BREAKING NEWS: DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen OUT
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is OUT - unclear if she resigned or was asked to leave.
Looks like Rachel Maddow is going to have another name to put on her giant board of resignations from the White House. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Kirstjen Nielsen resigned.
It is unclear from her resignation letter if she left on her own or if Trump asked her to step down because she wasn't putting enough kids in cages. Per Politico, Trump and Nielsen clashed frequently and he repeatedly pushed her to go beyond legal boundaries in apprehensions on the border. Reportedly, this week, Trump was specifically frustrated by Nielsen's unwillingness to close entirely the border and asked her to the White House to basically demand she make the case on whether she should stay.
Trump tweeted this:
And then named an acting secretary:
Read the resignation letter here.
The new acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan was only confirmed to his previous position as Commissioner to the CPB on March 20 of last year. In interviews, McAleenan has showed very little empathy or concern for asylum seekers on the border, so it's expected that he will follow Trump's legally questionable dictates more willingly than Nielsen.
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