Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) joined his Democrat colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee in castigating Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday, not only for her past treatment of animals but for her treatment of illegal aliens.
After characterizing the Jan. 6 protesters whom President Donald Trump pardoned as "thugs" and stressing his support for law enforcement, Tillis suggested in his self-described "performance evaluation" that he is "disappointed" with Noem because she is allegedly "running numbers that Stephen Miller wants out of the White House."
'Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis.'
"We just want numbers! We want a thousand a day, 6,000 a day, 9,000 a day, because numbers matter, right? No, they don't matter," added Tillis, who is not running for re-election. "Quality matters, not quantity — quality."
Although the senator did not afford Noem an opportunity to respond at length at any point during his tirade, the secretary later noted on X that "thanks to President Trump's leadership and the dedicated work of DHS personnel, our department has achieved historic results and made communities safer."
Noem indicated:
Nearly 3 million illegal aliens have left the United States. [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] has arrested over 1,500 Known or Suspected Terrorists (KSTs) and more than 7,700 gang members. Fentanyl trafficking at the southern border has dropped by more than half compared to the same period in 2024. Of the more than 450,000 unaccompanied alien children lost under the Biden administration, 145,000 have been located under President Trump.The DHS indicated in January that there were over 675,000 deportations and an estimated 2.2 million self-deportations in Trump's first year back in office.
RELATED: Government-paid traffickers? Noem testifies Biden administration funded abuse of migrant kids
Kristi Noem. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Tillis, adopting a tone he did not previously employ when addressing Noem's predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, suggested that the immigration crackdown overseen by the secretary — in which some American citizens have been detained — has been a "disaster" and that the way she has been "going about deporting [migrants] is wrong."
The senator cast doubt on whether the fatal shootings of anti-ICE radicals Alex Pretti and Renee Good were justifiable, then turned his attention to Noem's admissions in her memoir, "No Going Back," specifically her decisions to kill an "untrainable" dog and an unruly goat.
"You decided to kill that dog because you had not invested the appropriate time and training, and then you have the audacity to go into a book and say it’s a leadership lesson about tough choices!" said Tillis.
"At that same lunch hour, you killed a goat, and you killed the goat because you said it was behaving badly."
"My point is those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis," said Tillis.
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Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has entered into a multiyear AI content licensing agreement with News Corp that could generate up to $50 million per year for the media company that owns the Wall Street Journal among many other major publications.
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Videos of Iranians dancing to a song "Khamenei Is Dead," featuring President Donald Trump, are going viral on social media.
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the United States has killed an Iranian who plotted to kill President Donald Trump.
During a Wednesday Pentagon briefing, Hegseth gave reporters the latest military actions with respect to Operation Epic Fury, just days after the United States first struck Iran alongside Israel on Saturday.
'We are fighting to win.'
"Yesterday, the leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed," Hegseth said.
"Iran tried to kill President Trump, and President Trump got the last laugh."
RELATED: Lindsey Graham feverishly demands ANOTHER Middle Eastern conflict: 'Fly with Israel'
Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
Hegseth also announced that the United States struck and successfully sunk an Iranian warship with a torpedo, emphasizing the operation's successful takedown of the Islamic state's navy.
"An American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters," Hegseth said. "Instead it was sunk by a torpedo. Quiet death. The first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II."
"Like in that war, back when we were still the War Department, we are fighting to win."
RELATED: US service member death toll continues to rise amid Operation Epic Fury
Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP via Getty Images
Hegseth reiterated the United States' objectives to debilitate Iran's military capabilities, in particular its nuclear ambitions.
"As I said Monday, the mission is laser focused," Hegseth said. "Obliterate Iran's missiles and drones and facilities that produce them, annihilate its navy and critical security infrastructure, and sever their pathway to nuclear weapons."
"Iran will never possess a nuclear bomb," Hegseth added. "Not on our watch. Not ever."
Hegseth did not elaborate on sensitive details or estimated timelines, but Trump has notably predicted a four- or five-week operation in the Gulf.
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Tampons in the company's men's washroom led Republican congressmen to think Netflix was far more left-wing than they tried to portray themselves during the streamer's congressional evaluation for its bid to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, reports now say.
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Two alleged shooters are now under arrest in connection with Sunday's Cincinnati shooting, and both suspects are barred from gun possession.
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While many people have had their attention turned to the Middle East in the past week, the United States military has continued its mission of protecting the western hemisphere, launching joint operations in another South American country after arresting Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela in early January.
On Tuesday, U.S. forces launched joint operations against designated terrorist organizations in Ecuador, U.S. Southern Command announced in a press release.
'Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere.'
U.S. Southern Command described the operations as a "powerful example of the commitment of partners in Latin America and the Caribbean to combat the scourge of narco-terrorism."
"Together, we are taking decisive action to confront narco-terrorists who have long inflicted terror, violence, and corruption on citizens throughout the hemisphere," the press release added.
Drugs seized in the joint operation carried out since January of last year. U.S. Embassy of Ecuador
“We commend the men and women of the Ecuadorian armed forces for their unwavering commitment to this fight, demonstrating courage and resolve through continued actions against narco-terrorists in their country," said Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan, commander of U.S. Southern Command.
The press release included video footage from the operation. The video shows some shots of helicopters lifting off, and some aerial footage shows a group of men gathering around or loading into a helicopter.
The announcement of the operations in Ecuador was nearly contemporaneous with another large drug bust that resulted from the cooperation of U.S., Ecuadorian, and Europol forces, according to the U.S. Embassy of Ecuador.
This joint operation, which had reportedly been carried out since January 2025, reportedly successfully dismantled the transnational drug trafficking organization Hernán Ruilova Barzola, linked to the Los Lobos cartel. Los Lobos emerged as Ecuador's largest drug trafficking organization in recent years following the assassination of the leader of a rival gang in 2020. By June 2024, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned Los Lobos as the country was engulfed in increasing violence, according to a press release at the time.
Authorities successfully apprehended 16 suspects, including a high-value target, and "significant quantities of cocaine and cash."
The embassy lauded the conclusion of the operation as an "important milestone in disrupting the operations and finances of narcoterrorists, directly contributing to the security of the United States."
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One of the least surprising but potentially most impactful moves of the NFL offseason has been made.
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A measure to require voter ID is moving ever closer to getting on the November 3 general election ballot in California.
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They used to mock him as a talking head. They said he wasn’t “serious.” On Monday at the Pentagon podium, Pete Hegseth looked deadly serious — a war secretary in command, unapologetic and unbowed, taking the fight to Iran and to the Beltway class that never wanted him there in the first place.
For half a century, American wars have been fought on two fronts: the enemy overseas and the narrative at home. Presidents have lost the second front before they lost the first. Hegseth made clear that he has no intention of repeating that mistake.
Hegseth is treating the media as terrain, not as background. He understands how quickly a negative narrative can harden into conventional wisdom, and he intends to contest it.
Joined by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, he gave a comprehensive rundown of the opening days of Operation Epic Fury. The unprecedented multinational campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran has already removed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and much of the top layer of government and military leadership.
Hegseth delivered a no-nonsense overview in his pugnacious style, while Caine smoothly supplied operational detail. The language was blunt and steeped in the Pentagon’s effects-based, systems-focused lexicon of war: synchronized, focused, deliberate, precise, lethal.
The real show came during the Q&A. Hegseth demonstrated the value of national media experience. He understands that journalists don’t just observe war. They shape it. Reporters like to cast themselves as neutral, hovering above the battlefield rather than operating inside it. But they are players, whether they admit it or not.
That tendency showed up in the very first question: “What is our exit strategy here, and when will it be deployed?” “Exit strategy” carries baggage — Clinton after Mogadishu, then the quagmire in Iraq. Hegseth said he would “never hang a time frame” on U.S. operations and stressed that the commander in chief sets policy and timelines.
The administration’s priority is victory — not optics, not schedules, not narrative management. Victory.
Hegseth also dismantled what he called a “typical NBC sort of gotcha-type question” about expected troop levels. Preset troop limits, timetables, acceptable loss benchmarks — these become anchors for the press and handholds for the enemy.
Vietnam offers a cautionary tale. President Lyndon Johnson’s arbitrary troop “ceiling” boxed him in. Even when communist forces were shattered during Tet and opportunities opened, Johnson’s self-imposed limits narrowed his options. When the moment came, he could not move quickly enough.
RELATED: Trump’s Iran week: The hidden wins you didn’t hear about
Photo by Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
That history explains Hegseth’s refusal to get pinned down on numbers and metrics. Say too much publicly, and the enemy listens. Say too much, and the press locks you into a storyline you can’t escape.
President Trump has made the same point by refusing to rule out “boots on the ground,” preserving options if contingencies arise. Reporters hate ambiguity. In wartime, ambiguity keeps the enemy guessing.
Hegseth also grasps what some journalists rarely admit: Many in legacy media treat war coverage as opposition work. They question plans and policies as a default posture, amplify anonymous critics, hunt for classified information, and publish it.
This tension is as old as the republic. During the Civil War, General William Tecumseh Sherman called reporters “gossips” and “paid spies” and court-martialed Thomas Knox of the Cincinnati Commercial. In Vietnam, the conflict was fought as much in headlines as in the field. Today, reporters chasing clicks can manufacture controversies — real or imagined — that distract from the mission.
Hegseth is treating the media as terrain, not as background. He understands how quickly a negative narrative can harden into conventional wisdom, and he intends to contest it. The battlefield stretches from Tehran to the briefing room — and Hegseth just signaled that he plans to dominate both.
Russia said Tuesday that President Vladimir Putin plans to relay concerns from Gulf Arab leaders to Tehran over Iranian strikes on regional oil infrastructure, as Moscow seeks to use its dialogue with Iran to help ease escalating tensions between countries that include fellow BRICS members Russia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
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