Transcript of Trump Fires Kristi Noem, Middle East War Latest, Venezuela-US Diplomacy

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President Trump tries new leadership at the Department of Homeland Security.

Christie Noem oversaw an operation that killed two Americans in Minnesota. She lost her job when lawmakers questioned her spending on ads that promoted her.

I'm Michelle Martin. That's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. The US Israeli war with Iran is widening. Israel ordered residents to flee the Southern suburbs of Beirut. Israelis describe the area as a stronghold of Hezbollah. Our correspondence saw roads choked with people fleeing before bombs fell on their neighborhoods.

Two months after US forces seized Venezuela's President, the two countries are cutting deals. What does Washington want from Caracas? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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President Trump has fired his Homeland Security Secretary.

Christine Owen became the public face of the administration's mass deportations project. Now, she is a casualty in the first cabinet shakeup of Trump's second term. The President announced her firing in a truth social post on Thursday and said Mark Wayne-Mullen, a senator from Oklahoma, would replace her.

Let's talk this through with NPR immigration policy correspondent, Ximena Besteo. Ximena, good morning. Good morning. How did this come about?

Well, we didn't know Trump would fire her, but during two congressional hearings meetings before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees this week, I did notice that both Republicans and Democrats had questions about her leadership, including how efficiently the agency distributed disaster relief funds and what she had been spending her agency's money on. One of the most notable moments came during questions from GOP Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana. He asked Noem about a multimillion dollar immigration-related ad campaign that she ran last year. The contract for the ads went to a firm that was created just days before. And according to reporting from Investigative News Outlet, ProPublica, one of the beneficiaries was connected with the husband of former DHS spokesperson, Trisha McAchla. Now, NPR has not independently confirmed that reporting, but Kennedy did ask Noem if President Trump had asked her to run these ads. And Noem said and basically confirmed that Trump was okay with it.

Kennedy's questioning was interesting because he asserted that this contract was for hundreds of millions of dollars and that they basically promoted Noem rather than administration policy, that they were promotional ads for her and done by a company with political connections to her. Although it strikes me that that was her most prominent job was being the face of immigration enforcement.

Right. She was featured in many promotional social media videos, including standing in places like El Salvador's notorious prison, Secau, and on the front lines of many individual immigration arrests themselves. She always defended the actions of the agency, but that backfired after events in Minnesota. If you remember, two US citizens were killed by immigration officers there back in January. After the death of one of them, Alex Pretty, Noam was quick to label him a domestic terrorist.

This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts.

Now, that language, although used before, drew immediate bipartisan scrutiny in this case.

Okay, so she She's out. We haven't even gone through all the different controversies involving her, and she is to be replaced by Mark Wayne Mullen, United States Senator from Oklahoma. When would he start?

Trump says that Mullen takes over by the end of March, although, of course, he does need to get confirmed by the Senate to officially take on the post. Here's Mullen speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill after the announcement. I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at not a complete surprise, but it came at a little bit of surprise for us. And so The President and I, as you guys know, we're great friends, and we get along great.

I look forward to working with him in his cabinet. Of course, we still got to go to this little thing called confirmation.

One of his first tasks will be to address the lack of trust in immigration enforcement, which was a big theme this week during those hearings.

Where does the agency stand overall?

The agency is now in its third week without funding, which means hundreds of thousands of employees are furloughed or working without pay. Now, zooming out, Trump won his election in part due to promises to clamp down on border security. But in the wake of Minnesota, nearly two-thirds of Americans say immigration and customs enforcement has gone too far. That's according to a poll from NPR, CBS News, and Marist last month. Still, immigration enforcement continues to be a top issue for the President and for Democrats as we enter the midterm cycle.

And Piersa Meda Bistillo, thanks as always. Thank you. Israeli forces struck a suburb of Lebanon's capital overnight.

Beirut is a city of millions of people now, shaking from bombs and filled with evacuees. Israel ordered residents to flee a Southern suburb that it describes as a stronghold of Hezbollah. That group had responded to the US and Israeli attack on Iran.

Nprs Hadeel Al-Shalchi is in Beirut with a report. Hi there, Hadeel. Good morning. What's it like where you've been in the last 24 hours?

Well, it was quiet early this morning, but the Israeli military just announced that it is still striking the Dhaia neighborhood. It's really actually not that far from downtown Beirut, close to where I am, just about four miles away. The Lebanese government says that the death toll has now gone up to 100 people since the war with Iran began. Now, Steve, I was out reporting last night, right before the strikes yesterday, And roads, which are normally not busy at that time of night, were gridlocked. Israel had issued an evacuation order for the entire Southern suburb, and families were fleeing in trucks. The back of them were stuffed with blankets, kitchen products. They stuffed their kids back there, too. And then Beirut itself is just crowded with the displaced. Those with money are able to afford hotels or rent apartments. I found it hard to find a hotel room myself before coming here because they're so full. But then those who can't afford hotels are sleeping in their cars. And on the streets, the sidewalks are packed here with displaced families, mothers and children huddled under blankets to stay warm, men sitting around little fires to keep warm, also smoking cigarettes.

And Lebanese officials say over 95,000 people are now displaced. And some of those people from the south have had to evacuate their homes multiple times.

Well, I want to understand how we got here. So the US and Israel struck Iran last weekend. Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon is aligned with Iran. They fired upon Israel, the Israelis fired back. And then how did we get from that initial exchange of fire to this mass evacuation?

So you have to remember that Israel has actually been striking in Southern Lebanon and what it's calling Hezbollah installations for the past 15 months already, even though there was a ceasefire brokered last year. But then it just ramped it up after, like you said, Hezbollah launched rockets into Northern Israel earlier this week. Now, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group first said this was in solidarity with Iran, and then it backtracked it and said the rockets were because of ongoing Israeli attacks. But this is still the first time Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in those 15 months. Now we're seeing the Lebanese government is really trying to distance itself from Hezbollah and from Iran. Earlier in the day, I sat with Lebanon's Justice Minister, Adam Nassr. He instructed the Lebanese security authorities to issue arrest warrants for the Hezbollah members who launched those rockets into Israel this week, which is unprecedented. Nassr wants to dismantle Hezbollah's military wing. There is a move now in Lebanon to do that. Hezbollah's military wing operates mainly out of Southern Lebanon. But look, Hezbollah still enjoys popularity in Lebanon. But I'm hearing more and more people here say that they've dragged them into an unnecessary war.

And so Nassr says there are huge challenges.

How does this fit into other developments in the war?

Well, earlier this morning in Teheran, there was heavy bombardment in the city center near the Supreme Leader's old home. Fighter jets flew overhead. There were huge explosions. And then in the Gulf, Qatar's Defense Ministry said it thwarted a drone attack at the biggest US military facility in the Middle East. And in Bahrain, the government said two hotels and a residential building were targeted by Iranian strikes. In Israel, it was quieter than previous nights with no incoming missile attacks. The military's chief of staff there said last night that the US and Israel are working in what he called a, quote, historic cooperation.

And Pierre Cedil Al-Shalchi in Beirut. Thanks so much.

You're very welcome.

This network sends correspondence to get a first-hand view of events. And today, we have a report from Inside Venezuela.

Two months ago, US forces swooped into Caracas and seized Venezuelan President Nicolaus Maduro and his wife. Since then, the relationship between the US and Venezuela seems to be on a very fast mend. The two countries have made oil deals, they're now talking critical minerals, and have agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations.

Nprs Eider Peralta is in the country. Hey there, Eider.

Hey, good morning, Steve.

What's it feel like to be in Venezuela?

It is absolutely surreal because you land at the airport and the signs are in Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese. Which tells you just where this country was facing a few months ago. Then you go out on the streets and people here tell you that they feel like a weight has been lifted. For the first time in a long time, there are street protests, opposition groups are holding public meetings. I was at the Justice Department building yesterday, and there was a group of protesters calling for all political prisoners to be released. Venezuela has passed an amnesty law that had excluded anyone who called for a foreign intervention. I met Edward Ocaliz there, and he's a former political prisoner. He has faced the wrath of this government. But then right there in public, he taunted the government. They call us traitors, he said, but look at them now.

. Now it's them who are not only kneeling, he's saying, but sleeping with the United States.

To be clear, he thinks the US intervention was regrettable, but he also thinks that something good came out it, and that allows him to say this in public without being thrown back in prison.

Is that the only point of view you've been hearing?

No. Yesterday was also the 13th anniversary of the death of former President Hugo Chávez, and so hundreds of people came to pay their respects at his burial ground. In the middle of this crowd was this guy playing the guitar..

Yankee, go home.

And he is singing Yankee, Go Home. It was pure defiance at Chávez's tomb. But of course, this is happening at almost the exact time that Chávez's own party was sitting at the presidential palace cutting deals with US officials.

Well, and the American Secretary of the Interior is visiting. How's that going?

I suppose it could have been awkward because the interior secretary, Doug Burgum sat for a meeting right in front of Venezuelan interior secretary, Diosdalo Cabello Cabello, and that is the man who is wanted in the US for narco-terrorism. In fact, they're still offering $25 million for his capture. But what we saw instead were lots of smiles. Burgum ignored questions about Cabello or democracy, and he made clear that this is about business. The interim Venezuelan government has passed laws that make it easier for US oil companies to do business here. And Burgum says that they're about to do the same for the mining sector. And he explained the real politics play here.

One of the highest strategic national security threats to any democratic nation right now is China's control of critical minerals.

And those are the minerals in your laptop, for example. He says, Venezuela likely has those minerals. American companies would like to extract them, and Venezuela could suddenly become key in helping the US break reliance on China. A win-win, he called it. Yesterday, Trump said, Venezuela is working. Once again, he was framing it as the model for regime change.

Okay. And Pierre Zeta Peralta reporting from Caracas, Venezuela, with Sounds on the Streets. Thanks.

Thank you, Steve.

Just a reminder to follow us wherever you get your podcasts. In addition to the Daily News, you get the Sunday Story on the Up First podcast from NPR. This weekend, you hear about an open secret. In India, women are selling their eggs illegally for IVF.

This is just about providing a part of your body to another person, and And once that will work, they will have the babies.

We get to hear the story from one of our great storytellers, NPR correspondent Diya Hadid, investigating the Black market for human eggs in India. She also meets women who are selling their eggs to survive. And that's a first for this Friday, March sixth. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Michelle Martin. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Anna Yucananoff, Hannah Block, Tara Neill, Mohamed El Bordisi, and Alice Wolf It was produced by Zeehk Butch and Nia Dumas. Our director is Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Van Genhoven. Our technical director is Carly Strange. Our executive producer is Jay Shaler, and we hope you'll join us again on Monday. This message comes from Wise, the app for international people using money around the globe. You can send, spend, and receive in up to 40 currencies with only a few simple taps. Be smart.

Get Wise.

Download the Wise app today or visit wise. Com. T's and C's apply.