These 3 Things Caused Kristi Noem’s Own Downfall

President Donald Trump announced last week that he wants Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin to replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

This follows two congressional oversight hearings where lawmakers pressed Noem over her leadership of the agency.

Louisiana Senator John Kennedy addressed the issue on “The Arena With Kasie Hunt.” He questioned Noem during a Senate hearing about the department’s roughly $220 million advertising effort. He believed this questioning played a role. However, he argued the situation went deeper.

“I think it was sort of the straw, the final straw on the camel’s back,” he said. “Look, I accept responsibility or blame or whatever you want to call it. Nobody put me up to it. Nobody knew I was going to do it. Nobody looked at my questions.”

“I had about eight questions, eight issues I wanted to talk to the secretary about,” he continued. “I got to two of them. I was appalled at some of her answers. So was the president when he called me that night. I could tell he was going to replace her.”

She spent somewhere around $240 million on self-promotional campaign ads. When confronted, she claimed that Trump told her to make them. He didn’t. Lying to protect yourself by putting words in the president’s mouth is not a survivable mistake in this White House.

There were at least two other noteworthy things that also didn’t set well with Trump.

Another was when she shot from the hip when two Minnesota protesters were killed by ICE agents.

As head of Homeland Security, the correct response should have been straightforward. It was available to anyone with basic political instincts:

• Express regret at any loss of life.

• Defend your officers.

•Commit to a full investigation.

• Reserve judgment.

Instead she gave a bombastic response that handed the narrative to the other side.

ICE had arrested 4,000 criminals in that same operation but practically nobody heard about that.

The story became the two deaths because she made it so.

The third concern is Corey Lewandowski. He was attached to her staff as a special employee. His position was not permanent and not fully accountable.

Stories circulated about the two of them being seen together alone too often. A blanket was left on a private plane, and tempers were flaring.

When asked about it directly, she stated that she knew people wanted to think conservative women are stupid and slutty. But, she was neither.

She couldn’t bring herself to add the one sentence that would have ended it. She couldn’t say: “I never had an affair,” which is untrue. She couldn’t say it. That silence said everything.