declare an official message—or a plan—for America’s involvement in the Middle East conflict. In fact, the White House has yet to even seek Congress’s approval for attacking Iran.

Per Trump’s own estimates, the war could rage for a few days, or several weeks, or “forever.” He told The Washington Post that the aim of the war would be “freedom for the people” of Iran, then told The New York Times that he had “three very good choices” for who could take control of Iran, and then told ABC News that the “attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates” for leadership.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Trump initially stated that the Iranian mission was about “threat reduction,” then about “getting a deal,” then about “regime change” again. “And that was just on Sunday,” reported the paper’s Alex Ward.

Trump spoke about some objectives for the war during a Medal of Honor ceremony on Monday, but as of Tuesday afternoon has yet to directly address the American people regarding the war.

That’s a major departure from his predecessors who sat at the Resolute Desk, who universally recognized the need to immediately justify military intervention to the public. Woodrow Wilson spoke to the nation the same day he asked Congress to declare war against Germany during World War I, while Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a national address hours before the country declared war during World War II.

So far, six U.S. soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as have more than 20 Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Eighteen American soldiers have also been seriously injured. More than 700 Iranian civilians have been killed, including 176 children, dozens of whom were at a girls’ school in the country’s south.

Donald Trump is attacking Spain over the country’s refusal to let the U.S. use its air bases to bomb Iran.

“Spain has been terrible. In fact, I told [Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent] to cut off all dealings with Spain,” Trump said Tuesday while in a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, before going off on a tangent about how Spain refuses to pay 5 percent of its GDP to NATO, unlike other countries in the alliance. “And now Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases and that’s alright, we could use their base if we want, we could just fly in and use it. Nobody’s gonna tell us not to use it.”

“Spain has absolutely nothing that we need, other than great people. They have great people, but they don’t have great leadership,” Trump added.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares said Sunday that the attacks on Iran were a violation of international law and barred the U.S. from using them.

“The joint-use bases, but under Spanish sovereignty, will not be used for anything not included within the treaty nor outside the U.N. Charter,” Albares said in a broadcast appearance. Several U.S. aircraft subsequently left the country from bases in Rota and Morón, Spain.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez rejected “the unilateral military action by the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order” in a post translated from Spanish on X.

“We likewise reject the actions of the Iranian regime and the Revolutionary Guard. We cannot afford another prolonged and devastating war in the Middle East,” Sánchez’s post added.

But Trump threatening to take over bases in another country could alienate NATO ally Spain even further, and alarm others in the alliance. Threatening to cut off trade with Spain isn’t going to win Trump any new friends, either. The longer this war goes on, the more likely Trump will need support, especially with air defense supplies dwindling. He can’t afford to be sabre-rattling against European allies.

Without any clear message coming from the White House with regard to the purpose of the Iran war, U.S. military commanders have turned to Jesus, apparently telling American troops that the war is “biblically sanctioned.”

The U.S. joined Israel in striking Iran early Saturday morning. By Monday evening, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, or MRFF, was “inundated” with complaints, receiving more than 110 grievances from U.S. military personnel stationed at dozens of sites across the Middle East, reported independent journalist Jonathan Larsen.

One such note included an anecdote from a noncommissioned officer, who reported that their commander had “urged us to tell our troops that this was ‘all part of God’s divine plan’ and he specifically referenced numerous citations out of the Book of Revelation referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”

The NCO’s complaint was lodged on behalf of 15 troops, including 11 Christians, one Muslim, and one Jew, according to Larsen. The officer stated that such remarks “destroy morale and unit cohesion and are in violation of the oaths we swore to support the [C]onstitution.”

“This morning our commander opened up the combat readiness status briefing by urging us to not be ‘afraid’ as to what is happening with our combat operations in Iran right now,” the NCO wrote.

“He said that ‘President Trump has been anointed by Jesus to light the signal fire in Iran to cause Armageddon and mark his return to Earth,’” the NCO continued. “He had a big grin on his face when he said all of this which made his message seem even more crazy.”

It wouldn’t be a stretch to blame some of the blatant constitutional violations on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has repeatedly evoked God and Christian nationalism in his time fronting the Pentagon.

Hegseth has parroted the views of Douglas Wilson, a conservative theologian who advocated for Christian dominance over government and society. He has followed through in practice, instating regular prayer services at America’s military headquarters. He also entered office with several Christian symbols already emblazoned on his skin—a Jerusalem cross and the phrase “Deus vult”—in what Hegseth has described as emblems of the “modern-day American Christian crusade.”

U.S. service members are afforded the religious liberty protections in the First Amendment. They also have a legal right to seek religious accommodations—and the MRFF told Larsen that it has been overwhelmed with complaints about commanders who are apparently tapping into the same sort of Christian nationalism espoused by the Pentagon chief.

“These calls have one damn thing in freaking common; our MRFF clients [service members who seek MRFF aid] report the unrestricted euphoria of their commanders and command chains as to how this new ‘biblically-sanctioned’ war is clearly the undeniable sign of the expeditious approach of the fundamentalist Christian ‘End Times’ as vividly described in the New Testament Book of Revelation,” MRFF president and founder Mikey Weinstein, a veteran of the Air Force and the Reagan White House, told Larsen.

“Many of their commanders are especially delighted with how graphic this battle will be zeroing in on how bloody all of this must become in order to fulfill and be in 100 percent accordance with fundamentalist Christian end of the world eschatology.”

The Trump administration is going to defend the president’s executive orders targeting law firms one day after apparently deciding to stop the fight in court. 

Administration lawyers asked an appeals court Monday if it could pull back from appealing its losses to the law firms. But the next morning, The New York Times reports, the Department of Justice suddenly flip-flopped, emailing the four law firms fighting the orders that it would file a motion to withdraw its dismissal.  

President Trump’s executive orders sought to prevent law firms that went against him from doing business with the government, and threatened their clients with the loss of government contracts. While some firms capitulated, such as Skadden and Paul Weiss, Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Jenner & Block, and Susman Godfrey decided to challenge the orders in court. 

The firms notched several victories, with judges ruling in favor of WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, Susman Godfrey, and Jenner & Block in multiple rulings. Until Tuesday, the administration was going to back down in the face of these losses, but then changed its mind. It’s not clear why the Trump administration decided to reverse course, or if the court will let the DOJ undo its dismissal. 

An unnamed administration official told the Times that the White House Counsel’s Office was discussing the next course of action. Did Trump himself personally intervene, or is the DOJ and White House not on the same page? 

This story has been updated. 

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem crumbled Tuesday when confronted about smearing Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot and killed by federal immigration agents earlier this year.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said that Noem calling Pretti a “domestic terrorist” was “one of the most hurtful things” his parents said they could ever imagine.

“Do you have anything you want to say to Alex Pretti’s parents about their son?” Klobuchar asked.

Rather than apologize, a wide-eyed Noem launched into a typical public relations response, claiming she’d relied on information from agents and couldn’t “even imagine” what Pretti’s parents had gone through.

Klobuchar continued to press Noem to give a real answer.

“Sir, I di—ma’am, I did not call him a domestic terrorist,” Noem replied. “I said it appeared to be an incident of.”

Klobuchar scoffed. “I think the parents saw it for what it was,” she replied.

Just hours after Pretti was shot and killed, Noem gave a press conference where she claimed he had committed an “act of domestic terrorism.” She also falsely claimed that Pretti had brandished a weapon, intending “to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” A surplus of video evidence and a review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection found that Pretti had done no such thing.

A number of Trump administration officials quickly attempted to walk back the secretary’s baseless claims, but the damage was already done.

Klobuchar wasn’t the only lawmaker to confront Noem with her false claims about Pretti: Louisiana Senator John Kennedy called out the secretary for trying to push the blame onto White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

Kennedy read aloud from a January report by Axios that quoted Noem’s comments to a person familiar with her remarks. “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” the Republican recounted Noem saying.

“Sir, I did not do that,” Noem claimed, and dismissed the comment because it came from an article that relied on anonymous sources. Little over a month after Pretti’s killing, and Noem still appears unwilling to take accountability for spreading dangerous misinformation.

On Tuesday, Israel bombed Iran’s Council of Experts while it was in the process of choosing a new supreme leader. That same day, it was reported that President Trump is open to supporting armed militias in the region. 

These two events seem to indicate that Trump has entered phase two of his regime-change plan in Iran, and, unlike in Venezuela, will not be working with the existing apparatus to do so. 

Israel stated that the council bombing occurred while votes for the next supreme leader were being counted by its 88 members. There is no casualty count at the time of this writing.  

“We wanted to prevent them from picking a new supreme leader,” an Israel Defense Forces official told Axios.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump spoke with Kurds and other local factions, and may potentially support them in their efforts to fill the massive leadership gap that Israel and the U.S. are attempting to create in Tehran. It’s not clear whether the leaders were based in Iran or in neighboring countries.

“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” Trump said on Sunday. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”

FBI Director Kash Patel didn’t want the bureau’s forensic experts examining the scene of Renee Good’s killing in Minneapolis because he didn’t want her referred to as a “victim” in the warrant, according to Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In a post on X, the senators said that a “credible whistleblower” disclosed Patel’s reasoning for ordering agents not to investigate Good’s death. Instead, Patel wanted “to portray her as the subject of an investigation into the assault of a federal law enforcement officer.”

It’s a shocking revelation, suggesting that in the initial hours and days after Good was shot and killed, the Trump administration was already trying to exonerate itself and create its own narrative.

It’s well established that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension attempted to investigate Good’s killing on its own, only to be immediately shut out by the FBI. Now we know why the FBI was holding off on a civil rights investigation of Good’s death: The Trump administration wanted to brand Good as some kind of insurrectionist or terrorist.

That accusation didn’t stick, and would set off mass protests in Minneapolis against Operation Metro Surge. Good’s killing would be followed by that of nurse Alex Pretti, who similarly was branded a terrorist by the White House. Ultimately, federal prosecutors in the state would resign en masse over the administration’s handling of the two deaths, as well as their immigration strategy overall.

It’s obvious now that Patel’s action failed to convince the public that ICE was in the right when agent Jonathan Ross decided to shoot her. In fact, it’s a major reason why the immigration agency is so unpopular with Americans and why many people want to see the agency abolished. But all of that is falling on deaf ears in the White House.

The six American service members killed in an Iranian drone attack in Kuwait reportedly received no counter-rocket, artillery, and mortar defense; didn’t get the drone defense systems they asked for; didn’t hear the warning sirens in time; and were in a makeshift office based out of a trailer that there were concerns about using.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth initially claimed that the soldiers were killed when a “squirter” missile made it through the defenses of a fortified base.

“You have air defenses, and a lot’s coming in, and you hit most of it,” Hegseth said Monday at the Pentagon. “Every once in a while, you might have one, unfortunately, we call it a squirter, that makes its way through. And in that particular case, it happened to hit a tactical operations center that was fortified, but these are powerful weapons.”

But three anonymous military officials told CBS News that the base at the Shuaiba port in Kuwait, where the troops were killed, wasn’t just unfortified, it wasn’t a base at all—it was a triple-wide trailer surrounded by four concrete walls. They claimed that the trailer was struck directly from above and engulfed in flames. Two of the three officials also said they didn’t hear any of the warning sirens that were supposed to go off, even though the siren had been functioning properly for days prior. There was also no rocket defense system that could prevent the attack.

It becomes clearer with each passing day that this war is being waged on the fly by individuals whose lust for militancy supersedes any kind of measured, planned action. And if these officials’ reports are true, Americans are getting killed because of it.

Kash Patel baselessly fired an elite team of agents specializing in foreign threats from the Middle East just days before Donald Trump launched an illegal military campaign in Iran.

Patel terminated a dozen employees and staff after accusing them—without providing evidence—of improperly investigating Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence. The FBI director specifically gutted a group known as CI-12, a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran and its proxies. Days later, Trump toppled Iran’s regime and sparked a sprawling regional conflict in the Middle East.

The targeting of this global espionage team was first reported on by The New York Sun.

It’s not surprising that the members of CI-12 were involved in investigating Trump for holding onto classified documents after he left the White House in 2020. CI-12 is charged with media leaks and the mishandling of classified documents, and the documents found at Trump’s estate reportedly included U.S. military plans for Iran.

These latest firings have raised concerns that the U.S. will be unable to respond to threats as the United States and Israel engage in major combat operations in Iran. Nearly half of all working FBI agents have been reassigned to immigration enforcement, including those working in counterterrorism.

The terminations also occurred amid wider reductions in force and waves of resignations at the Department of Justice. The DOJ’s National Security Division—including the counterterrorism office—has already lost at least half of its workforce, people familiar with the matter told CNN.

Patel’s decision to terminate his elite experts on Iran is just one of many elements of Trump’s decision to take the U.S. into war that feels unplanned, and leaves Americans exposed.