Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s embarrassing scandal over a forgotten blanket was apparently even worse than initially reported.
Corey Lewandowski, her de facto chief of staff and rumored lover, not only tried to fire a Coast Guard pilot after the secretary’s personal blanket was left on a plane but also berated the flight staff and threatened their jobs as well, according to NBC News.
The saga is described by a Coast Guard official and former Coast Guard official as one of the reasons for friction between Noem and the only branch of the military overseen by DHS. The blanket incident, first reported by The Wall Street Journal last week, happened last May after the plane Lewandowski and Noem were flying on broke down, forcing them to fly back to Washington, D.C., on a back-up jet.
Lewandowski is said to have thrown a mid-air fit after Noem realized she’d left personal belongings on the broken-down plane, including her heated blanket. Sources cited by NBC said he threatened to fire the Coast Guard flight crew and then attempted to fire the pilot for refusing to return to the other plane to retrieve Noem’s things. He only relented after the pilot noted someone else would have to be found to fly the plane if he were dismissed from duty, according to the report.
A DHS spokesperson did not answer NBC’s questions about the confrontation. The Daily Beast has also reached out to DHS, the Coast Guard, and Lewandowski for comment.
Noem, 54, has long been rumored to be having an affair with Lewandowski, 52, despite both being married to other people, with one FEMA official describing their relationship as the “worst-kept secret in D.C.”
Both Noem and Lewandowski have denied the rumors.
According to the Journal, though, they don’t go out of their way to hide the relationship.
A luxury 737 MAX airliner being purchased for $70 million by the Department of Homeland Security for Noem’s use has a private cabin in back for her and Lewandowski, the newspaper reported.
Noem’s DHS is also in the process of buying two Gulfstream G700 private jets, one of which Noem took to Phoenix, Arizona, this month to tout her department’s accomplishments on the southern border.
Normally, government planes used for executive-branch travel are returned in a so-called “sterile state” after each flight, meaning all personal items are removed, an official told NBC.
But Noem preferred to keep some of her personal belongings on board at all times—including, what else, her heated blanket. A storage cabinet on the aircraft was therefore reserved to store her belongings, running counter to the normal protocols for most government aircraft, NBC reported.
“The claim that the secretary would misuse government property is ridiculous,” a DHS spokesperson told NBC in a statement. “Secretary Noem is the most conscientious steward of government resources DHS has ever had.”
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