Kristi Noem accuses CBS of ‘shamefully’ editing her interview on Kilmar Abrego Garcia to ‘whitewash’ MS-13 gang affiliation
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem went on a tirade against CBS News on Sunday over allegations the network edited her interview about alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant that theTrump administration deported to El Salvador earlier this year.
Noem was on CBS’ “Face the Nation” discussing Abrego Garcia Sunday morning, she said on X, but noticed by afternoon that the footage had been clipped to remove part of her answer.
“This individual was a known human smuggler, a MS-13 gang member, an individual who was a wife beater, and someone who was so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors, and even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off, he was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating small children,” the DHS chief said in the full, unaired clip.
“So he needs to never be in the United States of America and our administration is making sure we’re doing all that we can to bring him to justice,” she added.
“Secretary Noem’s “Face The Nation” interview was edited for time and met all CBS News standards,” a CBS rep told The Post. “The entire interview is publicly available on YouTube, and the full transcript was posted early Sunday morning at CBSNews.com
Noem wrote on X, “This morning, I joined CBS to report the facts about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.”
A US federal immigration judge ruled in 2019 that Abrego Garcia couldn’t be deported to El Salvador due to threats from local gangs — but the Trump administration flew him along with hundreds of other alleged gang members out of the country to a megaprison in the Central American nation earlier this year.
The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the violent MS-13 gang — a US-designated foreign terrorist organization — based on a determination during that 2019 court proceeding.
Abrego Garcia and his defense attorneys have denied the allegation.
Democrats visited with and advocated for Abrego Garcia, saying he was “wrongfully” removed to El Salvador and kept there for weeks first at the notorious prison CECOT and then at a lower-security facility.
The purported Salvadoran gangbanger was eventually brought back to the US in June and charged with human smuggling, but released briefly before that trial only to be apprehended again by ICE on Aug. 25
He now faces the possibility of being deported to Uganda after having declined to plead guilty to the smuggling charges as part of an agreement that would send him to Costa Rica instead.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are still working on getting him asylum in the US. His first attempt in 2019 was denied, but if this one is approved, it could put him on a pathway to a green card and American citizenship.
=============================================================================================
