Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has reportedly had her purse stolen in broad daylight and right under the protection of the United States Secret Service.
According to CNN, Noem was sitting down to dinner at a DC restaurant with her family when a thief grabbed her purse and walked away. Inside Noem’s bag were her personal items, including her apartment keys, phone, and more. Secret Service has already reviewed security footage and has details on the thief:
The Secret Service, which provides security for Noem, reviewed security camera footage at the restaurant and saw an unknown white male wearing a medical mask steal her bag and leave the restaurant, a law enforcement source said.
The thief got away with Noem’s driver’s license, medication, apartment keys, passport, DHS access badge, makeup bag, blank checks, and about $3,000 in cash.
The Secret Service has launched an investigation to trace any use of Noem’s financial instruments, the person added.
“Her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren – she was using the withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities, and Easter gifts,” a DHS spokesperson told CNN.
Noem admitted to the incident happening during the White House egg roll on Monday and acknowledged that the incident hasn’t been resolved at all.
Many have been questioning why Noem had $3,000 on her in the first place, but that’s far from the most important part of this story, at least for now.
What’s more important is the fact that a thief was able to even get close to Noem despite having a Secret Service detail. How was this possible?
According to the New York Post, Noem felt the bag being lifted but assumed it was one of her grandchildren brushing up against her leg:
A person familiar with the case told The Post the DHS secretary had just finished paying when she felt a brush against her leg — which she initially thought was one of her grandchildren before realizing her bag was missing.
While information is still to come out, it sounds as if the thief was able to casually stroll up to Noem, grab her purse, and leave without much of an issue. No chase or attempt to stop him. It’s difficult to believe that one singular person would be able to just get away with the DHS secretary’s purse with a bunch of men and women around whose entire job is to protect and defend this singular person.
This raises some serious questions.
If a thief can casually get that close to the DHS secretary while under full protection to steal a bag, who’s to say that someone can get close enough to kill one of Trump’s cabinet members?
How did this ball get dropped so hard?
As of now, there are more questions than answers, and these questions are pretty alarming. Moreover, it doesn’t reflect well at all on the Secret Service, which was already under scrutiny due to the assassination attempt on Trump, making them look horrifically incompetent.
Now, they’ve failed to secure a leading presidential candidate and, on top of that, they’ve failed to see to the safety of their own department head.
RedState will stay on top of this story as new information is made available.
