GOP senators tangle with Noem during heated hearing on her handling of deportation surge

By Fox News · Fox News

Department of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem faced heat from Republican senators during a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, including criticism about her leadership during the Trump administration's deportation surge, with one GOP senator comparing past animal killings to decisions she has made as DHS secretary. Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., both got into testy exchanges with Noem Tuesday during a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) oversight hearing with lawmakers. Thillis likened Noem's decisions as a farmer and dog-owner to what he described as Noem's disastrous leadership amid Trump's border crackdown. Meanwhile, Kennedy got into a back-and-forth with Noem over her decision to describe Renee Good and Alex Pretti as domestic terrorists in the early days after they were killed, and also her subsequent reasoning for doing so. "Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. Not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis," Tillis said, comparing Noem's time as an animal owner to her leadership as Secretary of DHS. DHS DEFENDS AD BLITZ AMID SENATE SCRUTINY, SAYS CAMPAIGN DROVE 2.2M SELF-DEPORTATIONS AND SAVED TAXPAYERS $39B Noem came under fire in the Spring of 2024 when reporting based on an advanced copy of her memoir, "No Going Back," described an incident of her killing her family dog Cricket, along with a separate incident during which she killed a goat. Noem explained that the dog had proven itself "untrainable" after several violent attacks and described the decision to eventually shoot the dog. "I hated that dog," Noem recalled, according to The Guardian and other media reports that covered the pre-released copy of Noem's book at the time. "[Cricket was] dangerous to anyone she came in contact with." "It was not a pleasant job," Noem reportedly continued, "but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done." Noem then went on to describe slaug…