‘Crazy, diva-like behavior’: Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski's shocking tenure at DHS causes chaos

What this episode is about

The article examines the controversial roles of Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski in the Department of Homeland Security, highlighting their involvement in election subversion strategies reminiscent of Bill Barr's actions during the 2020 election. It discusses the concerning implications of their enabler status within the cabinet and the potential for further chaos in upcoming elections, contrasting their positions with those who previously resisted inappropriate executive actions.

Key takeaways

• Gabbard and Noem: The new enablers of election subversion, proving history often repeats itself.
• Barr's 2020 hesitance shows: Not all followers are created equal; some just won’t go along.
• Trump’s 2020 failed coup highlights the resilience of checks and balances—now sans opposition, it's a different game.
• Noem’s chaotic management of DHS transforms her into a pawn, leveraging paranoia to regain Trump's favor.
• As Gabbard invokes 'foreign threats,' expect an alarming dance of narratives: legitimacy vs. intimidation.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Alex Wagner (Host) · 7 min speaking
• Corey Lewandowski (Guest) · 2 min speaking
• Kristi Noem (Guest) · 1 min speaking
• Nicole (Guest) · 1 min speaking
• Rev (Guest) · 1 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Donald Trump, Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Tulsi Gabbard
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Donald Trump, Tulsi Gabbard, Alex Wagner
3. 6:00 – 9:00: The Wall Street Journal, Alex Wagner

Notable quotes from "‘Crazy, diva-like behavior’: Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski's shocking tenure at DHS causes chaos"

• It doesn't seem like Tulsi Gabbard and Kristi Noem have that posture publicly at all.

  about Tulsi Gabbard · at 0:31

• It didn't happen because two groups of people said they wouldn't go along.

  about Donald Trump · at 1:22

• But she's finding functionaries in the Department of Justice to do the dirty work.

  about Attorney General Pam Bondi · at 2:11

• HISTORY IS NOT A GOOD PLACE FOR CHRISTIE NOAM TO BE BECAUSE SHE'S UNDER SCRUTINY FOR HAVING SHE AND HER BOYFRIEND CORY LEWANDOWSKI HAVE BEEN JETTING AROUND THE COUNTRY IN A…

  about Corey Luwendowski · at 4:32

• The piece ends detailing the ways in which Corey Lewandowski has been trying to procure a badge and a gun, a federally authorized official DHS badge and gun.

  about The Wall Street Journal · at 8:23

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Central referenced political actor · 8 mentions · first at 0:22
  Discussed as the driving force behind alleged election-subversion planning and the selection of loyalists/enablers in DOJ/DHS to remove internal resistance seen in 2020.
• Tulsi Gabbard — Person · Referenced enabler/validator (foreign intelligence framing) · 2 mentions · first at 0:31
  Discussed as a figure who could provide a 'foreign intelligence' rationale to increase judicial deference and justify aggressive actions tied to election interference claims.
• Attorney General Pam Bondi — Person · Referenced loyalist/DOJ enabler (as framed in episode) · 1 mention · first at 1:58
  Cited as emblematic of a changed environment versus 2020—someone who would not block Trump and would help find DOJ personnel willing to execute controversial actions.
• Corey Luwendowski — Person · Referenced Trump-world operative tied to Noem · 5 mentions
  Mentioned in connection with Kristi Noem and reported DHS turmoil, including allegations of influence, staffing actions, travel, and attempts to obtain credentials/weapon authorization.
• William P. Barr — Person · Referenced institutional counterexample (2020 DOJ posture) · 1 mention · first at 0:09
  Used as a comparison point: initially entertained fraud claims publicly, but later rejected them and testified to the January 6 Committee that the claims were baseless.
  But at the end, he was one of the witnesses before the January 6th Select Committee to call all of it bullshit.
• Alex Wagner — Person · On-air host/interviewer (named in transcript) · 2 mentions · first at 4:03
  Appears as the program’s on-air interlocutor; her name is invoked at a transition point, indicating she is hosting or moderating the discussion segment.
  Let's also just think of Kristi Noem's motivations here, right?

Companies & orgs

• Department of Justice — Company · Government agency · 3 mentions · first at 1:03
  Key institution in the discussion about election subversion strategies and legal actions.
  So he ran headlong into opposition from the Department of Justice that would have had to have backed up that executive order and said it was lawful and done other things.

Media & podcasts

• The Wall Street Journal — Media · Referenced media · 2 mentions · first at 6:35
  Cited as a source for claims about Kristi Noem's behavior and management at DHS.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 What seems to be new is the deployme of Tsi Gabbard and Kristi Noem as part of an election subversion strategy in advance, and Bill Barr did a little bit of this in 2020. I remember him going on CNN and talking about fraud that hadn't happened yet, and he seemed very willing publicly at least to, and privately as was reported out, to investigate Donald Trump's claims. But at the end, he was one of the witnesses before the January 6th Select Committee to call all of it bullshit. It doesn't seem like Tulsi Gabbard and Kristi Noem have that posture publicly at all.

0:39 And what we have learned of them, I can't imagine privately that they will either. Will you just speak to how much farther this will go with enablers like them in the cabinet? Yeah, so people need to realize that in December of 2020, Donald Trump was actually presented with an executive order that would have seized ballots, appointed a special counsel to investigate fraud, and ordered the Department of Justice to do a variety of other things. And it didn't happen. We know that from the January 6th committee. But I think that people have sort of, in some sense, cleaned up in their head why it didn't happen.

1:19 It didn't happen not because Donald Trump didn't want it to happen. It didn't happen because two groups of people said they wouldn't go along. One were, as you point out, people at the Department of Justice. So he ran headlong into opposition from the Department of Justice that would have had to have backed up that executive order and said it was lawful and done other things. But the second, and I think that, you know, it pains me sometimes to give them credit. But it's actually the White House counsel's office, right?

1:48 It was Donald Trump's first White House counsel's office that was reportedly just saying to the president, like, you cannot do this and we will resign if you do this. The problem right now is, you know, Pam Bondi's not going to stand in his way and no one in the White House is going to stand in his way. So now he is looking at a situation which there is no one who's saying no. And not only do you have, you know, Pam Bondi saying yes absolutely. But she's finding functionaries in the Department of Justice to do the dirty work.

2:16 So the search in Georgia was not conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Georgia. It was conducted by the U.S. Attorney's Office from Missouri. And and that is them finding who would be willing to take, you know, be willing to do these things. The other the other big difference is that, you know, I think that Donald Trump actually has come to realize that probably the military is not the place to go to interfere with elections. It's his paramilitary, it's ICE, it's CPB, it's the other federal law enforcement agencies.

2:44 And he's through the actions in the states and and in Minnesota, he's been able to gauge which ones are willing to go how far in what ways. And so it's a much bigger threat than it was, you know, in 2020, 2020. And if I could just add one final It's no surprise that the two people, Donald Trump has tapped to play the roles that you identified, are Kristi Noem and Tulsi Gabbard. Why do I say that? Well, number one, Kristi Gnome controls the paramilitary forces. So getting her on board is critically important. And Tulsi Gabbard, what she can do is at the appropriate moment to say there is this thing that is a threat that involves foreign intelligence that I can't tell you about because it involves foreign intelligence.

3:31 And if there's one thing we know about the courts is that they're at their most deferential to the executive branch when it comes to things involving foreign affairs and foreign intelligence. So getting her involved now, I think, is greasing the skids for an eventual claim that there is something highly classified that she KNOWS THAT JUSTIFIES CHRISTIE NOAM'S PARAMILITARY FORCES AND TRIES TO TIE THE HANDS OF FEDERAL JUDGES TO LOOK BEHIND IT. IT IS THE BLEAKEST PORTRAIT OF SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T HAVE a 0 % chance of coming to pass Alex Wagner.

4:08 I mean, let's also just think of Kristi Noem's motivations here, right? She was basically shown the exit sign in Minneapolis after the murder WORDER OF TWO AMERICAN CITIZENS ON VIDEO TAPE PROMPTED NATIONAL OUTCRY AND TOM HOMANS BASICALLY SPENT THE LAST SEVERAL WEEKS TRYING TO CLEAN UP HER MESSA NOW OPERATION METRO SURGE IS BEING JUDGED THE CALAMITY WE ALWAYS KNEW IT WAS AND BEING ENDED, RIGHT? SHE IS IN THE DOGHOUSE WHICH GIVEN HER HISTORY IS NOT A GOOD PLACE FOR CHRISTIE NOAM TO BE BECAUSE SHE'S UNDER SCRUTINY FOR HAVING SHE AND HER BOYFRIEND CORY LEWANDOWSKI HAVE BEEN JETTING AROUND THE COUNTRY IN A PRIVATE JET SHE GROSSLY MISMANAGED THE PARAMILITARY WHILE TAKING OUT ADS THAT WERE NOT APPROVED BY DONALD TRUMP PROMOTING HER GROSS MISMANAGEMENT OF THIS PARAMILITARY ICE FORCE SHE'S FIRING PEOPLE FOR not bringing her blankets aboard the board, her private airplanes.

5:00 Crazy diva-like behavior while at the same time subjecting DHS employees who are working in immigration enforcement to polygraph tests. I mean, it is an insane litany of bad behavior, corrupt behavior and highlights just how stupid and unsavory this person is. Right? Donald Trump has been asked multiple times, especially in the wake of Alex Freddie's murder, why Kristi Noem was still head of DHS. She is on thin ice with him. And what is the best way to get back in the good graces of Donald Trump? Promote 2020 elections, promote paranoid fraudulent theories about the 2020 election and a system in his business of trying to steal potentially the 2026 election and manipulate the 2028 election.

5:43 And that's, I think, in large part why you see her in Arizona today making the case for the SAVE one in three white people voted by mail in the 2024 election. I'm going to guess that some of those white people voted MAGA. This is a stupid, stupid idea in addition to being pernicious

6:21 I CAN'T SAY ENOUGH HOW AWFUL SHE IS AND HOW AWFUL THE STRATEGY IS, NICOLE. WELL, ALEX, Well, Alex, I want to just share with our audience where you get some of your anecdotal evidence to support those claims. It's from The Wall Street Journal, a story whose headline is, Quote, a pilot fired over Kristi Noem's missing blanket and the constant chaos inside DHS. Quote, within DHS, Noem and Lewandowski have cut employees or put them on administrative leave. The The pair, the pair have fired or demoted roughly 80 percent of the career ice field leadership that was in place when they started.

7:00 In the blanket incident, Noam had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn't moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually

7:23 THE DHS SPOKESWOMAN DIDN'T ADDRESS THE EPISODE BUT SAID THE SECRETARY HAS MADE PERSONAL DECISIONS TO DELIVER EXCELLENCE. SOMEONE SEND THIS WOMAN and a Snuggie, you know those infomercials of like the wearable blankets? Like I want to send Kristi Noem like a year's supply of Snuggies to stash on all of her jets. This is like bat bleep, crazy, crazy grifting. Like I feel like the rules until now, Alex have been that only daddy gets to grift. Like only Trump gets jets and jewels and stuff. maybe, maybe, maybe his kids.

7:59 But like does Christy Noem get to like fire people because they didn't move her Snuggie? And also have DHS buy a $70 million 737 private jet. LOWANDOWSKI, BOTH OF THEM ARE MARRIED, NICOLE, JUST A LITTLE SIDE NOTE FOR THIS FAMILY VALUES PARTY, THIS REPUBLICAN PARTY. AND THE PIECE WHICH IS ESSENTIAL READING IN THAT LIBELOUS LEFT-WING RAG, THE WALL Street Journal. The piece ends detailing the ways in which Corey Lewandowski has been trying to procure a badge and a gun, a federally authorized official DHS badge and gun.

8:34 This man has no, and now the guy's trying to get a gun and a badge. I guess the shiny toys, daddy gets them but so do some of his favorite friends? I don't even know what to call them. But yeah, that's what's happening. Cory with a gun. I mean dog owners everywhere. I should be very scared. Rev, you know Trump. I mean, Trump likes special rules for himself, right? That's where I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and my voters wouldn't mind. Trump traditionally hasn't liked heinous press coverage, horrific examples of grifting, public tantrums from the people who work for him.

9:23 Why do you think she's still there? I think that she's still there because she knows, in my judgment, how to play on Trump's insecurities. And because somebody has brought back to him the illusion that he really won 2020 and they're doing all of these things so in 26, they can cripple you if the Democrats take the House and you'll be a lame duck for two years and they'll be subpoenaing everybody in front of judiciary. Even though your president can't go, they'll have everybody there and Epstein will be I mean somebody can play on his paranoia.

9:59 You have to remember they're talking about how they see all of these people coming from abroad being brought in here illegally to vote against them, but then why did they win last year if that happened? He's talking like he did. Trump's won two of the last three elections. Like what are we talking about? He won the election. So did they come in here to vote for you? I mean, what are you talking about? Did they leave? I mean, what is he talking about? And somebody should sit in the Oval Office and say, Papa, you won.

10:28 What are we talking about? You're not. This is not 20 where you're trying to prove they They stole it. If there was any stealing, we did the stealing because we're home. We're in the Oval Office. So I think they're playing on his insecurities, playing on his ego, playing on whatever it is that's driving him crazy about the Epstein thing and he's letting them just run amok with this don't forget this is not a new concept because they started a few years ago with his vote ID thing and it would with in Louisiana and in Texas and many of us in the civil rights community had to fight back and it was like 0.0003 percent fraud now they've recreated it as an immigration issue and he went up in the Latino vote last year if you're talking about Mexicans so I think that they're playing on him and they know how to play him because of his insecurities and his ego well the other thing is obviously there are no smart political

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "‘Crazy, diva-like behavior’: Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski's shocking tenure at DHS causes chaos"?

Alex Wagner (Host), Corey Lewandowski (Guest), Kristi Noem (Guest), Nicole (Guest), Rev (Guest).

What is "‘Crazy, diva-like behavior’: Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski's shocking tenure at DHS causes chaos" about?

The article examines the controversial roles of Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski in the Department of Homeland Security, highlighting their involvement in election subversion strategies reminiscent of Bill Barr's actions during the 2020 election. It discusses the concerning implications of their enabler status within the cabinet and the potential for further chaos in upcoming elections,…

What is mentioned in this MS NOW episode?

8 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Department of Justice, Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Corey Luwendowski, The Wall Street Journal. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "‘Crazy, diva-like behavior’: Kristi Noem and Corey Lewandowski's shocking tenure at DHS causes chaos"?

The episode runs 12 min; the transcript is about 1,884 words in 18 timestamped sections.

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