Kristi Noem began her first official news conference as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security with the national anthem, a prayer, and Trace Adkins' country song "Hot Mama."
After participating in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids earlier in the day on Tuesday, Noem made remarks to DHS employees later in the afternoon.
Following a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" and a prayer, Noem took the podium as "Hot Mama" played in the background.
"One hot mama / You turn me on, let's turn it up, and turn this room into a sauna / One hot mama / Oh, what do you say, babe? You wanna?" Adkins could be heard singing.
"Thank you so much for that wonderful welcome," Noem said. "Thank you for welcoming me so much, and I am so thrilled to be a part of the family at the United States Department of Homeland Security."
"I am thrilled that President Trump trusted me with this job," she added. "And I'll tell all of you that the reason that he trusted me with this job is because when he talked to me about what my future looked like, I asked him for it."
"This decision is lawless, dangerous, destructive, cruel," Schumer said during a Tuesday press conference. "It's illegal. It's unconstitutional. I spoke to my [New York] attorney general this morning... They're going to court right away."
Habba later raged at the Democrat in an interview on Fox News.
"Your attorney general is not the attorney general!" she exclaimed. "We have an attorney general. That will be Pam Bondi."
"And what your opinion is on what the law is doesn't really matter," Habba continued. "It's what the White House counsel says and what our attorney general of the United States says."
"So Chuck can check his attitude at the door, but I'm not really surprised by him."
Fox News host John Roberts pushed back: "So, Alina, you said a moment ago at the top that we have an attorney general, Pam Bondi. We don't yet have an attorney general."
"She may get voted out of committee tomorrow," he noted. "Why are Democrats dragging their feet in getting a confirmation vote for her?"
"It's a real problem," Habba replied. "And President Trump's made it clear that they better cooperate and push our people through."
Despite Habba's claim, the Constitution says that the Supreme Court is tasked with interpreting laws written by Congress.
"The Court is the highest tribunal in the Nation for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution or the laws of the United States," the court's website states. "As the final arbiter of the law, the Court is charged with ensuring the American people the promise of equal justice under law and, thereby, also functions as guardian and interpreter of the Constitution."
CNN's Daniel Dale declared that White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt employed a "classic spinmeister tactic" when she failed to directly answer questions about Trump's sudden freeze on all federal grants and loans.
At issue was whether Americans who rely on federal assistance for things like food and medicine would lose their benefits.
The confusion began after "The Office of Management and Budget sent a vaguely worded two-page memo to all federal agencies Monday night directing them to 'temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.'"
Anchor Brianna Keilar addressed Dale after Tuesday's White House press conference.
"I want to talk about a very big issue that is going to affect a lot of Americans, and that is the recent pause by the White House on these federal grants and loans," Keilar said.
"Karoline Leavitt tried to say repeatedly that she had answered this question — that direct assistance like Social Security, Medicare, food stamps — if you're getting that direct assistance or that direct check from the government, it's not going to be affected. But there's a lot of groups that you would expect — the nonprofits — [like] Meals On Wheels, Head Start. She wouldn't answer that question. And there's also so much other federal funding that goes to nonprofits that goes to local and state entities. So, not directly to individuals, but to entities that provide that essential aid, then to individuals that's held up. What did you think about what you heard?"
Dale responded, "Yeah, I think it's a classic spinmeister tactic saying, 'I answered that,' when you haven't answered it and apparently can't answer it right away. There's considerable uncertainty around the country among nonprofits of various kinds, organizations of various kinds, and the people who get help from those organizations."
Dale continued, "So, they may not get direct, individual payments straight from the federal government, but their lives, their situations, their living situations, in some cases their food and transportation situations, are very much dependent on the aid that comes through an intermediary organization. And we still do not have clarity on what is happening with the funding that usually goes to those entities."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt refused to say whether President Donald Trump's order freezing federal grant funds would withhold health care benefits from Medicaid recipients.
During her first White House briefing, ABC's Peter Alexander asked Leavitt about the funding freeze.
"So you're asking a hypothetical based on programs that you can't even identify," Leavitt quipped.
"Well, just to be clear, since you guys haven't identified, let's do it together, just for Americans at home, Medicaid, is that affected?" Alexander pressed.
"I gave you a list of examples, Social Security, Medicare, welfare benefits, food stamps, that will not be impacted by this federal pause," Leavitt replied, dodging the question.
Another reporter later sought to clarify Trump's position on Medicaid benefits.
"It wasn't clear to me whether you were saying that no Medicaid would be cut off, obviously a lot of this goes to states before it goes to individuals and so forth, so are you guaranteeing here that no individual now on Medicaid would see a cut off because of a pause?" the reporter asked.
"I'll check back on that and get back to you," Leavitt said.
Trump's federal funding freeze was set to take effect at 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt promised never to lie during her first briefing on Monday,
In the second question to Leavitt, Associated Press correspondent Zeke Miller asked the press secretary if she would vow to "tell the unvarnished truth, that is, not to lie, not to obfuscate to the American people."
"I commit to telling the truth from this podium every single day," Leavit insisted. "I commit to speaking on behalf of the President of the United States."
She argued that her job included "correcting the lies and the wrongs of the past four years, many of the lies that have been told to your faces in this very briefing room."
And Leavitt said she would correct "lies that have been pushed by many legacy media outlets in this country about this president, about his family, and we will not accept that."
MAGA influencer Steve Bannon announced that his War Room had been granted official access to the White House briefing room.
On his Tuesday broadcast, Bannon said that co-host Natalie Winters would fill the White House correspondent role.
"Natalie's taking on a new assignment for the War Room," Bannon said. "Not simply going to be co-hosting our executive editor and chief researcher, she's also going to take on the responsibilities of our White House correspondent."
"I know Brian Glenn's over there for Real America's Voice, but are you guys getting nothing but stink eye today?" he asked Winters.
"The people that I'm about 50 feet away from are necessarily too happy that the War Room now has me being obviously a voice, not just in terms of asking questions, but I think sort of observing the mainstream press corps," Winters replied. "When you just look behind me, you can see how far we've come, so thank you from the bottom of my heart."
"I mean, two years ago, three years ago, we were being smeared as the number one spreaders of misinformation," she continued. "You were in prison not too long ago."
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) blasted President Donald Trump's attempt to "seize power" and behave as a "king" by freezing federal grants while his administration conducts an across-the-board ideological review of programs.
In a statement, Matthew Vaeth, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, explained the stoppage of federal money.
"The use of Federal resources to advance Marxist equity, transgenderism, and green new deal social engineering policies is a waste of taxpayer dollars that does not improve the day-to-day lives of those we serve," he said.
Murphy condemned the move at a press conference on Tuesday.
"So, this is an attempt by Donald Trump to seize power," he explained, pointing to Trump's "broad immunization of political violence, the illegal firing of inspectors general there to make sure that their money, that the money of the taxpayers isn't stolen, and today the illegal and unconstitutional decision to put the President of the United States and no one else in charge of who gets federal money and who doesn't."
"This is what a king does," Murphy insisted. "This is not how a democracy works. One man does not decide how taxpayers' money is spent so that it only gets sent to the President's political friends and it gets used to punish his political enemies."
The senator predicted "enormous" damage as the result of Trump's actions.
"To poor kids who rely on Head Start programs, to families who desperately need that cancer research done, to veterans who, if they miss one or two appointments, their life falls apart suddenly overnight," he argued.
"The President wants you to be distracted by the day-to-day announcements, but put together the pardoning of the violent rioters, the firing of the inspectors general, and today, the stoppage of federal funding, leaving the decision only to the political whims of President Trump, represents the gravest, most serious constitutional crisis of our lifetime, one that threatens to undermine the very premise of American democracy."
Appearing on Jim Acosta's show on CNN, DeLauro outlined the danger facing many of her constituents from Trump's unprecedented actions.
"I think this is really outrageous," she fumed. "And this administration is really hurting hard working Americans. The actions are causing chaos. I can't tell you how many calls I've had, you know, from mayors, from colleagues, etc. of... what is going on. And when you ask the agency what funding is safe, their response is we don't know. And if they don't know, then nothing is safe."
DeLauro then outlined the negative consequences that could come about from Trump's executive order.
"That means that teachers don't get paid," she said. "You talked about Head Start -- it's child care, it is the after-school programs and more examples. SNAP food benefits so families can feed their children. The WIC program, which deals with women, infants and children. Housing and programs that deal with housing assistance, veterans writ large, homeless provider grants for them. There is nursing home care, transportation programs, suicide prevention programs. You know, I can go on and on. Jim, this is reckless!"
She then emphasized that "my constituents.. are going to be hurt" and added that Trump's order "is in violation of the law, in violation of the Constitution."
Kristi Noem began her tenure as Department of Homeland Security secretary by dressing up as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent and calling human beings "dirt bags."
In an X post on the official DHS secretary account, Noem shared a five-second video of herself wearing an ICE vest.
"Here in New York City this morning, we are getting the dirtbags off these streets," she said in the video.
The text of the post also said, "7 AM in NYC. Getting the dirty bags [sic] off the streets." Noem later deleted the post to correct the spelling of "dirt bags."
Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, went on CNN Tuesday to shred Republicans who are willing to fall in line and confirm anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the Department of Health and Human Services.
During his appearance on the network, host Brianna Keilar asked Offit if he believed recent assurances made by Kennedy that he wasn't against the administration of vaccines.
Offit replied that he had absolutely no confidence in Kennedy's supposed newfound respect for medical science.
"No," Offit replied. "He's told you who he is for the last 20 years. He has said, again and again, he considers no vaccine to be of benefit. He has said, again and again, that he thinks the polio vaccine killed, in his words, many, many, many more children than it saved."
Offit then warned that vaccination rates among children have already been plummeting in recent years, which has led to major outbreaks of diseases such as measles.
Putting an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist such as Kennedy in charge of a federal public health agency would only lead to more sickness, he added.
"It's already starting to happen," he said. "RFK Jr., with not only his famous name, but now a position at HHS... is going to do what he's been doing for the last 20 years, which is further misrepresent vaccine safety and efficacy and our children will suffer."
Kennedy is due to face confirmation hearings on Wednesday.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough called out many of President Donald Trump's first moves as likely to be overturned by legal challenges — but he said they still signaled the direction he wanted to take the government.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday fired more than a dozen officials who worked on special counsel Jack Smith's investigations into the president after he lost the 2020 election, and NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian described the move as unprecedented and possibly unlawful.
"This is a shock-and-awe campaign that the Trump administration is waging at the Justice Department," Dilanian said. "And this act of firing these career prosecutors who worked for Jack Smith, this is really stunning. I mean, it's hard to explain to the public because they probably think, well, of course he's doing that, right? They investigated the president and he comes in and he's firing them.
"It just doesn't happen, and it appears to have been illegal because these are people who have civil service protection — you can't just fire these folks. You have to have cause to fire them. There was no cause or proper cause given in that letter, no allegation that they did anything wrong or acted inappropriately or were incompetent, and so they're going to appeal these filings and they'll probably win, but it won't matter in the end because their careers essentially at the Justice Department are over, and many of these people were very accomplished career prosecutors."
The DOJ issued a statement saying that Acting Attorney General James McHenry removed the officials because he didn't believe they could be trusted to implement the president's agenda, but Dilanian said the move would encourage other career prosecutors to fall in line.
"It's sending a message to other people at the Justice Department, you know, get in line or your job is in peril," Dilanian said, "and I'm talking to people across the department who are sending me copies of memos that go out every day. There is a lot of deep, deep concern, not just about the typical change of policy that comes with the new administration, but a fundamental reshaping here and a message that is really tries to deter enforcement of the law."
Scarborough agreed those terminations may not stand legally, like other Trump orders in his first week, but he said damage was already done to the democratic institutions he had targeted.
"So many of these things that are happening, that are moving forward, Ken was just talking about how possible civil service protections were violated in the firings of these Justice Department officials," Scarborough said.
"You could look at the firing of the inspectors generals and, of course, that went against the legal requirements that the Senate be given a 30-day notice. You look at the grants being frozen provided by the United States Congress and therefore, within their constitutional realm, and not the president's to freeze it, and people talking about how that also will present great legal challenges, and you can go down the list. So many of these things, there are legal questions on whether they're going to even be upheld or not. Certainly there are going to be, you know, just dozens and dozens of legal challenges, and I suspect many of those will probably be held up."
"But that's not really the purpose, whether they get held up or not," Scarborough added. "That's really not the purpose of doing this all at once, right out of the gate, is it? I mean, this is, as Ken said, it's a shock-and-awe campaign, and what sticks, sticks, and what doesn't stick still sends the message."
A pair of CNN panelists clashed over Elon Musk's straight-arm greeting that many compared to the Nazi Sieg Heil salute.
The tech mogul performed the gesture twice during Donald Trump's post-inauguration rally last week, but he insisted later it was meant to demonstrate that his "heart goes out" to fellow MAGA supporters. Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell placed that action into context with Musk's apparent sympathies toward fascist ideology.
"Look, the first time that Elon Musk decides to declare that 'globalist' Jews are responsible for the great replacement of brown people into the United States, maybe it was a misunderstanding," Rampell said. "You know, the second time he said that Jews are pushing hatred against white people — that's a quote — you know, that was a little iffy.
"By the second Sieg Heil, I think he kind of loses the benefit of the doubt to be not accused of playing footsie with these Nazis. I'm not saying he's a Nazi, I'm saying the Nazis think he's a Nazi, which they very clearly did at this event, and these words were not said in a vacuum.
"As you pointed out, the leaders of [Germany's right-wing party] AfD have embraced, in many cases, the Nazi heritage. They have wanted to take down the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, saying it is inappropriate to recognize this horrific chapter in German history, and I just think it's horrific. I don't understand why this guy keeps getting the benefit of the doubt, whether or not he believes this stuff."
"NewsNight" host Abby Phillip also mentioned the Nazi jokes Musk has been making on his X platform before turning to the network's resident conservative and Donald Trump fan, Scott Jennings, who she noticed had been sighing through Rampell's remarks.
“We’ve moved on from Trump derangement syndrome to Elon derangement syndrome,” Jennings said, and then complained as Rampell tried to interject. “Anybody who is asserting this thing he did on the stage the other day was a Sieg Heil, which I just heard you say, you know, lawyer up maybe because — absolute ridiculous thing to say.”
Rampell reiterated that Nazis in Germany thought it was a Sieg Heil, as Jennings argued it was simply a gesture of enthusiasm.
So she threw down the gauntlet.
“Why don’t you do it on TV right now?" she said. "Why don’t you do it on TV right now if you think it’s so, so banal?”
Jennings did not accept her challenge, and insisted he had been "the strongest supporter of the Jewish people on this network" since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Israel. Rampell demanded that he return back to the topic at hand instead of changing the subject to campus antisemitism.
"That is bull, that is bull, that is bull," Rampell said. "I am a Jew who has criticized the people on college campuses for saying antisemitic things. I will go on the record as saying that I am also criticizing this man who, a day or two before Holocaust Remembrance Day, makes light of this moment, this horrific moment in German history, the reason why Germans remember this ... I want you to address what we are talking about here, because you can talk all day about college campuses, but Elon Musk, two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, went and spoke in front of a far-right party that, as part of their platform, wants to atone, they want to erase the idea that Germany is responsible for this."
Jennings insisted he didn't "know anything about German politics” and complained that Democrats had called Republicans "fascist" during last year's election campaign. Phillip asked whether he was really “putting it all on the line for the AfD.”
“I can’t believe that you are defending this,” Rampell said to Jennings.
Scott Jennings, who has served as an advisor on four presidential campaigns, told fellow panelists on "NewsNight" he felt Trump's mass firing was "reasonable" because Americans voted for the president — not career prosecutors.
"I think it was pretty reasonable for the president, who was just elected, to not want people in his government — that he runs — who were just most recently trying to put him in jail," Jennings opined. "It seems like common sense to me that it wouldn't be right to force the president to run a government, which at least in part has recently been trying to jail him."
Jennings acknowledged those very same career prosecutors may have done nothing wrong.
When Ashley Akers, who recently resigned from the Justice Department in protest of Trump's pardons to Jan. 6 attackers, tried to counter that the department ought to act independently of political influence, Jennings gave an eyebrow-raising response.
Jennings replied the Justice Department falls under the executive branch, and the president appoints the attorney general.
"The department works for the president," he said.
And when Democratic strategist Maria Cardona fired back that the Justice Department serves Americans, not the president, Jennings doubled down.
"It works for the executive branch," he said, later adding: "You're acting like it's an independent branch of government."
He scoffed as Cardona tried to insist the career prosecutors work for Americans.
Cardona noted there are laws preventing presidents from firing career prosecutors without cause.
At that point, Democratic strategist Ashley Allison called out Jennings for his sudden change of heart.
"By what you're saying then is the former Department of Justice under Joe Biden acted under his — there was nothing wrong with it," she began. "By your logic, if you apply it to the last administration, which I don't think is the case, then if Joe Biden wanted to go after Donald Trump because he wanted to, the attorney general should be able to do it."
When Jennings tried to say Biden ordered the Justice Department to appoint a special prosecutor to go after Trump, host Abby Phillip interrupted and corrected him that it's "completely false" that Biden ordered the creation of a post to investigate Trump.
"Hold on Scott. You just said something that's not correct," Phillip said. "You tried to slip it in there."
She added: "That did not happen."
As the two exchanged a tense back-and-forth over the prosecution of Trump, Phillip returned to Allison's point, and asked Jennings what's wrong, by his logic, with Biden's Justice Department prosecuting Trump.
"What would be wrong with Joe Biden saying, 'I'm going to order the Justice Department to go after my political enemies? Wouldn't there be nothing wrong with that?"
When Jennings said he saw no problem with the president ordering the Justice Department, Phillip appeared stunned.
"That is quite an extraordinary acknowledgment. After four years of saying the Justice Department has been wrongly weaponized against Republicans, you are now saying it's ok.
