A rising Democratic firebrand blasted Kristi Noem’s latest “photo op” following the killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in D.C.
The Homeland Security Secretary offered prayers at Israel’s Western Wall, a sacred shrine for Jewish people, days after the fatal shooting of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a couple working for the Israeli embassy.
For Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, however, Noem’s latest trip is nothing more than a publicity stunt.
“I have found a lack of sanity from this administration, I have found them to be more decisive when it comes to making sure that they’ve got a good photo op,” she told MSNBC’s Alex Witt Reports. “As far as I’m concerned, I doubt that there’s anything of substance that she probably is over there to deal with.”
Crockett said she was skeptical that Noem would discuss the deaths of the couple and any potential security measures that need to be increased jointly by the U.S. and Israel.
“I doubt it is anything of substance,” she said of Noem’s trip. “You just had a good photo op. And I think that that’s probably all Kristi Noem is good for, is a photo op.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said that Noem “expressed unequivocal support for the Prime Minister and for Israel” at their meeting in a statement. President Donald Trump sent her there along with other U.S. officials following the D.C. shooting.
Crockett isn’t the first lawmaker to call out Noem’s love for the cameras. Earlier this month, the Homeland Security chief was roasted over her “many photo ops and costume changes” as she testified in a budget hearing before Congress.
“I don‘t need to wear costumes to show how tough I am,” California Rep. Eric Swalwell told Noem.
Noem has been branded “ICE Barbie” over her steady stream of cosplays while enforcing Trump’s massive deportation agenda. The Homeland Security secretary has so far dressed up as a firefighter, an immigration agent, and even a helicopter pilot, and is never seen without perfectly styled hair and a bold lip color.
But ICE Barbie has remained unfazed by the criticism, telling Fox News in April that she was going to keep doing her thing.
“Every day I wake up and there’s new criticisms. It’s something different every single day, so I try not to pay attention to the noise,” she said. “Obviously I’m guided by the folks that I work with every day to be appropriate for the situation that I’m in and to take the same that precautions they do.”
