Senate GOP Sen. Thom Tillis unleashes on Noem: ‘Time after time, I’ve been disappointed’ by Rebecca Beitsch - 03/03/26 12:42 PM ET by Rebecca Beitsch - 03/03/26 12:42 PM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email NOW PLAYING Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) tore into Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in a 10-minute tirade criticizing her from everything to her handling of the deaths of two Minnesotans to killing her own dog in a monologue that garnered applause from the audience of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I’m giving you a performance evaluation here – I’m not looking for a response,” said Tillis, adding that “time after time after time, I’ve been disappointed.” Tillis, who is retiring at the end of his term next year, accused Noem of holding up federal emergency funding, violating U.S. citizens rights in carrying out immigration enforcement and quashing independent oversight of her department in a move he said would prompt him to renew his hold on DHS nominees. He faulted her for indiscriminate immigration enforcement. “We just want numbers. We want a thousand a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day, because numbers matter, right? No, they don’t matter. Quality Matters, not quantity, quality. And what we’ve seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noem, a disaster,” Tillis said. “What we’ve seen is innocent people getting detained that, turns out, are American citizens.” He then turned to the killings of Minnesotans Renee Good and Alex Pretti. “Going back to Minneapolis, why can’t we just say we made a mistake?” he said. “We’re beginning to get the American people to think that deporting people is wrong. It’s the exact opposite. The way you’re going about deporting them is wrong, the fact that you can’t admit to a mistake, which looks like under investigation, it’s going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back,” Tillis said. “Law enforcement needs to learn from that. You don’t protect them by not looking after the facts. Not only should the FBI be investigating it, but every single law enforcement agency in that jurisdiction should be invited to it….Officer involved shootings have a formula that we should go through every time, and we’re not going through that formula,” he said, adding that he believed the Justice Department should ignite a civil rights probe into the death of Good to  match the one launched for Pretti . “Law enforcement, we’ve got to have their back. We’ve got to make it clear when they make a mistake, then they get corrected for it, but you don’t walk away from it, and you’ve done it too many times now,” he added. Tillis then told Noem he would be requesting a breakdown of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding that has been held up by Noem, saying North Carolinians are still hurting due to Noem’s policy requiring her signature on spending over $100,000. He showed a chart showing how much FEMA reimbursements had plummeted under the second Trump administration and said she needs to speed them.  “I’m convinced you can’t do it – if you’re requesting a review of $100,000 and up. That affects the question why? Why would you be involved in that? Why would that be a policy?” he said. “The Homeland Security Act of 2002 expressly prohibits the Secretary of Homeland Security from restricting or diverting FEMA resources from the agency’s mission. Based on your disaster response, the chart that I just showed you, I have reason to believe that you’re violating the law, either knowingly or unknowingly.” Tillis then suggested Noem was stalling his investigation into Charlotte’s web, DHS’s immigration raid in the North Caroline city. “I’m expecting answers to Charlotte’s Web. I requested it a month ago,” he said. “I want to submit this letter from the Office of Inspector General that cites 10 different instances under Ms. Noem’s leadership where they’ve been misled and not allowed to pursue investigations that they think are critically important. Does anybody have any idea how bad it has to be for the OIG in this agency to come out and do this publicly? That is stonewalling, that’s a failure of leadership, and that is why I’ve called for your resignation,” Tillis said as applause began to ring out in the hearing room. “I don’t want an applause. Please don’t do that for me,” Tillis said as he noted he would be putting a hold on nominees. Finally, Tillis criticized Noem’s for an episode relayed in her book where she revealed she killed one of her own dogs. “Secretary, I read your book last week, and honestly, some of the parts of i