He knew she was cooked.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) revealed Friday that it didn’t take him long to realize Kristi Noem was “dead as fried chicken” after he grilled her on Capitol Hill.
Just hours after a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, where Kennedy pressed Noem over a $220 million taxpayer-funded ad campaign she approved as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the senator received a call from a furious President Trump, he told Fox News host Will Cain.
“He was mad as a mamma wasp,” the folksy Louisiana Republican said of Trump’s demeanor.
Noem claimed during the hearing that the president “tasked” her with “getting the message out to the country and to other countries” through pricey commercials that illegal immigrants “needed to leave.”
Kennedy said he was “stunned” that the since-fired DHS secretary testified that the president “approved every single bit” of the ad campaign.
But Trump, after apparently watching the hearing, informed Kennedy that it wasn’t the case.
“He said, ‘Kennedy, I hope you understand that I had nothing to do with this.’ I said, ‘I do believe you, Mr. President,’” the senator recalled during his appearance on “The Will Cain Show.”
“He was not happy,” Kennedy continued. “It was clear to me after that conversation that the secretary’s time at the department was limited.
“To be blunt, she was dead as fried chicken.”
Trump announced via Truth Social post Thursday that Noem was out at DHS and would be replaced by Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).
Noem will be shifted to a special envoy role, for “The Shield of the Americas” coalition, the president said.
In an interview hours before firing Noem, Trump told Reuters that he “never knew anything about” the ad campaign.