00:00How do you square that concern for waste, which I share, with the fact that you have
00:13spent $220 million running television advertisements that feature you prominently?
00:23Sir, the president tasked me with getting the message out to the country and to other
00:28countries where we were seeing the invasion come from, with putting commercials out that told them
00:34that if they were in this country illegally, that they needed to leave, or we would detain them and
00:38remove them, and they'd not get the chance to come back to America the right way. That has been
00:43extremely effective. The president asked you to run these advertisements, is that right? We had that
00:49conversation, yes, before I was put in this position and sworn in and confirmed, and since then as well.
00:56Okay. Did you bid out those service contracts?
01:03Yes, they did. They went out to a competitive bid, and career officials at the department
01:07chose who would do those advertising commercials.
01:11And the people that you ended up picking
01:17were people who had formerly done your political work back in South Dakota. Is that right?
01:23No, that's not correct, sir. I think it is.
01:26No, it's not, sir. We, the individuals who, I believe the careers who they chose were two
01:32different media firms. There's been conversation about their subcontractors, but we have no
01:38legal authority to look into subcontractors on work like that.
01:42Okay. And you're saying that you're testifying that President Trump approved this ahead of time.
01:50Is that my understanding? We had conversations about making sure that we were telling people.
01:56No, ma'am. I'm asking you, sorry to interrupt, but the President approved ahead of time you spending
02:04$220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.
02:11Yes, sir. We went through the legal processes. Did it correct?
02:13Did the President know you were going to do this?
02:15Yes. He did?
02:17Mm-hmm. Yes.
02:17Okay. And one thing, Senator, I think would be
02:21helpful to know is how effective that communications has been.
02:25Well, they were effective in your name recognition. I mean, I personally just,
02:33I mean, to me, it puts the President in a terribly awkward spot. And I just, I'm not saying
02:41you're not telling the truth. It's just hard for me to believe. You know, I mean, the President,
02:45as I do that you said, Mr. President, here's some ads I've cut and I'm going to spend $220 million
02:55running them, that he would have agreed to that. I don't think Russ Vogt at OMB would have agreed to
03:03that. It's something we have to defend. I'm on the Appropriations Committee. I mean,
03:12my research shows that you did not bid them out, that you pick, in fact, one of the people you
03:19picked,
03:20the strategy group, I'm sorry, Safe America Media was a company formed 11 days before
03:29you picked them, and that the strategy group got most of the money, and the head of that is
03:38married to your former spokesperson. I'm, look, we all have friends who are qualified. I'm not
03:44crippling with that. I'm just, it troubles me. A quarter, a fifth to a quarter of a billion dollars
03:53of taxpayer money when we're scratching for every penny and we're fighting over rescission packages.
04:02I just can't agree with Madam Secretary. Are you still running those ads?
04:07No, Senator, I did not have anything to do with picking those contractors. I know politicals at
04:13the Department of Homeland Security did. I understand. Are you still running those ads?
04:20I think the ads are due to end here in March. I think within a week or two. I'm not
04:25sure of the
04:25update. The one that is running is focusing on angel families. Have you seen that? It is the one that's
04:31talking about this is our why. This is why we work every day. It's for the angel families and their
04:36victims that need to. After.
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