WATCH: Kristi Noem Gives Epic Retort To Democrat Senator’s Veiled Trump Attack
Fireworks in the Trump nomination hearings continued to rocket off on Friday as North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem clapped back at a top U.S. Senate Democrat who challenged her to defend the so-called “kids in cages” policies of the first Trump administration.
In a bid to bring illegal border crossings under control, President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security in 2017 instituted a policy prosecuting adults who entered the country illegally. Children brought with them were deemed unaccompanied minors and remained in the U.S.
Noem, Trump’s pick to lead DHS, appeared before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where she was grilled by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) about family separations. He asked if the Republican firebrand plans to pursue reunification with 1,000 children still believed to be missing their parents.
Senate Democrats “have introduced a measure called Keep Families Together” and the “Families Belong Together Act” to reunite migrant children with their parents post-deportation, Blumenthal explained. “I hope you will support that kind of effort,” he said to Noem.
“Senator, the Trump administration never had a family separation policy. They had a zero-tolerance policy which said that our laws would be followed,” Noem shot back. “What I’m alarmed by are the over 300,000 children that went missing during the Biden administration.”
Following the Biden-Harris administration’s rescinding of Trump’s zero-tolerance policies, mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times, reported that chaos along the southern border caused authorities to lose track of tens of thousands of children as early as 2022. Republican Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX), whose state of Texas was ground zero for many of the disappearances, famously challenged DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to explain the failure.
“When we talk about children and what they’re facing, potentially as far as victimization in this country and the trafficking that’s going on, this administration’s lack of desire to find out where those children are or what they’re going through is alarming to me,” Noem added.
Suddenly, Blumenthal sounded like he was done pointing fingers.
“Let’s put aside…” he cut in, but Noem wasn’t done. “Well, I can’t put aside 340,000 children.”
Blumenthal is the latest Senate Democrat to suffer the misfortune of going toe-to-toe with some of Trump’s fiercest nominees. Earlier this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was dressed down by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he pointed out that he is not a general and not required to avoid lobbying efforts after serving the government, prompting laughter from an audience.
Also on Friday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was called out by Treasury nominee Scott Bessent when he challenged the hedge fund investor to agree that the U.S. is on the path to an “oligarchy” run by Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and a handful of billionaires. Bessent was quick to point out that President Joe Biden earlier this month awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Soros and Bill Gates, two of the Democratic Party’s most lucrative billionaire donors.
“This is not a condemnation of any one individual,” Sanders stuttered back.
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