On Friday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was asked simple and important questions about reporting that the Trump administration closed down El Paso’s air space and shot down a party balloon it mistakenly thought was a foreign drone.
We can imagine the 24/7 poutrage from the right had anything so shockingly inept happened under a Democratic administration. But Noem, the woman who is supposed to be protecting us from foreign threats, couldn’t come up with anything close to an intelligible explanation.
The very legit question from a reporter was, “Can you confirm that CBP actually hit a party balloon it thought was a drone with a laser early this week, as was reported? And if that is true, why wasn't the action coordinated with the FAA?”
Noem’s non-answer was: “You know, this was a joint agency task force mission that was undertaken, and we're continuing to work on the communication through that, but recognize we're grateful for the partnership of the Department of War and the FAA as we go forward.”
The reporter asked for a follow-up, but Noem abruptly ended the press conference.
As my colleague Conover Kennard pointed out in our group chat, it would have been easy to deny it if it hadn’t happened.
This has all the signs of a total screw-up by the Trump administration. Noem’s inability to give any account of what happened only makes her and the others involved look even worse.
