Cabinet Concerns (6)

Kristi Noem – Homeland Security??!

Well, I’ve spent hours researching Kristi Noem, current governor of South Dakota. After all, Secretary of Homeland Security is a critical leadership role. And this time, the process got turned on its head in a whole new way. As I learned about Noem, I couldn’t help but ask: What have our previous secretaries of this department been like? There haven’t been all that many – it all started after 9/11. So, let’s see if there’s a pattern, and how well she fits the pattern. OMG! What a decisive turn we’re now facing! Let me show you what I mean.

We’ve had seven Secretaries of Homeland Security, including the current one, Alejandro Mayorkas (who was actually impeached recently but apparently not found guilty). At any rate, five have been men and two women, and they’ve had a lot in common. All are college graduates and also hold advanced degrees; six of the seven have Juris Doctor or law degrees. Two served in the US military: the first secretary, Tom Ridge, who earned a Bronze Star for his service in the Vietnam War, and John Kelly, who served a full military career, including as the commander in Iraq.

Who’s held the job in the past?

How about I give you a brief sketch of each person who’s served as Secretary of Homeland Security to date; then we’ll have something meaningful to which Noem can be compared:

• Tom Ridge won a scholarship to Harvard and graduated with honors, after which he earned a law degree (and managed to serve in Vietnam). He started as an Assistant DA and eventually supervised 180,000 people in a 22-part federal department.

• Michael Chertoff also earned his first degree from Harvard, but he graduated magna cum laude, and he also earned his law degree from Harvard, also “magna.” He was a US attorney and federal judge before running Homeland Security where he is said to have transformed FEMA, making it an effective disaster-response entity.

• Janet Napolitano earned her undergrad degree in political science, but she was summa cum laude! (and her college’s first female valedictorian – imagine!) She earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Virginia Law School and became a US attorney and then governor of Arizona. She is credited with starting the DACA movement and significantly improving aviation security.

• Jeh Johnson earned his first degree from Morehouse College, and then an advanced degree from Columbia Law School. He has also earned nine honorary degrees. He served as general counsel for both the US Air Force and the Department of Defense before taking on Homeland Security, where he supervised 229,000 people.

• General John Kelly earned his undergrad degree at the University of Massachusetts and served some years in the military as an enlisted man before graduating from the National War College and receiving his commission. He was the Commander in the Iraq war and subsequently commanded 1200 marines for SOUTHCOM, encompassing 31 countries and 12 dependencies.

• Kirstjen Nielsen earned her BS from Georgetown University and her JD from University of Virginia Law School. She served as both White House Chief of Staff and Homeland Security Chief of Staff before taking over the department.

• Alejandro Mayorkas graduated from Berkeley with honors and earned his JD degree from Loyola Marymount. He was a US Attorney and then director of US Citizenship and Immigration before taking over Homeland Security, which he currently runs. He is credited with implementing DACA.

So, there we go. See any patterns?

How about this latest nominee?

Now let’s talk about Mr. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security. Kristi Noem has a bachelor’s degree, but she earned it rather circuitously. Born to a farming/ranching family in South Dakota, Kristi graduated from Hamlin High School in 1990 and was crowned “South Dakota Snow Queen.” (So, that’s a new “qualification.”) She attended Northern State University for four years (1990-94) but did not graduate. She had married Byron Noem in 1992, and her daughter was born in April 1994. They have two other children. Noem explains that she “left college early to run the family farm.” Subsequently she took classes at two different colleges, over some years, including online courses, and finally got her BS in political science in 2012. By then she was already serving in the US House of Representatives, and some of the credits toward her degree were “intern credits” granted somehow for her position as a member of Congress. No graduate school. No work in the field of law. No military experience.

But before she ever earned that bachelor’s degree, Noem had won a seat in the South Dakota House of Representatives, elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2008. She was the prime sponsor of 11 bills that became law, including two to broaden gun rights in her state. In 2010 she ran for United States House of Representatives. In all three of those elections mentioned above, she never received even 50% of the votes – but that was about to change. In 2012 she was re-elected with 57% of the vote, then re-elected twice with 67% and 64%. In 2011 she formed KRISTI PAC and became a top freshman Republican fund raiser.

According to Wikipedia, when Noem won a seat in Congress in 2011 and moved to Washington, D.C., her husband and children stayed in South Dakota, living on a ranch. I want to give you a thorough summary of her work in the US Congress, but before we get to that, you know what I always say: If this person wrote a book, for heaven’s sake, let’s see what it says! Kristi Noem authored two books, one published in 2022, the other in 2024. So let’s first dig in  to those and see what she chose to write about!

She’s written some books!

Not my First Rodeo was published in 2022. Google Books says it shows how “a blessed life of true grit taught her how to lead.” Amazon characterizes the author as “a woman who later defied Washington’s most powerful politicians and led the people of her small, hardscrabble state through natural disasters, the pain of a global pandemic, and the fear and turmoil that gripped the nation after... Far from a book about politics, Not My First Rodeo is the story of a life lived so far.” Sounds interesting. 

Then, in 2024, Noem published No Going Back: the truth on what’s wrong with politics. Amazon’s promotion says, “governor of South Dakota, and former congresswoman tells eye-opening stories of DC dysfunction, shares lessons from leading her state through unprecedented challenge, and explains how we seize this moment to move America forward.” They call the book “an unfiltered glimpse into how government actually works, empowering citizens with the knowledge to be part of the solution... she took a different path into public service, as a concerned mom and rancher.” Interesting.

Now, this is the book that’s getting all the commentary because she supposedly writes about how she shot her dog to death. And, indeed, several sources have quoted snippets from the book about killing her dog, Cricket, because it refused to hunt properly. I confess: I found it appalling, but then I’m not a rancher or farmer, just a dog lover. Here’s a summary of that section, including some direct quotations:

"I let Cricket ride loose in the back end of the truck,” adding that if Cricket "was dumb enough to jump out, then good riddance ... I didn't care." At the next stop, Cricket jumped out and killed some chickens, so she “dragged” Cricket to the truck and “threw her inside.” She wrote, “I hated that dog.” She shot it dead in a gravel pit and then decided to kill her family’s male goat, which she said was “disgusting, musky, rancid.” She says she botched the first attempt with the goat and had to go back to the house to reload, then killed him with two shots.

When it was pointed out that this would be a Class 2 misdemeanor under South Dakota law, Noem explained that “tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm.”  

Apparently Noem also writes of imagining herself becoming president in 2025, taking over from Biden, and that the first thing she would do would be to make sure Joe Biden's dog, Commander, was nowhere on the grounds (“Commander, say hello to Cricket for me.”). Noem also falsely claims that she met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Her spokesperson said the claim was an error and would be expunged from the book's future editions. She also claims that she had been invited to meet with Emmanuel Macron but called it off because he had made an anti-Israel remark to the press. The French government denies such an invitation ever existed.

What to think? Maybe better to take a look at Kristi Noem’s legislative work instead of her books. Here’s a quick rundown:

Her legislative record

She proudly co-sponsored a bill that would federally ban abortion. In 2015 she co-sponsored a bill to amend the 14th amendment to redefine life and personhood beginning at fertilization and banning abortion from that moment, with no exceptions for IVF or embryonic stem cell research. 

Concerning our US energy needs: She supports “all of the above,” including renewables and other sources to make us no longer dependent on foreign oil. She supported the Keystone Pipeline and supports offshore drilling. She has co-sponsored bills to end the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and reopening sales on oil leases in the Gulf and off the Virginia coast. In 2011, she sponsored a measure to block Environmental Protection Agency funding for tighter air pollution standards for coarse particulate. Noem opposed a bill by the South Dakota governor to designate 48,000 acres as “protected wilderness”; she claimed it would “limit leaseholder access to the land and imperil grazing rights.”

She opposed the Affordable Care Act and has voted to repeal it. Then she sought to defund it while keeping some of the measures in place. She supported Paul Ryan’s proposed cuts to Medicaid funding, which apparently would have reduced aid to South Dakota recipients by 55%. She supported the Trump immigration suspension orders and his suspension of travel to the US from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Noem has called the budget deficit one of the most important issues facing Congress, recommending cuts to EPA, the Veterans Administration, Medicaid, high-speed rail projects, and others. She has refused to vote to raise the debt ceiling unless “tied to budget reforms.”

In 2018 Noem announced she’d run for South Dakota governor rather than seek re-election to Congress. She won and ran for re-election in 2021, flipping 17 counties that had previously voted Democratic. 

She said she will maintain her 100% anti-abortion voting record, and she will not agree with exceptions for rape or incest. While she ran on a “transparency” promise, Noem has been sued often for failing to provide that transparency, including in relation to state-funded reports, pardon records, the cost of her security team, and an ethics investigation involving her daughter.

Noem has been banned from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation because, in relation to the Keystone Pipeline, she has created  civil penalties for advising, directing, or encouraging participation in rioting. In 2024, it was reported that all nine tribes of South Dakota banned Noem from entering any tribal lands, which, in effect, prohibits her from entering almost 20% of South Dakota. The tribes took this action after demanding that Noem apologize for her comments about them. Noem had claimed that drug cartels coming over the southern border were “using our reservations to facilitate the spread of drugs throughout the Midwest." She alleged that some tribal leaders were benefiting from it, although she provided no evidence.

Covid, vaccinations and more

During the  pandemic, Wikipedia says, “in November 2020, Noem used pandemic relief funds to promote tourism during a surge in cases in the state. She did not implement face mask mandates, raised doubts about the efficacy of mask-wearing, encouraged large gatherings without social distancing or mask-wearing, and questioned public health experts' advice.” One of few governors who had not maintained statewide stay-at-home orders or mask mandates, she did order schools to close and remain closed and ordered businesses and local governments to practice social distancing. Throughout the pandemic, we are told, Noem waffled between orders to follow federal guidelines and permission to ignore them; she publicly cast doubt on the efficacy of masks. Hers was the only state to refuse Trump’s “enhanced weekly unemployment benefit of $300,” saying her state didn’t have an unemployment problem. 

Noem called vaccination requirements by schools and colleges, and proof of vaccination by businesses, “un-American.” In September 2020, amid a surge of new cases, Noem announced that she would spend $5million of relief funding on a state tourism campaign. She used $819,000 of those funds to have the state's Department of Tourism run a 30-second Fox News commercial she narrated during the 2020 Republican National Convention. During September 2020, over 550 students became infected at South Dakota universities; 200 more cases were reported in K–12 schools, Wikipedia reports. In October 2020, South Dakota had the highest rate of infection per capita; she blamed it on increased testing. By July 2021, the state had the tenth-highest Covid death rate.

A mixed bag...

In other work as governor, she apparently sent her South Dakota National Guard troops over the state border to Texas’ border with Mexico; state governors may not send state troops over state borders without permission. 

In 2019, Noem signed a bill into law abolishing South Dakota's permit requirement to carry a concealed handgun. 

She opposes same-sex marriage. In 2015 she said she disagreed with Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court's ruling that same-sex marriage bans are unconstitutional. In December 2021, she signed her support for a bill that would require young athletes to join teams that align with their biological sex at birth. In 2021, Noem also signed a religious refusal bill into law. The legislation amended the state Religious Freedom Restoration Act to allow business owners to cite religious beliefs as a basis to deny products or services to people based on sexual orientation or gender identity. This bill was the first major state RFRA law signed into law in six years. 

She has opposed legalization of cannabis for medical use, and she sought to pass a “put prayer back in school” bill, but it failed. Her team admitted they had consulted no schools about the effort.

In her role as US Representative, Noem served two years on the House Armed Services Committee.

And that’s a pretty extensive list. What should one think about this nomination? No advanced degree or any graduate study at all, and a patchwork bachelor’s degree that took 22 years to earn. No experience in law or the military. No evidence of high-level thinking or demonstrated leadership. Nothing at all like the pattern established by the first seven Secretaries of Homeland Security. Would our homeland be safe in her care? I can’t express any confidence. How about you? And if her expertise does not match the job requirements, what might be the purpose of putting her in that position? I’m nervous.