WASHINGTON (AP)—U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson didn’t mince words following Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem’s firing Thursday, calling her tenure “one of the most lawless, corrupt, and reckless in modern history.”

Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District and the ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security, issued a statement Thursday after President Donald Trump fired the embattled Noem. Trump said he would nominate in her place Oklahoma Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin.

“Time and again, she ran afoul of the law—and court orders—and put her vanity ahead of the safety of the American people,” Thompson said in his statement. “Her brazen corruption—including her cozy relationship with so-called ‘special government employee’ Corey Lewandowski—turned the agency responsible for protecting the homeland into a multibillion-dollar grift.” 

Trump made the announcement on social media on Thursday, two days after Noem faced a grilling on Capitol Hill from GOP members as well as Democrats.

Trump says he’ll make Noem a “Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas,” a new security initiative that he said would focus on the Western Hemisphere.

Noem is the first Cabinet secretary to leave during Trump’s second term. Noem’s departure caps a tumultuous tenure overseeing immigration enforcement tactics that have been met with protests and lawsuits.

Noem has faced waves of criticism as she’s overseen Trump’s immigration crackdown, especially since the shooting deaths of two protesters in Minneapolis at the hands of immigration enforcement officers. The former South Dakota governor was also criticized over the way her department has spent billions of dollars allocated to it by Congress.

Frustrations over Noem’s execution of the Republican president’s hard-line immigration agenda—particularly her leadership after the shooting deaths of the two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis—as well as her handling of disaster response, paved the way for her downfall. She faced blistering criticism from Democrats, and some Republicans, in Congress hearings this week over those issues and others.

Aside from immigration, Noem also faced criticism—including from Republicans—over the pace of emergency funding approved through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and for the Trump administration’s response to disasters.

Thompson added in his statement that “accountability does not end” with Noem’s firing. 

“Homeland Democrats will continue pursuing the truth and uncovering the full extent of the misconduct that defined her tenure. The American people deserve answers and a Department of Homeland Security worthy of their trust,” the congressman said.

Mullin would need to be confirmed by the Senate, but under a federal law governing executive branch vacancies, he would be allowed to serve as an acting Homeland Security secretary as long as his nomination is formally pending.

Mississippi Free Press Assistant Editor Kevin Edwards made additions to this report.

Assistant Editor Kevin Edwards joins the MFP after spending more than six years in newspapers around Mississippi. A native of El Paso, Texas, Kevin moved to Cleveland in Bolivar County when he was 10 years old and has spent most of his life in the Mississippi Delta. He graduated from Delta State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in liberal studies, as well as a master’s in journalism from the University of Memphis. Following his education, he spent a year with the Birmingham, Alabama-based nonprofit Impact America in its Memphis office as an AmeriCorps member, providing free vision screenings to young children and free tax preparation for working families. His time as a reporter includes nearly four years with The Greenwood Commonwealth in Greenwood, as well as The Bolivar Commercial in Cleveland and The Commercial Dispatch in Columbus. Kevin lives in Sidon, just outside Greenwood city limits in Leflore County.

Michelle L. Price is a national political reporter for The Associated Press. She is based in New York.

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