Kristi Noem Grilled by Senate

0:00Well, I'll tell you, Mr. or whether prognosticator, it's, uh, it's hazy where I am and cloudy. I think most of, uh, the area, it's, it's not bright sunshine. That's for sure. And it's 43 degrees right now with an expected high of about 45. So just, I mean, maybe where he's standing. There's a great deal of sunshine. And I want to know where that is. And I will go stand there with him. Nolan Finley editorial page editor for the Detroit news co author of a book of our time that should be read by everyone. At least everyone in Washington, especially. It's the civility book, a guide to building bridges across the political divide by Nolan and his friend, Steven Henderson with Lynn Egoldner. And, uh, I hope the book's going well, Nolan. Seems to be Paul. Well, it should. It's a good book. Well, I appreciate it and I ran into a guy this morning and said, enjoyed your book.

1:00So I guess it's, uh, it's still out there and, uh, you can still get it, uh, on Amazon. Well, and it's worth getting. That's for sure. Unfortunately, the people really, really need to read it. Don't know they need to read it. That's unfortunate. Um, we watched Christie gnome, uh, at the time of the shootings, uh, that happened in Minneapolis and, uh, I was screaming at the television monitor and I mentioned it on the air at the time. She was saying things that she shouldn't have been saying because she did not have direct knowledge about either of the stories, but she clearly was being fed and I'll say misfed information from people who were supposed to know. I don't know if they were throwing her under the bus or just trying to lie to the American people or whatever. So she got her unfortunate come up and say, if you will, testifying in front of the Senate yesterday on the immigration crackdown and she's facing the house today.

2:04We're not hearing too much about it right now. Give me some of your thoughts about yesterday's action. Well, you know, I'm, I was a big fan of Christie gnome when she was governor and I interviewed her, uh, once when she came to Mackinac to speak to the Republican policy conference. I think, you know, she's, and I, you know, I hate to say this, but I just feel she's a little bit in the dark, uh, and maybe over her head here. This, and this administration values one thing and that's loyalty to Donald Trump. And so everything that comes out of the mouth of the administration officials has to in some way be a lotatory toward Donald Trump. And it's, it's more important than anything else. So I think she has suffered from, uh, not really fully being aware of what's going on, but also being fed, conflicting messages from people in the administration.

3:10And I just not impressed with, with many members of this cabinet. Well, with her, again, under the microphone and spotlight and hot seat, I don't know why she tried to defend her early descriptions of Alex Prevy and Renee Good, not that either one of them were without any cause at all or, or, uh, responsibility, but neither one of them needed to die. And there was no call for either one of them to die under those circumstances. And it would have been at the time I was screaming, just say there's an investigation underway. Let's wait until we find out exactly what happened. Don't say, well, he was a terrorist or he was in, uh, he was in, uh, a domestic terrorism doing what he did or what she did. I mean, that was just, I, I think whoever fed that to her, those are the people who should be in trouble right now. But I know the buck stops with the boss.

4:12And so the buck stops with her. And here we are in a situation now where we have a, a likely opportunity for, for sleeper cells to cause trouble in our country and our department of homeland security is unfunded. Some unfunded TSA officers are working without pay. Uh, that is a bad place to be, uh, be in when you know the Iran's history of exporting terror and attacking airports, airplanes, etc. We should be fully staffed and, and highly on guard, uh, while this conflict is going, is going on, not counting on people who aren't being paid, uh, to show up and protect us. This is unconscionable. This is a, the blame here lies with the Democrats, not with Christy Nome Democrats are upholding, uh, the funding, trying to force immigration policy changes. It's not the way to do it. I mean, there's a discussion that needs to be had about the

5:14immigration policy. But you don't stop paying the people who are responsible for keeping the safe on airplanes. And in other places, uh, while we're in this midst of this, this conflict in the Middle East just makes, yeah, I think it's just reckless. And you know, I always wonder all about this administration always what's so hard about saying, you know, we're going to look at this policy and if it's wrong, we're going to change it. Why defend everything? Well, as you and I both know, um, it comes from the top. And, uh, from a gentleman who doesn't apologize, he sees apologizing or backing off even a little as a sign of weakness that he doesn't want to show. Yeah, that's just the way he's been since I've known him and since you've known him. Here's what I know. Go ahead. Well, when he took it away from, you know, Nome and the

6:17others around him and gave it to Holman, uh, he came in and settled things down, uh, took the fire out of the, out of the situation. And that's what should have happened from the beginning. Instead, they escalated. Well, they, they got the impression that they had the okay to be bullies. And I'm afraid that's never going to work. And nor should it be. And that's a conversation for another time. I want to get to this one. Am I still so old fashioned that I'm the only one? Or do you feel this way too? Regardless of what they think when, when the former president sent bombs to Libya, um, he didn't get approval ahead of time. But and we have all the video showing that them saying that he didn't need approval yet. This president needs approval because they hate him. But here's what I'm going to say. I don't care if it's a Republican or a Democrat as president. When our kids, our soldiers are in harm's way. I think as an American, we need to have

7:27a united front in support of them. When they're brought back safely and we want to raise hell with how we think things were or went or whatever, then maybe that's the time. But now is not the time. Do you agree or disagree with that? Well, I'm not fully, um, Paul. I mean, I do think it's always necessary to have policy debates about whether we're doing the right thing or not. And that that would benefit the president to go to Congress and go to the American people. He's going to need his, their support. If this turns out to be much longer than just dropping a few bombs on a few mollons or a few hundred molls, whatever the case may be, he's going to have to have the support of the American people. And he's going to need Congress on his, you know, at least buying into the mission and understanding what that mission might be. You know, what that mission is, we need to know his mission here. And what the plan is, what the strategy is. So I do think we need a straightforward

8:33message from the White House on this. And we're not getting it. Well, we'll part on that one because I, I just believe blindly that in this situation, our soldiers need the support of the American people. Certainly. Well, that's true. That's Washington. I just, you know, and having talked earlier to a soldier back, just back, Captain Michael Bouchard, the Army paratrooper, it does make a difference as much as he said he would wipe out the noise coming from Washington. They are aware of it. And we are all in this together. And if we think it's a mistake, we will make whoever made the mistakes, pay the price. But these kids didn't make the mistake. They're just doing what they're being ordered to do. And I don't like not having a clear picture either on what it is that the end game is going to be this time or any of the times. Nolan always a pleasure,

9:34my friend. Thank you, Paul. Thank you. Nolan Finley editorial page editor for the Detroit news co-author of the civility book, a guide to building bridges across the political divide. We continue in focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In focus at 130. In