Exclusive — LA Gov Landry: ‘Deep State’ Putting U.S, Lives at Risk Not Confirming Noem for DHS Right After NOLA New Years Terror

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, told Breitbart News exclusively that Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Senate need to stop playing games and confirm South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as the next Secretary of Homeland Security as quickly as humanly possible, because American lives may quite literally be on the line.

Landry is in Washington, DC ahead of former President Donald Trump’s second inauguration on Monday. He told Breitbart News that in the aftermath of the deadly ISIS terrorist attack in New Orleans on Bourbon Street on New Years Day, he needs a principal level partner confirmed immediately to work with ahead of the Super Bowl in New Orleans. The Super Bowl is coming up in just a few short weeks. Noem’s hearing was originally scheduled for Tuesday of this week, but bumped to Friday as the Senate awaits additional paperwork to be filed in consideration of her appointment. Landry is frustrated with the process and thinks the Republicans should just call the vote and vote her through.

“The American people are sick and tired of the dysfunctionality of Washington, DC,” Landry said. “Exhibit A is going to be these confirmations. When you look at history you see both Democrats and Republicans, Clinton, Bush, Obama, the majority of their cabinets were done by the next day. Yet, while President Trump is not in charge yet, it’s completely dysfunctional. We had a terrorist attack on New Years Day. We have the Super Bowl coming up. Immigration is the number one priority for Americans—that’s indisputable. Yet, the Cabinet secretary who’s involved in taking care of all of that is Kristi Noem and they’re going to drag that confirmation out? It’s ridiculous. And frankly it’s Republicans and Democrats, the fact they [the Republicans] won’t jam the Democrats up is ridiculous. Let’s just hold the vote. They’re out there waiting on the FBI to do a background check? Kristi Noem has been a governor for eight years and she’s been a member of Congress for six years, I mean what don’t we know about her? Come on man.”

Asked what he thinks is driving the delays, Landry said it’s “exhibit A of the deep state.” He thinks the GOP senators need to take control of this now and jam these nominees through Congress quickly—within a day or two of the inauguration.

“If Republican senators don’t man up and woman up—there’s both women and men in that department—then they [Democrats] will do what they always do and roll over us,” Landry said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Landry, whose state is still reeling from the New Years Day ISIS terrorist attack, said the “real world” impact of senators slow-walking Noem’s confirmation means that the Super Bowl coming up in New Orleans might be less secure.

“I can tell you, real world, let’s talk about security of the American people, whether you want to talk about immigration or not,” Landry said. “The Super Bowl is a tier one event—tier one—which means it’s the highest security protocol in the hierarchy. That means all of the federal government resources and the coordination and the funding flows through Homeland Security. Right now, I’m in limbo. Quite honestly, I would like to next week to be able to have Kristi Noem get a briefing on what’s going on with the Super Bowl. But it looks like that’s not going to happen. So who do we brief? It looks like we brief somebody who Kristi might say ‘hmm, maybe that’s not the right decision.’ Or maybe this person isn’t as involved because it’s not a permanent job. So I’m just not getting the principal.”

Landry said too that the lack of clear confirmation on Inauguration Day could even put lives at risk.

“It does [put people’s lives at risk],” Landry said. “I could appreciate if we were saying this and people were saying ‘oh, it’s just political rhetoric.’ But there were 14 people slain—run over—on Bourbon Street and countless others hospitalized. Many still are and they’re in intensive care. That was 15 days ago. Like, really? It’s tone deaf. Then, let’s talk about this: California’s largest ever natural disaster. All the FEMA funding flows through Homeland Security. You don’t think Californians care about having a Homeland Security chief in place?”

Landry scoffs at anyone who argues the career bureaucrats there will handle things in the meantime.

“Guess what? The career team that’s been there—‘oh don’t worry the federal bureaucrats will operate it,’” Landry said. “Well guess what? Over eight years, over 210 million people voted that the bureaucracy is broken.”

Landry is using his time in D.C. ahead of the inauguration to aggressively push for Noem’s confirmation and the confirmation of other Trump cabinet nominees.

“Everybody I can talk to. I just talked to the Speaker of the House about it,” Landry said. “He can’t do much because it’s the Senate. I’m talking to senators, and doing interviews. I’ll talk to whoever will listen. It’s just ridiculous it really is. Can you imagine if this was like a 9/11 event or the Boston bombing and it happened just before Biden or Obama just got in and Republicans were slow walking their Homeland Security Secretary? Just imagine that. This guy rolled down Bourbon Street with an ISIS rag on his truck and they’re not even talking about it anymore. Suppose he had rolled down there with a Trump flag—we’d still be talking about it. It just shows you how dysfunctional all of Washington really is.”

The message the Senate and Washington, DC more broadly should take from November’s election, Landry added, is that this win by Trump is “bigger” than his 2016 win.

“Of course they’re shellshocked,” Landry said. “Immigration is the number one issue on Americans’ minds right now. The economy is chewing away at the middle class. Tell me something that Biden is going out on that’s a good metric other than just that he’s leaving?”

But, he said, Republicans could squander their historic opportunity here if they do not get cracking and fast.

“Bingo. That’s why I’m doing this interview,” Landry said when asked if the GOP could blow it. “That’s what my frustration is. The American people are going to require Republicans to go govern.”

Landry had one final message, too, for GOP Senators and for Democrat Senators: For Republicans, he said, they should just do what’s right for the right reasons and the rest will fall into place. But for the Democrats, he said, they should stop being so hardcore party-line radical and instead start working with the Republicans on the common sense reforms that Trump supports.

“I think I would encourage Republican Senators to just do what’s right and don’t worry,” Landry said. “For Democrats, you better start looking at those election results and figure out why things turned out the way they did and maybe you should start doing what you’ve been telling us for the last 30 years and joining us on our side of the aisle on some bipartisanship.”

Breitbart