The former chair of the House Homeland Security Committee lost his patience with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during a heated confrontation that was televised nationally on Thursday morning.
Toward the end of his allotted time, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) repeatedly asked the embattled the Donald Trump appointee over which administration vetted the refugee from Afghanistan who has been accused of shooting two National Guardsmen, one critically, in Washington, D.C., weeks ago.
With Thompson pointing out that Noem has been blaming President Joe Biden for the shooting, he asked her repeatedly to admit that Trump had a hand in Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s asylum approval earlier this year.
Pressed on the case, Noem repeatedly stated, “The application on the asylum was thoroughly filled out by information that was gathered by the Biden administration.”
“So the Biden administration approved the asylum?” the Democratic lawmaker asked.
“The asylum application was put into place under the rules established by the Biden administration,” Noem parried again as Thompson asked the chair to reclaim his time.
“I don’t want to charge, file, perjury charges against you, but I’m of the opinion that the Trump administration, DHS, your DHS, approved the asylum application,” Thompson warned her.
“The asylum application moved forward under all of the information and vetting processes that were put in place under the Biden administration, which is when vetting happened,” Noem repeated. “And that’s what President Trump has changed under President Trump’s administration —”
That led Thompson to cut her off with, “It’s obvious you don’t want to answer the question,” before asking Trump appointee, Joe Kent, of the National Counterterrorism Center who was seated to Noem’s right, to take “a shot at it,” where Kent repeated Noem’s talking point to Thompson’s frustration.
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