from the call-this-bluff dept
Kristi Noem made an appearance on “Face the Nation” last week, squaring off against Ed O’Keefe of CBS News. CBS, of course, has already engaged in plenty of capitulation. And O’Keefe’s interview — while containing some probing questions — didn’t contain much push back against numerous bogus claims made by DHS head Kristi Noem.
Somehow, it still managed to make Noem angry enough she rolled onto X to complain about CBS “whitewashing” her unproven claims about Kilmar Abrego Garcia by removing them from the televised broadcast. She conveniently refused to inform her frothy fan base that by the time she got around to complaining, CBS had already released the full transcript and the full recording.
Kudos to CBS for refusing to allow Noem to use it as a bullhorn for a bunch of potentially slanderous claims about Abrego Garcia’s alleged criminal actions, none of which have been proven in court and few of which (some stuff about CSAM) haven’t even been alleged by the DOJ in any court.
But back to the point at hand: here’s something that’s obviously a lie, but didn’t receive any serious push back from the interviewer. After a few questions about Trump’s invasion of Washington DC (taking control of local law enforcement, sending in the feds and the soldiers), O’Keefe noted the Blowhard in Chief was now threatening Chicago (and other cities) with the same sort of stuff that’s already been witnessed in Los Angeles and Washington D.C.
O’Keefe:
Are you planning, beyond Chicago, to expand these kinds of operations to other cities? There have been reports, for example, that Boston may very well soon be next.
Here’s the relevant part of Noem’s rambling response about “law enforcement readiness” and “making cities safer,” etc.:
I’d encourage every single big city, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, whatever they are, if they want to help make their city safer, more prosperous, allow people the opportunity to walk in freedom, like the people of Washington, DC are now, and enjoying going out to eat at night and not having to worry if they’re going to be a victim of a carjacking or a robbery, they should call us.
The list of cities provided by Noem is telling. While there’s a bit of a perfunctory nod to the rest of the nation in there, the cities named are all cities MAGA/Trump hates because they’re run by Democratic leaders and/or exist in a “blue” state. Also, leading the list of crimes that people might be experiencing with those recently experienced by ex-DOGE staffer “Big Balls” in Washington DC (which prompted Trump’s takeover of the city) is another indication Trump doesn’t really care about violent crime. What he cares about is exacting revenge on cities and citizens he doesn’t think love him enough.
To his credit, O’Keefe did try to drill down on this:
You mentioned, there, a bunch of cities in Democratic-controlled states with Democratic mayors, and there have been a lot of questions asked about that focus. There are Republican cities with major crime issues as well, and we haven’t heard about plans to deploy, say, to Dallas or to Oklahoma City, or to cities in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi that have considerable crime rates, in some cases higher, percentage-wise, than those other cities you mentioned. Are there plans to go to red states and Republican-controlled cities in this kind of way?
It’s not only a fair point, it’s an accurate point. There are plenty of states and cities with higher crime rates than those being vengefully targeted by Trump. But no moves have been made to bring those locales under federal control because, well… we all know exactly why it’s not happening.
But Noem is a true Trumpian: when the truth is obvious, just keep lying because it’s the only move you have and it’s the only move you know.
SEC. NOEM: Absolutely. Every single city is evaluated for what we need to do there to make it safer. So we’ve got operations that, again, I won’t talk about details on, but we absolutely are not looking through the viewpoint at anything we’re doing with a political lens. It is what can we do to make sure that we’re continuing to get up every day and to fight for the American citizen, and that they have the chance to go out there and pursue the American dream.
No one believes that, especially not the person saying that. Everything is viewed through a political lens by this administration. That’s why some states and cities get emergency funds and federal responses to natural disasters and other states are bled dry because they didn’t collectively vote the right way during this election. Or the election before it. Or the election before that.
But it’s worse than simply politicizing things that shouldn’t be politicized, like federal emergency aid or school funding or crosswalk colors. It’s the petty vindictiveness that really sets this administration (both times) apart. Noem knows this as well as anyone. After all, three days after her return to South Dakota to pick up an honorary degree at a college campus in Madison SD was greeted by protesters, two businesses in that town were raided by ICE.
Everyone knows this martial law test run is meant to put places where Trump feels he has “enemies” on a short leash. Despite Noem’s (obviously facetious) suggestion that anyone in any city who feels crime is a problem should “call” the federal government and ask for help, even Trump’s fans and supporters in “red” cities and states aren’t going to do that. They may stand and applaud every assault on “blue” localities, but they definitely don’t want to be the person calling down that sort of oppression on their own constituents. It’s a party of liars, cowards, bullies, and please-tread-on-me masochists. What this party lacks completely is integrity or credibility. The sad thing is that it really doesn’t seem to matter.
Filed Under: chicago, detroit, dhs, donald trump, kristi noem, martial law, national guard, police state, trump administration, washington dc
