After federal agents killed Renee Good, polls showed a public backlash. After federal agents killed Alex Pretti, it got worse.
On Capitol Hill, a growing number of lawmakers — including a handful of Senate Republicans — want Kristi Noem to resign or be fired.
A new poll shows the American mainstream agrees. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-02-05T21:30:17.893Z
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/kristi-noem-dhs-popularity-national-poll
Almost immediately after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, the Trump administration wasted little time settling on a narrative that it expected Americans to believe: The victim, a 37-year-old mom, was the villain of the story.
The American mainstream didn’t buy it. A national Economist/YouGov poll, for example, found the vast majority of Americans are familiar with what transpired in Minneapolis, and by a 20-point margin, people saw the shooting as unjustified (50% vs. 30%). The same poll also found that a 47% plurality said ICE is making Americans less safe, while a 46% plurality said ICE should be abolished altogether.
Around the same time, a Quinnipiac University poll found that 57% of Americans disapproved of the way ICE was enforcing immigration laws, while 40% approved......
As bad as this looks for the president’s agenda, there’s yet another element of the results that stood out for me. From Quinnipiac’s review of its data:
Nearly 6 out of 10 voters (58 percent) think Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem should be removed from her job, while 34 percent think she should remain in her job.
‘A strong no confidence vote for the beleaguered top cop at Homeland Security whose agency’s job performance is considered dismal enough by voters that she should be let go,’ [Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said].
On Capitol Hill, a growing, bipartisan group of lawmakers have called for Noem’s ouster, and the number of House Democrats backing an impeachment resolution against the South Dakota Republican is up to 187.
Whether Trump cares or not, the DHS secretary is an increasingly obvious political liability.
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