Damage Control

Good afternoon. Here’s what you need to know.

The Latest

The White House is scrambling on Minnesota. Karoline Leavitt says Donald Trump has the “utmost confidence” in Kristi Noem, but the president is sending Tom Homan to Minneapolis to oversee ICE operations there — and he said the border czar would “report directly to me.”

• “That is intentional,” an administration official told Politico. “Tom needs to be in charge.”

• Gregory Bovino may be the administration’s fall guy. Leavitt called the Border Patrol commander a “wonderful man” today, but an administration official confirmed to NOTUS that he will leave Minnesota tomorrow.

Here’s how quickly things are changing. Facing damning videos and blowback from some Republicans in Congress, the Trump administration backpedaled on multiple fronts today.

• Over the weekend: Trump called Tim Walz a “sanctimonious political fool” who was “inciting insurrection” with “pompous, dangerous and arrogant rhetoric.”

• Today: Trump said he had “a very good call” with Walz and “seemed to be on a similar wavelength” with him.

• Over the weekend: Attorney General Pam Bondi seemed to tie any de-escalation in Minnesota to her demand that the state turn over both its voter rolls and its Medicaid and SNAP records.
• Today: Leavitt didn’t mention those preconditions at the White House press briefing, instead saying that CBP could leave Minnesota if state officials would agree to cooperate with ICE.

• Over the weekend: Stephen Miller called Alex Pretti “a domestic terrorist” who “tried to assassinate law enforcement,” while Noem said what Pretti did “is the definition of domestic terrorism.”
• Today: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said: “I don’t think anybody thinks they were comparing what happened on Saturday to the legal definition of domestic terrorism.”

The Hill

Some Republican backlash is building. Some of it’s coming from the usual Trump critics — Rand Paul, Thomas Massie, et al. — but some of it is not:

• Tom Cole: “The president himself said, ‘Look, mistakes will be made.’ This is a high-pressure situation, and we need to determine what happened in that situation. I’m not going to try to play judge and jury. I’m not going to reflexively defend something.”

• Ted Cruz: “What I think the administration could do better is the tone with which they’re describing this — that immediately when an incident like this happens, they come out guns blazing that we took out a violent terrorist, hooray!”

• John Curtis: “Officials who rush to judgment before all the facts are known undermine public trust and the law-enforcement mission. I disagree with Secretary Noem’s premature DHS response, which came before all the facts were known and weakened confidence.”
• Jerry Moran: “I am deeply troubled by the shootings in Minneapolis involving federal agents. Our Constitution provides citizens protection from the government. We have a right to free speech, to peaceably assemble and to bear arms.”

Two-thirds of House Democrats support impeaching Noem. More than 20 additional Democrats added their names to Rep. Robin Kelly’s resolution today.

And yes, a government shutdown is looming. The Senate was out for a snow day, but Democrats continue to insist they won’t approve DHS funding without new constraints on ICE — and Republicans continue to insist they won’t pull DHS funding out of the spending package.

• Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi voted in favor of the DHS funding. He wishes he hadn’t.

Meanwhile In Minnesota

Walz said his call with Trump was ‘productive.’ The governor said he told the president that he needed to reduce the number of federal agents in Minnesota — and that state officials need to be involved in any investigations of the shootings. It was the first time the two had spoken in at least a year.

A top GOP candidate pulled out of the Minnesota governor’s race. Chris Madel said he cannot support Trump’s plan for “retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do that.”

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