Kristi Noem Blames Stephen Miller, Who Blames DHS, Who Blames Miller, Who Blames…

Team Trump appears to be coming apart at the seams after Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents, and the Department of Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller have faced mounting backlash for falsely trying to claim that the 37-year-old VA ICU nurse was an “assassin” or a “domestic terrorist.”

Now that Border Patrol Commander—and Nazi-cosplayer—Greg Bovino has reportedly been ousted from his role, the calls to impeach Noem are getting louder and more bipartisan, and Trump sent border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota to attempt damage control, the finger-pointing has begun. The puppy-killing governor from South Dakota—who has spent more time with a glam squad for photoshoots outside foreign gulags than learning how to effectively do her job—and the anti-immigration ghoul who architected the Muslim ban, regularly shares white nationalist dog whistles, throws tantrums on Fox News, and is self-conscious about having his photo taken, are now throwing each other under the bus.

“Everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” Noem reportedly said to someone who then relayed the comment to Axios, strongly suggesting that during the initial press conference following Pretti’s death, she labeled him a domestic terrorist because Trump and Miller told her to.

In response, Miller issued a statement to CNN on Tuesday. “We are evaluating why the CBP [Customs and Border Protection] team may not have been following that protocol,” he said. “The initial statement from DHS was based on reports from CBP on the ground.” In other words, Miller is strongly suggesting that he tweeted that Pretti was a terrorist and an assassin who wanted to “massacre” federal agents—claims that Vice President JD Vance and Propaganda Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt retweeted at the time (and still have not deleted)—because that’s the information Noem’s DHS told him.

Axios reported the following:

• The officers directly involved in the shooting “all shut up and got lawyers real quick so there wasn’t a lot of information,” one source briefed on the statement said.

• The CBP officers on the ground furnished a report that, White House officials told Axios, left officials with the belief that Pretti had brandished a gun.

• Miller “heard ‘gun’ and knew what the narrative would be: Pretti came to ‘massacre’ cops,” a source briefed on the process of assembling the press statement said.