00:00 Jen Psaki Honestly, how could a member of Donald Trump's cabinet possibly embarrass themselves more than Pam Bondi did at that hearing? 00:07 But then, late last night, The Wall Street Journal hit send on what might just be the craziest story about a Trump cabinet member we have seen since he got back to the White House. 00:19 And, boy, is there a lot of competition for that. 00:21 And here's the headline. 00:22 A pilot fired over Christine Noem's missing blanket and the constant chaos inside DHS. 00:29 That's a real headline in The Wall Street Journal. 00:32 And yes, the headline is wild, of course, but does not even begin to do this story justice. 00:37 And I'm going to get into all of the insane details in just a moment. 00:40 But even before we all saw that story, Kristi Noem's Department of Homeland Security was having, well, you could call it a hell of a week. 00:48 I mean, this week we saw mass chaos and confusion after official shut down airspace over El Paso because Border Patrol agents fired a laser they borrowed from the Department of Defense at what turned out to be a Valentine's Day balloon. 01:05 And they were planning to shut down the airspace for about 10 days, by the way, over that. 01:08 Now, we've seen two ISIS agents put on leave after they appear to have lied about an officer-involved shooting in Minneapolis, lies that may well have been parroted by DHS in their official account of that shooting. 01:20 We've also seen the release of horrifying body cam footage from the Border Patrol agents who shot Chicago schoolteacher Mariamar Martinez, footage that, surprise, surprise, you can see it right there, also contradicts the official account about how that shooting took place. 01:36 We've seen a Trump appointed federal judge excorciate DHS over their treatment of immigrants in a Minneapolis ICE detention center. 01:45 We've learned that DHS improperly obtained the private tax data of thousands of American taxpayers while hunting for undocumented immigrants. 01:55 We've learned that a 21 year old with a proclivity for posting white nationalist themed content has apparently been running DHS's social media accounts. 02:05 We've learned that DHS is being sued by a racetrack in Idaho, which alleges that parents and children were zip-tied at gunpoint during an immigration raid. 02:15 And we're now watching Congress barrel toward a partial government shutdown at midnight tonight over DHS's refusal to change its tactics in the wake of its cruel and out-of-control Minneapolis operation. 02:27 All of that, everything I just showed you and I just walked through, is just from this week. 02:32 This week. 02:33 And all of that came before we got this blockbuster, deeply sourced new reporting from The Wall Street Journal about the chaos inside Kristi Noem's DHS. 02:44 Now, some of what is reported in this story are things viewers of the show already know, but bear repeating, like the fact that Noam, quote, has donned flak jackets on ice raids, posed toting a large gun and recorded messages urging immigrants to self-support, stood before a group of imprisoned men with shaved heads packed into tight rows in a notorious El Salvadorian prison. 03:06 And she's done it all with an eye to her style, of course, with TV-ready hair and makeup, as one does, I suppose, when you're standing there as she is in front of a prison in El Salvador. 03:18 Now, there are also some things in this article we didn't know but have long suspected, like about Noem's unusually close relationship with DHS advisor and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. 03:30 The Wall Street Journal reports, quote, Lewandowski and Noem, who are both married, have publicly denied the reports of an affair, but people said they do little to hide their relationship inside the department. 03:42 Now, what struck me about this as well 03:44 would you read the story, is this is not a single source story. 03:47 There are a lot of sources in this story. 03:49 A lot of people talked to the journal for this story. 03:51 Anyway, that aside, officials say their relationship has even made the highly moral Donald Trump uncomfortable. 03:58 That's obviously not a serious way to describe Donald Trump, but he's uncomfortable by it, is the point. 04:04 A DHS spokesman responds to the Wall Street Journal saying the department doesn't waste time with salacious, faceless gossip, which... 04:11 Doesn't sound like a note that it didn't happen to me or that it's not going on, I guess, to me. 04:15 But who knows? 04:16 So that alone is pretty newsworthy and kind of makes your skin crawl kind of way. 04:22 But what really makes this news story such a bombshell piece of reporting is some of the truly wild things we are just learning for the very first time. 04:30 For instance, during one official trip, people familiar with the incident say, quote, 04:36 Noam had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn't moved to the second plane. 04:44 Corey Lewandowski then fired a U.S. Coast Guard pilot after Noam's blanket was left behind. 04:52 Okay, the story continues. 04:53 It gets even better. 04:54 The Coast Guard pilot was told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination, but they eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home. 05:06 What a story. 05:07 Now, surprise, surprise, a DHS spokeswoman declined to address that particular episode when asked about it by The Journal. 05:13 But let's just pause and put a finer point on that. 05:16 Kristi Noem and her, let's just call him companion, Corey Lewandowski, tried to fire a Coast Guard pilot just because the Secretary of Homeland Security left her blankie on the plane. 05:32 Keep in mind, this is the same Homeland Security secretary overseeing packed ICE detention centers, like the one you see in your screen right there, where detainees are sleeping like sardines under aluminum foil blankets, according to lawmakers, where children are kept. 05:48 But Kristi Noem apparently can't make it one flight without something to keep her feet warm during the in-flight movie. 05:55 Poor Kristi Noem. 05:57 Then there's the incredible saga over Corey Lewandowski's attempt to play policeman. 06:02 This may be one of my favorite details. 06:05 As far as we know, these two incidents are unrelated. 06:07 Who knows? 06:08 But according to The Wall Street Journal, Lewandowski made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law enforcement badge and a federally issued gun, despite the fact, of course, that he was not a law enforcement official and he has not undergone any law enforcement training that we know of whatsoever. 06:25 Now Lewandowski tried asking the ISIS legal center to write him a justification for being issued a badge and a gun. 06:32 And when a top ICE lawyer declined to sign off on the whole thing, I wonder why, he was placed on administrative leave. 06:40 Lewandowski then eventually persuaded other lawyers to sign off on his gun-toting ambitions, feeling like a big man, Corey Lewandowski, I guess. 06:50 And this is my favorite part. 06:52 The ICE director's auto pen was used to sign off on the paperwork. 06:58 Now, of course, DHS denies that all of this happened and claimed that the ICE lawyer was put on administrative leave for other reasons. 07:05 Okay. 07:06 But MSNOW has confirmed a large part of that story tonight, also reporting that the ICE lawyer was actually escorted from the building after refusing to sign off on Lewandowski's request for a gun, according to two current and former officials. 07:19 The whole incident is especially wild when you consider that this is the same department that even claimed carrying a gun lawfully was enough to justify killing Alex Preddy. 07:30 Remember that detail? 07:32 And this story is about more than just Christie and Corey's childish behavior and their companionship. 07:38 It's also about their reckless spending on the taxpayer's dime. 07:42 Because the journal matched earlier reporting from ProPublica, which found that Christie Noem spent over $200 million of taxpayer money on ads that featured her telling immigrants to leave the country. 07:54 Money that ProPublica reports was funneled to an ad firm tied to Kristi Noem. 08:00 It's like they think people won't notice here. 08:01 People notice. 08:03 Now, the Wall Street Journal also reports that Noem and Lewandowski have been using a luxury 737 Maxjet with a private cabin in the back for their travel, a plane that DHS is in the process of acquiring for approximately $70 million. 08:18 You can just keep adding all of this up on a little notebook if you would like. 08:22 The plane is paid for with money from the big ugly bill, and it's supposed to be used for high profile deportations. 08:29 But charter planes are primarily being used for deportation. 08:32 So this private plane has become kind of more of a job perk for Noam. 08:37 Her staff have even taken to calling it the big, beautiful jet as she jets around in it herself in her various costumes. 08:44 Maybe they're on the plane. 08:45 Who knows? 08:46 A DHS spokeswoman told the journal that the plane was used for both deportations and cabinet-level travel, but I would just note here that no detail on what exactly that breakdown is has been provided. 08:58 It's not just the apparent grift that makes this story so eye-popping, although it does make it eye-popping. 09:03 It's also about Noam's wild mismanagement of the agency she runs. 09:07 Nome has forced all DHS contracts over $100,000 to require her personal sign-off, supposedly to rein in spending. 09:15 But the policy has actually done the opposite. 09:20 According to the journal, one contract for bulk steel sat on her desk for so long, by the time she actually approved it, the price of steel had gone up by more than $100 million. 09:32 But maybe the most illuminating part of the entire report is really what it tells us about how much Kristi Noem sees herself as being in competition with other Trump officials. 09:43 Because according to the journal, Noem routinely berated staff if she saw Borders Are Tom Homan on TV and kept track of both of their appearances to make sure she was on TV more than he was on TV. 09:56 What a good way to spend your time. 09:59 That explains a lot about Kristi Noem, though, doesn't it? 10:01 I mean, it explains why, now that she appears to be drowning in a sea of scandal that seems never-ending, she's still trying to put herself in the limelight. 10:09 I mean, just today she held a press conference in Arizona where she decided to try really, really hard to take up the mantle on one of Donald Trump's favorite issues, election conspiracies. 10:22 Now, it's very clear that someone is trying to build up her profile while worming her way back into Trump's good graces, but it's also clear that it is working the way it was intended. 10:30 The thing is, Kristina is she's really, really bad at her job. 10:34 It's very clear. 10:36 And it's becoming hard to ignore, even over at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. 10:41 In one very telling part of the Wall Street Journal's reporting, Corey Lewandowski messaged Trump's pollster with a request. 10:47 They needed, he wanted them to cut an ad to help Noam, the pollster, ignore, and the pollster ignored the entry and the ask, basically. 10:55 So while Corey Lewandowski thought this would be a launching pad for 2028, the question really is, will she even have her job through 2026? 11:04 I'm kind of doubtful, but you never know.