Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., thinks it is time for someone to replace Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
The senator issued a statement Tuesday when he called on President Donald Trump to remove her from her post, per The Hill. His words come after a second protester was killed in Minneapolis.
“President Trump: I make a direct appeal to immediately fire Secretary Noem. Americans have died. She is betraying DHS’s core mission and trashing your border security legacy,” Fetterman said in a statement posted to his website.
Fetterman cautioned that Trump may repeat the same mistake by former President Joe Biden, who stood by his own embattled Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, despite many Republicans complaining about him.
“DO NOT make the mistake President Biden made for not firing a grossly incompetent DHS Secretary,” Fetterman said.
On Monday, Fetterman called for federal officials to stop the immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis known as Operation Metro Surge. He added he won’t risk a partial government shutdown by voting to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
“Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti should still be alive. My family grieves for theirs,” Fetterman said, referring to the protesters who were shot and killed by federal officers.
“The operation in Minneapolis should stand down and immediately end. It has become an ungovernable and dangerous urban theatre for civilians and law enforcement that is incompatible with the American spirit,” he added.
Other Democrats have stepped forward to criticize the way Noem is handling the situation — especially after she called Alex Pretti, who shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in Minneapolis, a “domestic terrorist,” even though there was no evidence to support her claim.
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., called for Noem to be impeached.
“She lied about a citizen to justify his murder. And that is not leadership. The president should ask for her resignation. But if not, I do think the House should impeach,” Gallego said on MS NOW.
Even Trump and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt have distanced themselves from Noem.
When Leavitt was asked Monday if the president agreed with how Noem described the shooting, Leavitt told reporters, “I have not heard the president characterize Mr. Pretti in that way.”
Noem is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March. 3.
Sen. Pete Welch, D-Vt., a member of the Judiciary Committee, called Noem “a real problem.”
“Noem’s got to go. I mean, we have the head of this department who spends a lot of her time in self-promotion, the $200 million video shoot in Mount Rushmore,” Welch said in an MS NOW interview. “And then when there is a serious, serious situation involving the death of two [Minnesota] citizens, she calls them domestic terrorists.”
