President Trump has announced that Kristi Noem is stepping down as Secretary of Homeland Security. I don’t have any particular comment on that. Noem was an excellent Governor of South Dakota, but at some point her fame seemed to go to her head, and she went Hollywood.
Trump is nominating Markwayne Mullin, Senator from Oklahoma, to succeed Noem. Mullin is up for re-election this year, so Republicans will have to settle on a replacement. An Oklahoma Senate seat should be safe, but you never know.
Here is my point: the Democrats will turn Mullin’s confirmation hearing into an anti-ICE extravaganza. They will try to extract various pledges from Mullin to change ICE practices or not to do things that ICE wasn’t doing in the first place, as the price of confirmation. They will use the hearing to spotlight their anti-ICE hysteria.
That won’t matter much if Republicans remain solid. Are any Senate Republicans squishy on illegal immigration? They shouldn’t be if they have followed recent polling. But Thom Tillis, for example, could vote with the Democrats as a parting shot before he retires, as other Republican Senators have been known to do, making the vote a squeaker.
No doubt the Republicans would like to use the hearing to highlight pro-ICE, pro-administration themes, but that may not be easy since Mullin has not, until now, had anything to do with the department. In any event, buckle your seat belt: Mullin’s confirmation hearing is going to be all-out warfare.
