Secretary of Homeland Security Interview on Meet the Press

My only question that I’d add that was not asked is this one, “If as you say negative reports on call center’s not being fully operational are fake news, and FEMA responded perfectly to the Texas flooding, what aspect of FEMA do you want to reform?”

What follows is a full transcript of an interview with Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, The interview occurred today, Sunday, July 13 on NBC’s NBC’s ‘Meet the Press with Kristen Welker’

And if you prefer, VIDEO: Sec. Kristi Noem says she won’t resign after backlash over Texas flood response: Full interview

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

KRISTEN WELKER: And joining me now is Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Secretary Noem, welcome back to Meet the Press.

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Thank you. Thank you so much for inviting me today.

KRISTEN WELKER: Thank you for being here after a remarkably busy week. I did have an opportunity to speak with President Trump by phone. He did praise--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Oh, good.

KRISTEN WELKER: --your response to the floods in Texas. There are obviously a lot of questions though, so I want to talk to you about some--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Absolutely.

KRISTEN WELKER: --of those, including about a rule that you recently implemented. It reportedly requires that every FEMA contract, every grant over $100,000 be personally approved by you. Now, officials within the agency have told multiple news outlets that the policy led to a slower deployment of some FEMA resources, including urban search and rescue crews. So let me just ask you: Did your policy delay some of the critical response resources on the ground in Texas--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: You know, those claims are absolutely false. Within just an hour or two after the flooding we had resources from the Department of Homeland Security there, helping those individuals in Texas. It was a heartbreaking scene. And I think it's been well covered about what the Coast Guard did, how they were deployed immediately and helped rescue so many individuals from those floodwaters. And we had Border Patrol down there with their tactical teams, and FEMA was there just within a few hours as well. So those claims are false. They're from people who won't put their name behind those claims. And those call centers were fully staffed and responsive. And this is the fastest I believe, in years, maybe decades that FEMA has been deployed to help individuals in this type of a situation.

KRISTEN WELKER: Well, let's drill down a little bit. I know there were resources that were deployed, but I think the question revolves around: Were all of the necessary resources deployed? According to reports, multiple FEMA officials said you didn't approve the deployment of these FEMA search and rescue teams until Monday, which was 72 hours after the floods started.

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Well, they were deployed immediately, as soon as they were requested. And I think what matters the most here is what the local officials on the ground say and what their feedback is. You know, I was there that very morning and that afternoon when the flooding was happening and was with those emergency responders right away, with the governor, with Nim Kidd, who's running the state's response. And every one of them will tell you that they got everything that they needed when they asked for it immediately and that they've never seen a federal government respond in support of a state's management of a disaster situation like this. So those claims, I don't know who's making them out of FEMA because FEMA has been incredibly responsive. We've had over 700 different employees engaged right in Texas. And as soon as that disaster request was put in, forwarded to the White House, and approved within hours.

KRISTEN WELKER: Well, when was the request put in, and when did you approve it? And is this accurate that there's this $100,000 sign-off that you have to--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: The $100,000 sign-off is for every contract that goes for the Department of Homeland Security. That's--

KRISTEN WELKER: So you did implement that policy--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: It's an accountability on contracts that go forward. But there was no break in contracts. Those contracts were approved as soon as they were in front of me, and FEMA knew they were fully to deploy the instant that the local officials asked for their request.

KRISTEN WELKER: When did you get the request for these search and rescue teams--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Immediately.

KRISTEN WELKER: --and other resources?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: They were immediately responded.

KRISTEN WELKER: Immediate. What day though--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Yes, and everyone will tell you--

KRISTEN WELKER: Because according to reports--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Nim Kidd and the governor will say--

KRISTEN WELKER: --they didn't arrive until Tuesday.

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Well, this is what I think is really unfortunate: is that we have a situation where so many individuals are playing politics with what happened to Texas. And the governor and the emergency responders on the ground, the mayor of that city, the judge in that county who has some authority over emergency response, every one of them said, "As soon as we asked for help, they were here. The federal government was here." And we didn't just deploy FEMA. We deployed our Coast Guard and BORTAC teams. Border Patrol was amazing. Every single agency that we had was there helping as many individuals as we possibly could. And that's what I think is remarkable. It was a very different response, I think, from the federal government we've ever seen in a disaster like this because we had so many different agencies immediately respond. And that's the way that it should be.

KRISTEN WELKER: I do want to talk big picture in just a moment, but the New York Times is reporting that thousands of calls from flood victims to FEMA call centers went unanswered in the middle of this ongoing disaster because you didn't renew contracts to keep call center staff in place until nearly one week after the floods. Why did it take so long to extend those contracts--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: It's just false. Those contracts were place. Nobody--

KRISTEN WELKER: It didn't take five days?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: No employees were off of work. Every one of them was answering calls. So false reporting, fake news. And it's discouraging. It's discouraging that during this time when we have such a loss of life and so many people's lives have turned upside down that people are playing politics with this. Because the response time was immediate. And if you talk to anyone in Texas that was there, that was a part of this operation, they would say the federal government and President Trump immediately responded.

KRISTEN WELKER: Just to be very clear, on July 7th 15.9% of calls were answered. I mean, does that concern you, that only 15% of calls were answered? These were people in a desperate state. FEMA often, the first call that they make, only 15% were answered on July 7th, several days after the floods.

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: These contracts were in place, and those people were in those call centers, and they were picking up the phone and answering these calls from these individuals. So that report needs to be validified. I'm not certain it's accurate, and I'm not sure where it came from. And the individuals who are giving you information out of FEMA, I'd love to have them put their names behind it. Because the anonymous attacks to politicize a situation are completely wrong. I care-- these emergencies need to be conducted exactly how President Trump handled this one. It was that the local responders are the ones who execute the response. The state comes in and manages it. And then the federal government comes in and supports it. And as soon as Texas asked for anything, we were there.

KRISTEN WELKER: Just very quickly, I mean, disasters often cost millions, if not billions of dollars. You've acknowledged there is this policy you implemented to sign off on contracts--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Yes.

KRISTEN WELKER: --that exceed $100,000. Why add extra red tape when there is a crisis of this magnitude going on--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: It's not extra red tape. It's making sure everything is getting to my level and that it's immediately responded to. This was not slowed down at all. In fact, it was much more responsive. If you remember, I was there. I was standing right there long before this report ever came out. And people were asking, and we were granting permission in real time. So the false reporting has been something that is inappropriate and it's something that I think we need to clear up: that this response was by far the best response we've seen out of FEMA, the best response we've seen out of the federal government in many, many years and certainly much better than what we saw under Joe Biden.

KRISTEN WELKER: Two more quick ones on FEMA. Then we need to get to deportation. Senator Elizabeth Warren is calling for you to resign. Your response? Is there any chance you would resign?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: No, there's not. And I hadn't heard that, but, you know, I don't care what she thinks.

KRISTEN WELKER: Very quickly. We have heard President Trump, we have heard you say that ultimately FEMA needs to be eradicated. We heard the tone shift a bit this week. Bottom line, Madam Secretary, will the president move to eradicate FEMA altogether?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: No, I think the president recognizes that FEMA should not exist the way that it always has been. It needs to be redeployed in a new way. And that's what we did during this response. If you saw, it's not just FEMA that can respond in these situations. The federal government has all kinds of assets, and we deployed them. The Coast Guard coming in and saving individuals with their rescue swimmers, with their helicopters. They had fixed-wing aircraft deployed as well. Border Patrol with their BORTAC teams. And now, we've got also some dog teams that are down there helping with recovery efforts. And then FEMA alongside of them helping people, setting up shelters, deploying supplies. It was all immediate. And that's what the president wants to do: is empower these states to run their emergency and we come in and support them. And immediately when those requests were made, they were approved and deployed.

KRISTEN WELKER: So I just want to be very clear, and we're going to move on to deportation. The president no longer wants to eradicate FEMA, but what you're saying is to overhaul FEMA but not eradicate it altogether. Correct?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: I think he wants it to be remade so that it's an agency that is new in how it deploys and supports states.

KRISTEN WELKER: Let me get your reaction. A federal judge in Los Angeles temporarily blocked ICE raids in Southern California, saying that federal agents cannot target people without reasonable suspicion and using factors like skin color, the language that people speak. Will you comply with the judge's order?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Absolutely. But we've never done that. We've never done that. What we have always done is built a case and done investigative work in who we go after and who we target. And so this judge is ridiculous, and the fact that he put forward a decision like this, we will appeal it. And we will win it because over and over again when our ICE officers out there getting the worst of the worst off of our streets, they're using the investigative backgrounds and information that they have from either criminal records or what they have for charges or individuals who are breaking our federal laws that need to be brought to justice--

KRISTEN WELKER: But, Madam Secretary, Tom Homan, the White House border czar, said as much this week. He told FOX News that physical appearance was a factor in detaining individuals. What do you say to those who hear that and say that is racial profiling, appearance--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: The facts of how we do our investigations and our case work and what ICE officers are doing today is they're going out there and building a case just like other law enforcement officers do. They're going out there and doing the investigative work, gathering the information to decide how we're going to run our ops and how we're going to target individuals. And overwhelmingly, people have heard the president say over and over again about how important it is that we continue to go after the worst of the worst. This week, we've got murderers off the street, rapists, child pedophiles. If you look at that marijuana grow facility that we recently just did an operation on, over 319 individuals were brought into custody and 14 unaccompanied children that are children that means that they don't have their parents with them. They're working in a facility where they could be exploited, trafficked, maybe sex trafficked. And then we've got individuals there who are working at the same facility who are creating, distributing, and taking advantage of children for child pornography. So--

KRISTEN WELKER: Couple--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: --this is something that President Trump has taken seriously: is protecting children while we're doing this--

KRISTEN WELKER: Couple more here if we can get them in. Florida lawmakers visited the migrant detention center in Florida which your administration has dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that the conditions there are inhumane: more than 30 people stuffed into a jail cell. She said they get their drinking water and they brush their teeth from the same place where they go to the bathroom, Madam Secretary. What do you say to these lawmakers who argue this is not humane treatment of individuals, of humans?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Well, our detention centers at the federal level are held to a higher standard than most local or state centers and even federal prisons. The standards are extremely high. Now, this is a state-run facility at Alligator Alcatraz--

KRISTEN WELKER: More than 30 people--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: --but they have a--

KRISTEN WELKER: --stuffed into a jail cell?

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: They have a contrast-- well, I've been there and I've seen these rooms that they are in. I wouldn't call them "jail cells." I would call them a facility where they are held--

KRISTEN WELKER: Facilities.

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: --and that are secure facilities but are held to the highest levels of what the federal government requires for detention facilities.

KRISTEN WELKER: Democrats have called them cages though.

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: I wish they would have said that--

KRISTEN WELKER: (INAUDIBLE) 30 people in--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: --- back during the Biden administration and back when Democrats were in the White House and they were piling people on top of each other on cement floors and literally didn't have two feet to move. They never did that, and that's why this politics has to end. We took cameras in there. We will take cameras in there and show people what these facilities look like. Because if you compare them to what happened under the Biden administration and under the Obama administration, these centers are at the highest levels. And they're even higher than what our federal prison standards are or state or local often are.

KRISTEN WELKER: And yet your deportation policies are different and you are finding new facilities, including this one, Alligator Alcatraz, and you say there could be more, very quickly--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: We are. We are--

KRISTEN WELKER: We're out of time--

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: --looking for more information and how we can get more detention centers. But I would encourage people to self-deport. You know, that is the easiest thing for these families to do because then you get the chance to come back. Then you get the chance to come back to the United States, and that's exactly what we want: is them to do it the right way.

KRISTEN WELKER: All right. Secretary Kristi Noem, thank you so much for being here in person.

SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Absolutely--