DHS insiders 'stunned' by timing of Kristi Noem's firing: report

Department of Homeland Security insiders were stunned Thursday after news that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was ousted by President Donald Trump, and people inside the agency reportedly were growing increasingly frustrated over her leadership and long-rumored affair with Corey Lewandowski, a special government employee.

CNN correspondent Priscilla Alvarez reported that DHS officials were surprised after Trump said that he had decided to replace Noem with former MMA fighter and MAGA Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) and demote her to "Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas."

"Multiple officials are stunned by this news," Alvarez said. "Not so much because these officials had a lot of confidence in the secretary and her management in the department, but rather because this happened so quickly after these two congressional hearings, which, as you heard from Kristen, was the catalyst to the president making this decision."

"The officials that I have been speaking with over the last year have raised multiple concerns over the way that the secretary was managing the department and not only her, but her chief adviser, Corey Lewandowski, who was serving as a special government employee," Alvarez said. "In other words, he was supposed to be there on a temporary basis. I had one Homeland Security official who, just hours ago, as we were talking about, the secretary told me this: 'People are tired of their s---. Honestly, it's been unreal.' And that captures what I have been hearing from so many officials over the last several months in a department, by the way, that under the Trump administration had experienced a lot of turnover."

Several insiders have told CNN they were waiting to see if things would change.

"This is a department that is charged with the president's campaign promise of mass deportations, so the department has really pivoted all of its might toward immigration, and that has caused frustration within the department," Alvarez said. "But it's always been clear to the officials who have been there that whoever was leading the department had a tall task, because it is the department charged with this responsibility. And for that reason, the way the secretary was handling the department, especially with Minneapolis in the wake of the shootings of two U.S. citizens who were fatally shot by federal agents, they were just shocked by the way that the secretary handled those initial moments."

Noem had been questioned for her responses to the shooting deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both Americans killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis.

"Remember, she called them a domestic terrorist," Alvarez said. "She was asked to apologize this week by lawmakers. She maintained her stance and instead extended her condolences. But it was all of these missteps as these officials saw it, that they believed was going to ultimately lead to her ouster."