Kristi Noem GETS EXPOSED after RUNING FROM HEARING

👶 The Hallway Ploy: Secretary Gnome’s Cowardly Flight and the Corruption of Power

The spectacle of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christine Gnome fleeing a Congressional hearing, unable to withstand accountability for her agency’s actions, was immediately succeeded by an even more grotesque display: a desperate, theatrical attempt to conjure sympathy in the Capitol hallway. After abruptly walking out on a hearing where she was being intensely cross-examined about the “dastardly acts of ICE and her Border Patrol Gestapo,” Gnome was found loitering in the hallway, holding a baby. This blatant use of an infant as a political prop—a cynical attempt to filibuster scrutiny and deflect criticism—is a new low in executive cowardice.

Her entire excuse for abandoning her post was a lie. Gnome claimed she had to rush off to a “FEMA review council” meeting that she co-chaired. As the transcription reveals, that meeting, which was intended to present recommendations for overhauling FEMA—a goal rooted in President Trump’s desire to transfer federal emergency management back to under-equipped states—had been cancelled 20 to 30 minutes before she used it as her public-facing excuse to bolt. This is not mere scheduling confusion; it is calculated deception. The image of the Secretary standing in the hallway, clinging to a baby while her staff tried to shield her from the cameras and the public’s fury, stands as a vivid metaphor for an administration that prioritizes image and evasion over transparency and truth.

The Stench of Corruption and Political Self-Dealing

The true issues that forced the Secretary’s hand—and her exit—are rooted in profound corruption and the flagrant misuse of taxpayer money. Democratic Congress member James Walkenshaw, after Gnome’s ignominious departure, wasted no time in laying out the catalogue of offenses he would have pressed her on. These offenses center on the use of nearly a quarter-billion dollars in taxpayer funds to promote the Secretary herself and to reward her political allies.

The facts, largely documented by outlets like ProPublica, speak of brazen self-dealing:

Financial Steering: Gnome issued a directive requiring her personal approval for all DHS contracts over $100,000, effectively concentrating immense financial power in the hands of her political circle.

The Propaganda Machine: She found nearly $250 million to spend on self-promotion, despite the fact that DHS was simultaneously diverting investigators and resources away from critical areas such as child exploitation, child trafficking, and illegal gun smuggling.

Political Enrichment: This flood of money flowed directly to a firm with deep personal and political ties to the Secretary. A federal contracting law expert summarized the entire scheme plainly: “It’s corrupt is the word.”

Representative Walkenshaw was prepared to ask the Secretary if she personally approved the money that flowed to these allies, and if she had previously steered $8.5 million in taxpayer money to the same firm when she was Governor of South Dakota in 2023—a claim backed by an official in her own administration. Gnome running away from the hearing was not an act of necessity; it was an act of self-preservation, avoiding the public humiliation of having her corrupt practices exposed on the record.

A Dysfunctional Congress in a Beltway Bubble

The Secretary’s evasion and the underlying corruption are merely symptoms of a deeper problem: a Republican-controlled Congress crippled by what Representative Walkenshaw called “beltway fever“—a deep, crippling bubble that has divorced them from the reality of the American people.

Walkenshaw, a long-time congressional staffer now representing a district near the nation’s capital, offered a damning insider’s perspective: “This Republican majority is far and away the most dysfunctional thing I have seen over the course of my career.” He described Speaker “Magga Mike” Johnson as being “in over his head,” struggling to manage a conference more focused on feuding and performative politics than on governance.

This congressional failure is vividly reflected in the ongoing healthcare debacle. Years after promising to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, and months after Speaker Johnson promised a plan was “ready,” the Republicans still have nothing but conceptual “ideas that fundamentally don’t understand the purpose of insurance.” Their latest notion of giving people a $2,000 check to cover a year’s worth of healthcare is an insulting absurdity that “humans know that’s not the way healthcare works.”

While Congress flounders and leadership lies, the American people are staring down a crisis. As Walkenshaw pointed out, constituents are facing skyrocketing healthcare premiums in a matter of weeks due to the looming expiration of the ACA subsidies. The solution—a simple, clean three-year extension of the tax credits—is readily available, yet the GOP refuses to sign on, preferring to court chaos and crisis over collaboration and competence.

Ultimately, the source of this chaos stems from the very top. As Congressman Walkenshaw concluded, the fundamental truth that is sinking in for members of Congress is that “Donald Trump does not care about you.” He cares about himself and is actively throwing his congressional enablers under the bus. Secretary Gnome’s flight from accountability, her embrace of corruption, and the collective failure of the GOP to govern are all reflections of a central power that values personal gain and performance over the welfare of the public and the integrity of the nation’s institutions.