America’s former DHS chief Kristi Noem was embroiled in numerous controversies, ranging from a blanket to ICE to a $220 million advertisement. According to the New York Post, President Trump fired Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after she refused to answer a question at a House hearing on Wednesday about whether she had “sexual relations” with top aide Corey Lewandowski.Trump was already close to removing Noem and considered ousting her after she claimed to senators on Tuesday that he approved $220 million in ads starring the secretary herself, but her inability to answer the question at the House hearing prompted the decision, the sources said.“The question about the affair at the hearing was actually the final straw. It was f—ing brutal,” one source said of Noem’s reply, which was widely seen as an admission that she was sleeping with her subordinate.
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Her husband of 34 years, Bryon Noem, joined her at the hearing. Lewandowski was not in attendance.The soon-to-be-axed DHS head refused to answer directly when asked if she was having sexual relations with Lewandowski, calling the question “garbage.”“Have you had sexual relations with Corey Lewandowski?” Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) asked Noem during the hearing.“I am shocked that we’re going down and peddling tabloid garbage in this committee today,” Noem said in response. “I would tell you is that he is a special government employee who works for the White House. There are thousands of them in the federal government.”After repeated pushing from other lawmakers for a yes-or-no response, Noem still deflected.“I really think you need to say the word ‘no’ into the record so that you can clear that up,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) said.Noem never did.“It kept mounting up,” said another source, who agreed that it was the last nail in the secretary’s coffin.A third source said, “There was just no going back with the two hearings. It all became about her and him.”Lewandowski told The Post he was not sure what role the alleged affair played.“You’re asking me to speculate on things that I have no insight into,” he said when reached by phone.Trump’s ouster of Noem, described as the first cabinet shake-up of his second term, came shortly after he told Reuters that she lied to Congress about his approval of advertising spending, giving the impression that was the core reason for his decision to swap her out for Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.).“I never knew anything about it,” Trump told the outlet of the ads.
