Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appeared flustered Sunday after trying to blame last week’s deadly Washington, D.C., shooting on the Biden administration—only to be confronted with the fact that the suspect’s asylum request was approved under the Trump administration.
Last Wednesday, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan migrant who had worked with the CIA on counter-terrorism operations, allegedly shot two National Guard members, killing one and leaving the other in critical condition. Lakanwal arrived in the U.S. after the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Noem did not hesitate to point the finger at former President Joe Biden. “The vetting process happens when the person comes into the country, and Joe Biden completely did not vet any of those individuals, did not vet this individual!” she said.
But the facts didn’t line up with her narrative. Host Kristen Welker pushed back: “His asylum was approved in April of this year on the Trump administration’s watch, so just to be very clear, was there a vetting process in place to approve that asylum request?”
Noem, clearly caught off guard, insisted, “Yeah, the vetting process all happened under Joe Biden’s administration.”
Welker pressed further: “But was he vetted when he was granted asylum, are you saying he wasn’t vetted when he was granted asylum?”
Noem stumbled, repeating her previous line of defense and once again pointing fingers at Biden. “Vetting is – vetting is – vetting is happening when they come into the country, and that was completely abandoned under Joe Biden’s administration,” she said.
The exchange left viewers with a striking picture of a top official confronted with facts that directly contradicted her narrative—and struggling to reconcile them. (Watch the video below.)
