DOUBLING DOWN—AND REMINDING ME OF AN OLD JOKE

SPEAKING, UNDER OATH, ONE WOULD ASSUME, before a Congressional committee, Kristi Noem outdid herself in the Trump administration’s practice of doubling down. Examples of this are offered in “Noem Sticks With Her Description of Protesters’ Actions as Terrorism,” by Michael Gold, The New York Times, March 3, 2026.  

Here are tidbits gleaned from this article, which also, lamentably, reminds me of an old joke.

Noem’s (Perjureristic?) Assessment. Gold reports, “Asked by Democratic and Republican senators about comments she made in the aftermath of both shootings that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti had committed acts of domestic terrorism, Ms. Noem did not retract her remarks. She said repeatedly that her characterizations came from immigration officers in Minneapolis.”

“ ‘I was getting reports from the ground, from agents at the scene,’ Ms. Noem said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. ‘And I would say that it was a chaotic scene.’ ”

“Ms. Noem’s account,” Gold notes, “contradicted testimony from the heads of two federal immigration agencies, who told senators last month that their agencies did not provide Ms. Noem with an assessment that either Ms. Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, and Mr. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse, were domestic terrorists. The acting director of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Todd Lyons, said that he had seen no evidence to suggest the claims were true.”

Noem’s Initial Statements. Gold recounts, “After the shooting of Ms. Good on Jan. 7, Ms. Noem accused her of trying to run over officers with her car, which she described as ‘an act of domestic terrorism.’ Video analysis by The New York Times has shown that Ms. Good appeared to be turning the car away from the officer as he opened fire.”

“After Mr. Pretti was shot by immigration officers on Jan. 24,” Gold continues, “Ms. Noem said at a news conference without evidence that he had committed an act of ‘domestic terrorism.’ “

Senator Klobuchar’s Question. “During the hearing on Tuesday,” Gold relates, “Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, told Ms. Noem that her remarks were ‘one of the most hurtful things’ that Mr. Pretti’s family could have heard after the shooting and asked if Ms. Noem had anything she wanted to say to his relatives.”

Noem’s Fine Point. Gold continues, “Ms. Noem offered condolences, but she did not retract her remarks, even as Ms. Klobuchar pressed her. ‘I did not call him a domestic terrorist,’ Ms. Noem said. ‘I said it appeared to be an incident of domestic terrorism.’ ”

My italics; not the possibly perjuring Ms. Noem’s. (Listen again to her news conference quote offered above.)

An Old Joke. A cop has stopped a guy over a seemingly trivial infraction. The guy says, “If I called you an asshole, I’d be in lots of trouble, right?” “You betcha,” the cop says. “But,” asks the guy, “what if I merely thought you were one?” “Thoughts are completely your own,” says the cop. The guy responds, “O.k., then I think you’re an asshole.”

My thoughts of Kristi Noem and others of the Trump administration are completely my own. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2026