No Bids for Noem

Yeah, yeah, I can't stand Kristi Noem for lots of reasons. Here's the latest. 

ProPublica just published what can only be called an exposé of the $220 million no-bid PR/promotion contract the Department of Homeland Security awarded to a company run by Noem's chief spokesperson's husband. They used the excuse of the imaginary border emergency for going without bids. They had to rush those ads out the door, see, because any delay would "increase the spread of misinformation, especially misinformation by smugglers." 

Right? It was an emergency that required an ad like Kristi sitting on a horse, telling immigrants they should come here "the right way." You know, that way that does not exist.

As the story begins at the ad shoot, it's the day after the government shutdown, and Noem is — as she so often finds herself — on horseback, this time with Mount Rushmore in the background:

But where there's a photo or video, there's also a big camera rig right in her face to capture this special moment:

It kind of ruins the naturalistic impression, doesn't it? Suddenly, Sheriff Kristi looks more like an actor than law enforcement.

The same publicity company, Strategy Group, worked on Noem's 2022 run for South Dakota governor, and has worked with her DHS collaborator (and supposedly paramour) Corey Lewandowski. It also did other work for her in South Dakota that was pretty suspect from a bidding perspective, and that splashed her face all through a bunch of state-paid ads and let her play dress-up on national TV before Trump appointed her in January.

Asked about the Strategy Group’s work for DHS, McLaughlin, the agency spokesperson [whose husband runs Strategy Group], said in an interview, “We don’t have visibility into why they were chosen.”

DHS claims that Strategy Group is a subcontactor to another contractor that was selected...mysteriously... It's a Delaware LLC that was formed a few days before it got the contract. Sounds legit!

Meanwhile, today, Noem's minions from CBP, ICE, or whatever other agency were once again dragging away clergy from outside the Broadview ICE detention center near Chicago. It's unclear what if any law the clergy were breaking.