All of a sudden, the “in” thing to do in Congress is to stand up to President Donald Trump.
A handful of senators backed a resolution to stop Trump from further action in Venezuela, and a larger group of Republicans is working against the president in the House.
Trump also has to deal with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who has decided to freeze the president's nominees until DHS Secretary Kristi Noem testifies before his committee.
While Noem has testified before Congress in the recent past, she has been defiant at every turn. I would not say that she has hit former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas' status in terms of hostility before House committees, but she is catching up rather quickly.
For instance, in her opening statement before a House Homeland Security Committee hearing earlier this year, she came out firing, stating, “Under President Trump’s leadership, DHS is securing our borders, we’re restoring the rule of law, and we’re protecting the homeland.”
She continued, “We have sent a strong message to criminal illegal aliens that we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”
Noem has been cold and calculated in giving responses to lawmakers, and she surely has not tolerated any form of disrespect whatsoever. If I am being honest, I like seeing the pushback rather than just watching someone sit in their chair and take a brow-beating from members of Congress.
Noem very quickly defended the ICE agent involved in this week's shooting in Minnesota, which led some members of Congress to wonder if the investigation into the matter was being worked backwards, meaning that the facts would be finessed to match a conclusion the administration had already drawn.
I was actually shocked myself to hear Noem and Trump come out so quickly with their statements in defense of the agent involved, rather than initially saying simply that the matter is under investigation and that they would reserve judgment until its completion.
Sen. Tillis commented, “It was very unusual to have a senior law enforcement official to draw a conclusion about an event where the scene was still being processed.”
He continued, “I believe that she gave the president advice — and I hope she’s right. But generally speaking, law enforcement would recognize that a life was lost, that families are changed forever, the shooter’s life will change forever, we’re collecting video, we’re trying to assess the situation.”
Tillis has been quite frisky since announcing that he would not be running for re-election, as he no longer fears retribution from Trump or a primary challenge spurred on by the president.
But now, Tillis has made an even bolder step by blocking all DHS nominees until Noem sits down before the Senate Judiciary Committee, stating, "My chairman has made two requests in this Congress to have the Homeland Security Secretary [Kristi Noem] come before the committee, and they have yet to confirm that they're coming.”
He continued, "That is unacceptable, and so I am putting a hold on anything related to Homeland Security measures until we get an agreement and a scheduled time to come for committee at the least."
The panel's chairman is Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has also had a falling out with Trump over the blue slip tradition for judicial nominees, with the president spitting venom at the lawmaker as a result, which was the first time I really saw other senators stick up for someone being targeted by this commander in chief. As I have stated before, Trump needs to be making friends, not enemies, in Congress. He has to get away from his "my way or the highway" attitude because that is simply not how this works.
