00:00So, Josh, this is an incredible deep dive you did.
00:03Just to start with it, because it is so grabby.
00:07Why did somebody get fired over a missing blanket?
00:12Yeah, my colleagues, Michelle Hackman and Tarini Party, and I wanted to understand exactly what was going on inside DHS
00:17with Kristi Noem.
00:18So we talked to dozens of people across the administration, inside, outside the government,
00:22and found a lot of startling anecdotes about how she managed.
00:26And the one you just asked about in particular, she was on a plane.
00:29They transferred to a different plane, and the transfer of the blanket did not come with her.
00:35And then Koi Lewandowski outstead the pilot for not bringing the blanket alone to a second plane.
00:41And then they ended up having to reverse the decision, at least temporarily, because they realized they needed someone to
00:47fly the plane home.
00:49Oh, that's remarkable.
00:50Why would they fire 80 percent of the career ICE officials or field staff?
00:55Don't they need them?
00:57Well, what we hear is that there is a lot of outbursts towards staff across the government, that they are
01:04very demanding.
01:05Sometimes demands, they say, are coming from Trump.
01:09Sometimes they're not.
01:09But folks who do not immediately jump to whatever they say in that moment are often summarily fired in seconds
01:16by the senior leadership of the agency,
01:20the cabinet secretary of Mr. Lewandowski.
01:22And what we learned in sort of the course of this reporting was that across the White House and across
01:28many of the components of DHS,
01:31officials are incredibly frustrated at working with Secretary Nolman, Mr. Lewandowski.
01:36And they have described a very, very difficult work environment over the past little over a year.
01:42What is Lewandowski doing there?
01:44I thought he was a special government employee.
01:47So he was a special government employee.
01:49That means you get to work 130 days a year on a special project.
01:54In the first year of the presidency, the White House Council and others began looking into this because they thought
02:00he was out of days.
02:01And he said he was not out of days.
02:03And there was a discovery that he sometimes was not swiping his badge in.
02:08But he recently was renewed for another stint as a special government employee because he's friends with the president.
02:14And White House advisors say the president still likes him, considers him loyal from the 2016 campaign, considers him sort
02:21of an OG Trumper, and does not want to get rid of him.
02:25So he has the president's blessing.
02:27And other frustrations aside, he keeps his stay in that role.
02:30But, you know, what's notable, Katie, is that most special government employees have a small window.
02:37They're working on one thing.
02:38They're in one topic.
02:40They're maybe doing something with the State Department or with the Defense Department or whatever.
02:44It's a specialized inquiry.
02:46Corey Waddowski is running the Department of Homeland Security by all intents and purposes.
02:49He's the chief advisor to the secretary.
02:51He's managing contracts.
02:52He's firing people.
02:54The operational duties of that department are essentially being run by a special government employee.
03:01How is Noam faring at the White House?
03:04I know there's a lot of Republicans who are tired of her, especially after she claimed Alex Preddy was a
03:11domestic terrorist who was brandishing a gun and was intent on killing law enforcement.
03:16She hasn't apologized for that.
03:18There was a lot of anger and frustration out there, bipartisan anger and frustration out there about her leadership and
03:25what she's done with DHS, what she's allowed.
03:27Does she still have the full support of the president?
03:31Well, as we reported in our piece, there's widespread frustration with her inside the White House.
03:35But there's one office that probably matters the most, and it's Oval.
03:39And in that office, a person who works behind the desk says that he still supports her and does not
03:44plan to fire her.
03:45He said that again today.
03:46He said that for our story through spokeswoman Caroline Levin.
03:51He sent a statement saying he supported her.
03:53Today he was gaggling with reporters.
03:54He says he still supports her.
03:56So, by all intents and purposes, he does still support her, even though many of his aides and advisors have
04:02been frustrated.
04:03But, you know, you've watched the president for a long time, Katie.
04:06He supports someone until he doesn't.
04:08You know, sometimes so-and-so has his support, has his support, has his support, and then they're out.
04:13So, I think at his word right now, he says he supports her, and that's a company line.
04:18Yeah.
04:20And he's been acting a little bit differently, this administration, in terms of firing.
04:23One last question, and if we can do it quickly, I'm sorry I've run out of time.
04:26But you also are on byland on reporting regarding the whistleblower case in Tulsi Gabbard.
04:32And there was reporting about who exactly the whistleblower report was about.
04:38Can you explain?
04:39I'm going to finish your 1.2 on firing.
04:41I mean, the president has told senior officials in the administration he does not want to fire cabinet secretaries this
04:46time.
04:47And he wished that he wouldn't have had to fire so many people in the first time, and that led
04:50to leaks and drama.
04:51And he doesn't want to give scalps to his critics or the media.
04:54So, I think that's one reason you see some survivals.
04:56Okay, on to the whistleblower.
04:58We reported that the whistleblower complaint, as you referenced there, was about Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law.
05:05Administration officials said that they do not believe the evidence is credible, that it was to, you know, folks talking
05:14who were foreigners about Mr. Kushner, and that they don't believe it's credible.
05:19That said, there's a lot of criticism from Democrats, and even, I think, some internally, on why they did not
05:25turn the information over sooner.
05:27So, right now, we don't know a lot about the report, other than it's about Mr. Kushner and that the
05:33administration officials say they don't put much freedoms in it.
05:36Yeah, it reminds me back when Jared Kushner was trying to get a security clearance when he was working at
05:41the White House, and he couldn't do it because of all of his foreign contacts, unless the president himself waived
05:47all the concerns and signed off on it.
05:49Josh Dossi, thanks so much for joining us.
05:51Always appreciate you coming on.
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