Democrats Sound Off On Kirstjen Nielsen's Resignation: 'About Time' She Left
Immediately following President Donald Trump’s announcement that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was resigning, Democrats doubled down on their criticism, recalling her defense of the administration’s policy of separating migrant families seeking asylum at the southern U.S. border.
On Sunday, Trump tweeted that U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan would replace Nielsen as acting secretary.
While certain lawmakers said it was time for Neilsen to go, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) identified her departure as a sign that Trump’s own staffers “aren’t radical enough” to suit his positions.
When even the most radical voices in the administration aren’t radical enough for President Trump, you know he’s completely lost touch with the American people. https://t.co/4hyz8VGwQv
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 7, 2019
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) echoed similar sentiments, saying Nielsen’s replacement should be someone “who will respect the sanctity of families, honor our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and restore sanity to this Administration’s policies.”
“It is deeply alarming that the Trump Administration official who put children in cages is reportedly resigning because she is not extreme enough for the White House’s liking,” Pelosi said in a statement. “The President’s dangerous and cruel anti-immigrant policies have only worsened the humanitarian suffering at the border and inflicted vast suffering on the families who have been torn apart.”
2020 Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Kamala Harris (Calif.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.), who, like Schumer, opposed Nielsen, welcomed her departure, calling her unqualified and ripping her over her defense of “inhumane” treatment of migrants.
About time. @SecNielsen’s legacy of tearing innocent families apart will follow her for the rest of her life—and she should be ashamed of the role she played. She was completely unqualified to lead @DHS—and that's why I voted against confirming her. https://t.co/17iglABdvC
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 7, 2019
Kirstjen Nielsen misled the American people and defended Trump's inhumane policy of separating children from their parents.
It was long past time for her to go. https://t.co/3KXTHKZTRd— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 7, 2019
I voted against Kirstjen Nielsen’s nomination, and called for her resignation over the administration’s inhumane treatment of immigrant families six months ago. What this country truly needs is a moral reset on immigration policies—we won’t get that in this administration.
— Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) April 7, 2019
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), another staunch opponent of the Trump administration, decried the use of “cages” for migrants under Nielsen’s tenure, suggesting the president “fired her because she wasn’t cruel enough.”
I would like to believe @realDonaldTrump fired @DHSgov Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen because she separated toddlers and children from their parents, and also put people in cages. But I fear @POTUS fired her because she wasn't cruel enough. https://t.co/PVfktxLnL5
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) April 7, 2019
The rebukes were echoed by House Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), who called Nielsen’s time in office “a disaster from the start.”
“It is clearer now more than ever that the Trump Administration’s border security and immigration policies ― that she enacted and helped craft ― have been an abysmal failure and have helped create the humanitarian crisis at the border,” he said in a statement Sunday.
Though Nielsen reportedly privately argued with Trump over family separations, she maintained her defense of the practice in public, claiming it was not a policy.
In her resignation letter, Nielsen said she “determined that it is the right time for me to step aside.”
“I hope that the next Secretary will have the support of Congress and the courts in fixing the laws which have impeded our ability to fully secure America’s borders and which have contributed to discord in our nation’s discourse.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
