Sen. John Kennedy patiently questioned former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last Thursday, “like a disappointed father catching his daughter cheating on a test” said Brietbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow in an interview with Newsmax. “It was painful to watch.”
One of the subtexts of that pain comes from the fact that the GOP had Minnesota—and corrupt Blue State grifters across the country—on the ropes after Somali immigrants unprecedentedly bilked the state of billions of taxpayer dollars. While 220 million in horsewoman/cheesecake ads aren’t much compared to several billions squandered under the watches of Gov. Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Frey, Noem’s solipsistic spots give the left yet another rhetorical weapon against Republicans, and President Trump specifically, in the run-up to the midterms.
The Somali Swindle offered a clean indictment of abysmal fiduciary oversight. That devastating talking point is now diminished by taxpayer dollars profligately torched by a no-bid contract awarded to friends-of-Kristi to a company founded just eleven days before the award. Cory Lewandowski, what are you doing? Heartland MAGA loves Noem, gave her a complete pass when she shot the dog that wouldn’t hunt, and was encouraged every time she effectively kept the nation from being overrun by the Third World.
They still love her; what-aboutism is running rampant on the comment threads, pointing to Democrat waste. When the argument moves to what-aboutism, you’ve lost the argument.
For Republicans who want a clear win in November, an outright firing by Trump would’ve been fine. The scandal sends three messages, all of them bad. (1) Absolute power corrupts absolutely. There has to be somebody near the top to vet the efficacy of even the topmost cabinet spending. Where the hell was White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller when this inhouse vanity project went into rotation on television screens across America? (2) The leftist narrative will be that Republicans and Trump’s high echelon have no business casting aspersions at alleged schemers and gleaners in the Democratic Party. Politicians are all wasteful with other people’s money, and all the same. (3) That Trump is losing his grip on power, has too much going on to monitor the progress of the campaign promises that got him elected, and the functioning of his appointments. Worse, the grift to salvage careers and coin from his administration is on.
Again, $220 million is dwarfed by several billion. But with the media full-tilt against the GOP, and gambits like the trade tariffs and the Iran War eroding Trump’s poll numbers, the right can’t afford high-profile and useful scandals that dishearten voters who might save the second half of Trump’s second term from the impotency of a lost Congress.