ICE Barbie has passed the blame to Stephen Miller after she received calls to be fired in response to immigration officials killing another U.S. citizen, multiple sources told Axios.
“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told one source who relayed her comments to Axios.
In an earlier copy of the Axios report, others blamed Miller for divisive comments about slain anti-ICE protestor Alex Pretti wanting to “massacre law enforcement,” which were made by Border Patrol senior official Greg Bovino.
Miller denied the blame placed upon him for the “massacre” statement, instead deflecting the fault to information provided by Customs and Border Protection, which is under Noem’s Department of Homeland Security.
“Any early comments made were based on information sent to the White House through CBP,” he told the outlet.
Noem, nicknamed ICE Barbie by the Daily Beast for her rotating wardrobe of law enforcement cosplays, first stirred a media firestorm earlier this month after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Minneapolis mother Renee Nicole Good, whom she referred to as a “domestic terrorist” within hours of the incident.
Like with the death of Good, Noem received an inundation of backlash for her comments on Saturday about Pretti, a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse, whom she also called a “domestic terrorist.”
“This looks like a situation where an individual arrived at the scene to inflict maximum damage on individuals and to kill law enforcement,” Noem said at a press conference on Saturday.
Pretti, 37, was legally carrying a handgun when he was tackled by multiple federal agents, but video shows he did not brandish the weapon. Agents can be seen on video disarming Pretti before firing numerous shots into him while he was on the ground, killing him.
Shortly after the shooting Saturday morning, administration officials scrambled to release a statement that included the fact that Pretti was carrying a weapon, with Miller leading the charge.
Miller “heard ‘gun’ and knew what the narrative would be: Pretti came to ‘massacre’ cops,” a source familiar with the process of drafting the press release told Axios.
Another source briefed on the statement said that the officers directly involved in the shooting “all shut up and got lawyers real quick so there wasn’t a lot of information.”
The statement, shared to X by the Department of Homeland Security only three hours after the shooting, was released without full approval from White House officials.
“Others within the White House attempted to clean up the DHS statement prior to it being sent but it had already been disseminated,” another source told the outlet.
Miller, widely known as the architect behind the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement policies, called Pretti an “assassin” in an X post shortly after the DHS statement, which was reposted by Vice President JD Vance.
Noem incorporated similar language to Miller during a press conference on Saturday, as did the now-ousted commander-at-large of Border Patrol, Greg Bovino.
The New York Times reported that Noem met with Trump, 79, at the White House on Monday to discuss the situation alongside her de facto chief of staff and rumored lover, Corey Lewandowski.
Notably absent from the two-hour meeting were both Miller and Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan, who was sent to ease tensions in Minneapolis after Saturday’s shooting.
“She’s a loyal person and she wanted her voice heard,” a source told Axios. “She made sure to convey her loyalty.”
Another source told the outlet that Noem has been feeling left in the lurch by the administration and has sought to emphasize that she has been directed by Miller and the president.
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
When asked for comment, DHS told the Daily Beast: “We have seen a highly coordinated campaign of violence against our law enforcement. This individual committed a federal crime while armed as he obstructed an active law enforcement operation. As with any situation that is evolving, we work to give swift, accurate information to the American people as more information becomes available.”
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