Kristi Noem Still Won’t Admit That Renee Good and Alex Pretti Weren’t ‘Domestic Terrorists’

In an ideal version of the United States, the Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t even exist. It is, after all, a legacy of the hysterical, panicked reaction to the 9/11 attacks of 2001, the most permanently visible symbol of how American citizens were immediately cajoled through the incident into giving up various civil liberties and embracing a surveillance state in the name of creating a comforting, anti-terrorism security blanket. A quarter century later, that blanket has subsequently turned into a suffocating bag pulled over our collective heads, as we each wait for our own opportunity to be described by DHS as terrorists or enemies of the state, and treated accordingly. And once DHS anoints you as one of those things, there’s no taking it back—just ask DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who is still refusing to admit that Minneapolis residents Renee Good and ICU nurse Alex Pretti, both slain by federal immigration agents, were merely average citizens and not “domestic terrorists.”

In Tuesday’s ongoing testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, the embattled DHS leader, who has often felt like she might be moments away from getting the sack from President Donald Trump only to survive another day, refused outright to take multiple opportunities presented to her by members of Congress to state clearly that she was wrong in describing both Renee Good and Alex Pretti as domestic terrorists. Notably, these pronouncements were made in the hours, and even minutes immediately following the shooting deaths of those individuals—a pattern of irresponsible labeling that has become a department signature during Noem’s tenure at DHS. Each time, DHS has rushed to instantly label American citizens as would-be murderers, terrorists or attempted assassins, only for further evidence to show that these statements are quite simply full of shit. The same has been true for other non-deadly cases involving shootings committed by ICE, such as that of Chicago’s Marimar Martinez, who was shot by an agent five times and was said by DHS to have rammed federal vehicles, only for that case to completely fall apart in court. All charges against Martinez have since been dropped. Minnesota, meanwhile, is now investigating the actions of ICE agents in the state for potential prosecution.

Speaking to the Senate Tuesday, Noem infuriatingly quibbled about terminology and defended calling Good and Pretti terrorists, while simultaneously claiming that she had never done so.

“I did not call him a domestic terrorist, I said it appeared to be an incident of,” said Noem to Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, making the kind of argument a child might resort to when confronted with the fact that they’d been hiding their vegetables under the couch.

Durbin: “Is it so hard to say you were wrong and issue a retraction?”

Noem: “I absolutely strive to provide factual information, and we’ll continue to do that.”

Durbin: “When you fail, do you admit it publicly?”

Noem: “Absolutely.”

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— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) Mar 3, 2026 at 10:10 AM

Okay, so Kristi Noem didn’t call them domestic terrorists after all. In that case, she presumably would be happy to say that they weren’t terrorists, right? After all, if she never called them that, then she can easily clear their names now without even contradicting herself. But when grilled by Sen. Dick Durbin (IL) on if she would retract DHS’ obviously and provably false claim that Good and Pretti were terrorists, Noem refused and launched into babble about “reports from the ground.”

“What I what I will say is we always work to provide the American people with as much information as possible, that we’re relying on reports from the ground and from agents that are there and working to be transparent and will continue to do all that we can to provide the accurate information and the facts to people as we can,” Noem said. “I was getting reports from the ground, from agents at the scene, and I would say that it was a chaotic scene.”

To translate: “I was getting reports from the ground” and “I would say that it was a chaotic scene” are effectively admissions that DHS was receiving inaccurate information in the frenzied first minutes following the deaths of Good or Pretti. There’s nothing surprising about this; initial reports from disaster scenes or scenes of violence are always rife with misunderstandings and misinformation. What’s inexcusable is DHS simply choosing to invent their own narratives in those moments following the deaths of an American citizen, demonizing Americans in the hopes of creating a reality that MAGA media consumers will accept because it fits their confirmation bias. What’s also inexcusable is the leader of DHS more or less admitting to the Senate that she was reporting inaccurate information, but STILL REFUSING TO CORRECT IT a month later by merely saying that Good and Pretti were not terrorists. Any journalist, any moral person, anyone other than a partisan hack, would look at the new information and simply correct the record. But when you’re MAGA, admitting that a past statement was wrong simply isn’t allowed, because Donald Trump doesn’t condone his subordinates admitting that the administration is capable of mistakes … despite it being perhaps the most mistake-prone administration in history. They can only pass the buck, as Noem did by tacitly blaming Stephen Miller afterward.

WHITEHOUSE: Can you explain this?

NOEM: I’m looking at a picture of a bedroom

W: Of an airplane. You’re not familiar?

NOEM: These photos are not accurate if you’re referring to the airplanes DHS purchased. We’re using them for command & control

W: You didn’t use it?

N: I’ve been on it once

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) Mar 3, 2026 at 10:20 AM

The DHS secretary took plenty of other fire during the same Senate hearing today, on everything from the $220 million she spent on commercials starring herself, created by the husband of her liar extraordinaire former press secretary Tricia McLaughlin, to her reported use of a luxury 737 jet complete with bedroom and bar, to the potential for immigration agents to be present at polling places during the 2026 midterm elections in November. Senator Durbin, castigating the entire department, said that DHS has been “devoid of any moral compass or respect for the rule of law, without hesitation or remorse.” The man wasn’t mincing words.

DHS remains in a partial shutdown that began in mid-February as Congress attempts to hash out legislation to place new regulation on the operations of federal immigration agents. Would that it could remain in shutdown forever, and its Secretary with it.