Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia is now openly disavowing his vote to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, calling his earlier support for her a big mistake.
The Democrat senator made the admission during an appearance on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, where he was pressed on his role in advancing Noems nomination. According to CBS News, Kaine was one of seven Senate Democrats who crossed party lines last year to back President Trumps choice of the South Dakota governor to lead DHS, a move that helped secure her confirmation and was touted at the time as a gesture of bipartisan cooperation.
That bipartisan goodwill has evaporated. President Trump announced Thursday that Noem would step down after a series of controversies, and he has tapped Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to take over the department.
Kaine attempted to justify his original vote by pointing to Noems executive experience in Pierre, arguing that governors are often good Cabinet secretaries. Yet he now insists the real problem was not Noems rsum but who he believes was exercising power behind the scenes.
But what we learned, and this bears going forward, is that she wasn't calling the shots, Kaine said. Stephen Miller is calling the shots, and as long as he is calling the shots without reforms, this is going to continue to be a very, very rogue, renegade department. His comments reflect a broader Democratic strategy of targeting Miller, a longtime Trump adviser, as the architect of the administrations toughest immigration policies rather than confronting the popular President directly.
Kaine warned that Mullin could face similar criticism if he aligns too closely with Miller once installed at DHS. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, speaking on CNN, also complained about Miller's outsized influence and even suggested he should be removed, though Tillis added that he expects Mullin to show more independence than Noem.
Kaine conceded that Mullin could demonstrate otherwise. Still, he made clear that Democrats intend to leverage the confirmation process to push their preferred changes to immigration enforcement.
What we want to see is not just the change in the name plate on the door, we want to see reforms to the way ICE and CBP operates, Kaine said. They should operate like local law enforcement does not invading peoples' homes without warrants, body cameras, not wearing masks. Those demands track long-standing progressive efforts to weaken federal immigration enforcement, often at odds with conservatives who argue for robust border security and the rule of law.
Like Noem, Mullin must now navigate a Senate confirmation, though he has already picked up at least one Democratic backer in Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. His nomination comes as DHS funding remains frozen in a political standoff that has effectively shuttered the department since Feb. 14.
Democrats are refusing to approve broad DHS funding unless they secure structural changes to immigration enforcement agencies, even as the departments other critical components including TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard remain entangled in the dispute. Kaine emphasized that his party wants to free those agencies from the impasse while keeping pressure on ICE and CBP, noting that immigration enforcement already received a substantial boost in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year.
They're not running out of money, Kaine said. We can continue the reform discussion there. His stance underscores a deeper ideological divide: conservatives largely see DHS and its enforcement arms as essential tools of national sovereignty, while Democrats are using the funding crisis and confirmation fight to constrain the very agencies tasked with securing the border in President Trumps second term.
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