House Democrat: Noem ‘has no idea what she’s doing’

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) hammered Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem over the federal response to the Texas flooding that has killed at least 120 people, claiming Noem has “no idea what she’s doing.” 

“If you look at what happened in Texas, evacuations are done at the local level in coordination with the state. And so, she has no idea what she’s doing,” he said in a Thursday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight.”

“The best thing that she can do now is … sponsor my bill, get FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency] out of Homeland. Get it away from her, OK, so that we can start reforming and rebuilding the agency,” added Moskowitz, who previously served as director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).

Moskowitz introduced a bill in late March that would remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and elevate it to a Cabinet-level agency reporting directly to the president. 

“I mean, this is an agency that’s literally responsible, right, for the contingency plans for a government. God forbid, we had a major disaster, a war, some, some sort of, you know, you know, unbelievable event. OK?” the Florida Democrat continued. “And she’s breaking it to the point where it can’t function.”

President Trump praised Noem for the federal response to the devastating Texas floods — after which more than 160 people are still unaccounted for — amid some backlash over the speed of FEMA’s actions in the Lone Star State. 

“We were there — in fact, she was the first one I saw on television. She was there right from the beginning, and she would not have needed anything,” Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker in a phone interview Thursday. “She had the right to do it, but she was literally the first person I saw on television.”

The president said Noem was “right on the ball” and has “done a great job.”

He also acknowledged he did not know anything about recent reports of a FEMA rule requiring the Homeland Security secretary’s approval of any grant or contract totaling more than $100,000. The officials within the agency created a task force to accelerate the approval process, NBC reported. Noem and department officials have criticized CNN over its reporting, calling it “fake news.”

“It’s absolutely trash what they are doing by saying that,” Noem said in an interview with Fox News. “Because our Coast Guard, our Border Patrol, BORTAC teams were there immediately. Every single thing they asked for, we were there.”

Moskowitz on Thursday said the former South Dakota governor’s handling of federal emergency efforts has made him “animated.”

“We’re supposed to take the politics out of all of this, and that’s why I’m so alarmed, based on the decisions that she has made that I really think a lot of people don’t know,” he said.

The criticism comes as the Trump administration has floated plans to dismantle FEMA, while also saying that it wants to remake the agency. Trump and officials have said they want states to be a bigger factor when responding to natural disasters. 

“If you talk to members of Congress, you talk to Republicans from Louisiana and Mississippi or in Georgia, OK, they want FEMA reformed, but they don’t want FEMA removal,” Moskowitz said, referencing areas prone to hurricanes. “They’re well aware that FEMA is necessary.”