Trump's Homeland Security pick is pressed on the president-elect's threats to put conditions on wildfire aid
Published in News & Features
WASHINGTON — One of the flashpoints of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s confirmation hearing Friday before the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee came when Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said he was disappointed with Trump’s statements about withholding disaster relief to California.
Blumenthal repeatedly asked whether Noem would ever withhold aid approved by Congress or “stand up to the president.”
“The specter is there of potential discrimination based on politics,” Blumenthal said, pointing to reports that Trump withheld wildfire aid to Washington in 2020 amid a feud with the state’s then-Democratic governor, Jay Inslee.
Noem said she wouldn’t engage a hypothetical question, but that under her leadership there would be no political bias as to how disaster relief is delivered.
“It’s more than a hypothetical,” Blumenthal told her.
Noem demurred, saying she will abide by the law.
“Every American deserves to... have disaster relief, the same as their neighbors,” she said.
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