A congresswoman wants to impeach Kristi Noem. She’s right to do so | Jan-Werner Müller

8 hours ago 10

In the wake of the killing of Renee Nicole Good, Congresswoman Robin Kelly has announced the filing of three articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary. Predictably, reactions have been muted at best: with the GOP holding both the Senate and the House, impeachment can be dismissed as purely performative, a helpless response to an in and of itself understandable moral imperative of “just do something!”

But such dismissals are too quick: this administration has been running on a promise of impunity at all levels, and Democrats have to start signaling that actions have consequences. They also need to break out of a fateful dynamic: during Trump 2.0, misdeeds and scandals are following each other in such rapid succession that neither the press nor the public ever seem to get to focus on one. Impeachment can concentrate minds and slow down political time.

Of course, on one level it is obscene to make a senseless killing immediately subject to political calculations – what happened in Minneapolis is not a test of Machiavellian savviness, but of one’s capacity for compassion and decency. Trump’s sycophants have been failing it; they rushed into TV studios, spreading lies about Good’s conduct as well as her character, outdoing each other in blaming and smearing the victim. They have also effectively communicated that anyone deemed somehow to stand in the way of Stephen Miller’s will triumphing can be declared a “domestic terrorist” – and treated like the law no longer protected them at all.

As so often, JD Vance turned out to be particularly vile; he also falsely asserted that ICE officers have “absolute immunity,” reinforcing the message to American citizens that there is simply nothing they can do if one misbehaves.

Lies that go unopposed tend to stick, and the rewriting of the history of January 6 demonstrates that Trumpists will be relentless in making everyone repeat them, as they become part of a political loyalty test. Impeachment is one way of creating a truthful record. Impeachment cannot simply be stopped by the House speaker. Kelly has announced that she wants to charge Noem with willfully obstructing congressional oversight, with directing unconstitutional actions, and with abusing her office for personal benefit.

That combination makes sense, because it highlights the particular political dynamic of this administration: from the pardoning of violent insurrectionists on day one, it has signaled that those obeying Trump and working for his benefit – whether political or financial – could count on impunity. And while not every ICE agent is a monster, the number of monstrous acts have been so large that there can be little doubt that the violence and cruelty are systemic and in a sense encouraged from the top. The obscene ads for the DHS – including not just the dehumanizing dramaturgy of cop shows, but outright Nazi iconography – are not somehow irrelevant aesthetics; whoever studies them cannot be surprised if state agents start to act more like death squads.

The imperative of staging spectacular violence – and then lying about the circumstances, laughing about victims, and refusing to be held accountable – is likely to get stronger the weaker Trump becomes politically; after all, there will be more of a need for intimidation. From blowing up fishermen in the Caribbean to having masked men parade around school grounds as if it were Fallujah – the message is that anyone can become subject to arbitrary and unaccountable power. And – this is why it’s important to include the point about Noem’s apparent corruption – the lawlessness also removes restraints on self-enrichment.

Smart aspiring autocrats actually realize that they should at least occasionally do something to convince citizens that legality still exists and that bad actors face consequences. Consolidation of power matters more to them than the kind of unconditional celebration of cruelty that appears popular only with Vance’s very online crowd.

Some might worry that signaling punishment for Trumpists down the line will only increase the lawlessness (and any willingness to prevent the midterm elections from being free and fair). That is not a crazy concern. But, of course, by that logic, one might as well give up on accountability altogether and concede that the initiative – and, ultimately, power – now rest permanently with one’s political adversaries. More important, it seems clear, given the will to lie no matter what, members of this administration do not need excuses grounded in facts in order to escalate – they do it anyway.

A good opposition party takes the lead in framing issues – the same way the GOP did with its impeachment of Biden’s homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas (an effort that failed to remove the man, but reinforced the mindset that the situation at the border was out of control). A good opposition party makes their adversaries go on the record as to whether they support killings with impunity. And a good opposition makes the public focus on symbolic, revealing moments everyone can see: the killing of a mother of three, with the officer then calmly walking away from the carnage he caused; the refusal by ICE agents to let a doctor get close to the victim; and a DHS agent kicking over candles lit in memory of Good, saying: “I don’t give a fuck.”