Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem returned to Fox News’ airwaves for the first time in three weeks for a Thursday night interview with Sean Hannity. In the interim, major news outlets have broken multiple bombshell stories about Noem’s wildly corrupt and incompetent tenure at DHS that would be career-defining scandals for most people in the political realm. 

How did Noem address the concerns about her behavior? She didn't have to, because Hannity — a go-to interview for Republicans seeking to clean up their messes — didn't ask her about any of it. Instead, the pair teamed up to condemn Democrats for refusing to support appropriations for her department without curbs on the administration’s brutal and authoritarian immigration enforcement policies, and to denounce their caricature of the Biden administration’s immigration track record. 

Noem was a Fox regular as a Republican member of Congress and governor of South Dakota before she joined President Donald Trump’s administration, and she appeared on the network’s weekday programming at least 40 times in 2025, according to Media Matters’ database. But prior to Thursday, her most recent Fox weekday interview came on the January 29 edition of Hannity's show, which she used to address her grotesque comments about the killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents.

Given Hannity’s close relationship with Trump, his see-no-evil treatment of Noem may indicate that she has weathered the storm she had faced in recent weeks. Here’s a sampling of the stories Hannity didn’t find it necessary to discuss with Noem:

• “Noem’s relationship with U.S. Coast Guard officials has become strained throughout her first year leading the department” and “has only worsened in recent months as Noem oversaw a tenfold increase in the use of the Coast Guard's aircraft for immigrant deportations, which has strained its limited resources” and deprioritized “search-and-rescue operations, which have long been the Coast Guard’s core mission.” [NBC News, 2/17/26]
• “The tension between some Coast Guard officials and Noem began after a 23-year-old Coast Guardsman went overboard into the Pacific Ocean from the cutter Waesche on Feb. 4 last year. … The Coast Guard had surged ships and aircraft to the Pacific to find the guardsman. Hours into the search, Noem learned that a Coast Guard C-130 that was supposed to fly detained migrants from California to Texas was among the aircraft over the Pacific looking for the missing guardsman, and she intervened. … Noem verbally instructed the acting commandant of the Coast Guard, Adm. Kevin Lunday, to pull the plane off the search-and-rescue mission so it would not miss the immigrant flight. … In an effort to keep the C-130 searching for the missing service member, the regional Coast Guard command in San Diego scrambled to find two available C-27s that could fly the detained people to Texas, which freed up the C-130 to continue searching for the missing guardsman after about an hour.” [NBC News, 2/17/26]
• Noem’s top adviser at DHS is former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who “had initially wanted to formally serve as Noem’s chief of staff, but Trump rejected the idea due to reports of a romantic relationship between the two—which he has continued to bring up, officials say. … Lewandowski and Noem, who are both married, have publicly denied the reports of an affair, but people said they do little to hide their relationship inside the department.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/12/26] 
• “The pair have lately been using a luxury 737 MAX jet, with a private cabin in back, for their travel around the country, according to people familiar with the matter. DHS is leasing the plane but is in the process of acquiring it for approximately $70 million. DHS has previously used other planes through the Coast Guard or other agencies for the secretary’s use. The purchase would be double the cost of each of seven other commercial planes the department is also buying at the pair’s direction to carry out deportations. ” [Wall Street Journal, 2/12/26]
• “Noem and Lewandowski’s management of DHS resources in particular has caused concern inside and outside the administration. Noem has put all department spending over $100,000 under an approval process that has held up contracts across DHS. … The approval process has given Noem and Lewandowski an opportunity to play a bigger role in the department’s spending decisions than is typical for a secretary. Given Lewandowski’s continuing business interests in the private sector, his role in awarding contracts has raised alarm bells inside the White House and DHS. Several officials inside the department said contracts and grants are being awarded in an opaque and arbitrary manner, and some are being held up without explanation.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/12/26]
• “Rodney Scott, the commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, has told administration officials that Noem and Lewandowski have mismanaged the construction of the border wall. … One of the contracts, for bulk steel, sat on Noem’s desk for approval for so long that from the time the deal was struck in December until it was signed Feb. 10, the price of steel went up more than $100 million. … At one point last year, Scott grew so frustrated that he told Lewandowski he wouldn’t take any more orders from him. … Around Christmas, Noem and Lewandowski retaliated against Scott.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/12/26]
• “Scott had also tangled with Noem and Lewandowski over their elevation of Greg Bovino, a Border Patrol official who led the combative operations in Minneapolis and Chicago, and who, on paper, should have reported to him. Scott objected to being cut out of the process—and warned them Bovino’s brash tactics would backfire on the whole department. The entire unit reported directly to Noem. After the Pretti shooting, Bovino was sent back to his posting in El Centro, Calif., and Scott was one of the officials sent to Minneapolis to help lower the temperature.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/12/26]
• “In the blanket incident, Noem had to switch planes after a maintenance issue was discovered, but her blanket wasn’t moved to the second plane, according to the people familiar with the incident. The Coast Guard pilot was initially fired and told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination. They eventually reinstated the pilot because no one else was available to fly them home.” [Wall Street Journal, 2/12/26]
• “Lewandowski made it known to top ICE officials that he wanted to be issued a law-enforcement badge and a federally issued gun, according to people familiar with his push. Officials are typically only issued a badge and a gun after undergoing law-enforcement training.” Two top DHS officials were apparently retaliated against for refusing to sign off on the paperwork. [Wall Street Journal, 2/12/26]