Analyst raises suspicions Kristi Noem's 'dumb' testimony was part of bigger plan
May 21, 2025
Homeland security secretary Kristi Noem was instantly fact-checked and then widely criticized for misstating the definition of the foundational constitutional right to habeas corpus, but a "Morning Joe" panelist isn't buying that she actually misunderstood the concept.
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked her to define the constitutional right to due process after White House adviser Stephen Miller warned the administration was looking at suspending the right to challenge an arrest or imprisonment, and MSNBC's Katty Kay said there's no way that Noem was unprepared to explain the bedrock civil right, which she claimed was "a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country."
"I watched this [and] there's no way that Kristi Noem went into that hearing without being briefed by her staff, right?" said MSNBC's Katty Kay. "I mean, principals are prepped when they go into briefings like that. It seems to me unlikely that she didn't know what habeas corpus is, so you then have to think, was she acting for an audience of one and just trying to make her boss happy with her redefinition of it? If that's the cynic in me, and maybe I've been in Washington too long, but otherwise she just was dumb and didn't know something that is basic about American law that she clearly should know, particularly given the position she's in, and given all of the cases and the amount of times habeas corpus has come up in political and legal discussion in this town in the last couple of months, I think she was performing."
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Whether or not Noem knows the Constitution allows anyone to challenge their detention or arrest, host Joe Scarborough said most Americans seem to be aware of their rights.
"There are a lot of surprises that that we've had over the past three months – I think you're being very gracious, by the way," Scarborough told Kay. "So anyway, there are a lot of things that have surprised Americans over the last three months and a lot of things that that people have gone, 'Oh my God, you know, where's the America that I grew up knowing?' I'll tell you one thing that I have been so heartened by is the fact that so many Americans have shown pollsters, politicians, everybody else, they understand what due process is. They understand what habeas corpus is, they get it as their right."
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