Bulwark Takes - Noem Calls Biden a Tyrant, Trump a Savior—For the Same Thing

Episode Date: August 31, 2025

Kristi Noem insists Los Angeles was spared from destruction only because of Trump. Sam Stein shows why this is absurd and has the receipts of when Noem ignored the same logic in her own state.

Hey, guys, it's me Sam Stein here with The Bullwork. It is Labor Day weekend. Happy Labor Day. Not Labor Day yet, but it's Sunday and everyone's chilling except for me because I was watching the Sunday shows. And something so absurd happened with Christie Nome that I felt the need to jump on YouTube and talk about it because it was pretty ridiculous and hilarious. So Christine Nome was on Face the Nation, CBS show. She's there to talk about the whole spectrum of Trump immigration, deportation, related news. And in the course of being asked about all this stuff, Ed O'Keefe, the host, princessor on the decision to deploy National Guard to Los Angeles. Now, if you remember, this was like the first case test for the administration where there was protestations or protests over the ICE operations in L.A., primarily because they were targeting home depots

and things like that. And so there's some scattered protests, but it was like kind of confined to a few blocks. And folks who were in L.A. at the times, basically, we were like this, it's so overblown. It's like a three or four block radius where there's some trouble. The administration is making a big deal out of it.

They're sending in all these troops. It makes no sense. And, yeah, we kind of forgot about it because we moved on to a million other things. But anyways, here's Christy Knoem on CBS this morning, saying with a totally straight face, I can't believe it, that if not for President Trump sending in the guard,

the entire city of Los Angeles, the second most populous city in the country, I think it's like 500 square miles, I'll double-check that, that it would not have been left standing, if not for President Trump. Just I'm not even, I don't think I'm being hyperbolic or exaggerating. Just listen to what she has to say. Part of what distinguished the Los Angeles operations, however, is that National Guard

troops were there, in essence, protecting or backing up those federal agents as they conducted operations. Is that what we should expect to see in Chicago? You know, that always is a prerogative of President Trump in his decision. I won't speak to the specifics of the operations. that are planned in other cities, but I do know that L.A. wouldn't be standing today if President Trump hadn't taken action, then that city would have burned down if left to the devices of the mayor and the governor of that state. All right, so there you have it. Thank God for President

I can't even, thank God for President Trump, because if not, the city of Los Angeles would have been raised to the ground, just, you know, a heap of ashes. I did double check this during the during that time that we played the video, it is 503 square miles, which is 469 square miles of land, 34 square miles of water. So all of it would have been gone. It would have been devastating. Obviously, this is bullshit. I was thinking about this a little bit because why do people say things that are so absurd

like this? I mean, you can make the case that in that confined space, there was some lawlessness and disorder. Certainly protests were targeting law enforcement officials. You can make the case and keep it like that. But why go to the absurd lengths that Nome went to? I mean, obviously because they want to scare people. But like, it's because people who don't step foot in these cities have a perception of these cities that they are dystopian hellholes that you can't even walk without being mugged. And I see it all the time online because I'm here in D.C. and when I'm defending the city as being actually not a bad place to live. People are like, oh, yeah, if you like getting

carjacked every day. I mean, thank goodness. I haven't been. I mean, D.C. has its problems. But that's really not the prevailing image of D.C. as someone who lives here. And anyone who's in L.A. will tell you that this is absurd, the idea that the city would have been lost, if not for President Trump. Let's go to the second clip, because this was like a kind of a real. double whammy from Nome this morning. The idea here is they're basically, the administration's building up for more confrontations in which they send both the National Guard and potentially the military into American cities. So far in D.C., we have a number of different agencies who are involved. And if you remember, the military was sent to L.A. briefly, but they were in sort of an

advisory and help role. Trump's been threatening to send the military into Chicago a lot recently. And the governor there, J.B. Pritzker, has been defiant saying, do not do it. Don't, you know, don't call up the state's national guard to go into Chicago. The city's mayor, Brandon Johnson, has basically said, I think he issued an executive order saying forbidding the police department from cooperating with federal officials. I'll double check that one too. But there's a real defiance from the local and state officials towards the possibility of Trump sending in the guard and potentially a military. into Chicago. Noam was asked about this as well. And she had this kind of curious rejoinder to Pritzker that really piqued my interest because it flies in the face of pretty much how she herself acted when she was governor of South Dakota. But let's take a listen. And then on the flip side, I will give you a few facts. This seems like it's more about Governor Pritzker's ego now, rather than actually protecting his people. If he has one murder in the city of Chicago, he should be calling President Trump and saying,

what's your ideas? What can we do? They don't even honor our detainers in Chicago. They don't go out there and work with us to make sure we're bringing people to justice. And instead he goes on TV and he attacks me when we're doing exactly what those people need is they need someone to help them get the dangerous criminals off their streets.

And if he has one, two, five, or ten, those victims and their families deserve to walk in freedom on those streets and not have to worry about what's going to happen to them on their way to their job. So there you have it. she says Pritzker should have called President Trump if there was simply one murder in Chicago, which Chicago has its problems with murders, no doubt.

But after one murder, she says J.B. Pritzker should have called President Trump to collaborate on how to crack down on the crime problem in Chicago. Okay. Well, Christine Ome was a governor prior to becoming the Homeland Security. secretary and yes it was south dakota um but they had murders in fact i pulled up an article and i'm going to find a few because i want to read it directly south dakota office of attorney general has released the overall number of reported criminal offenses statewide for 2024 the asia's office says reported criminal offenses in the state increased 1.21 percent compared to 2023 the number of homicides

jumped from 18 to 31 again 18 to 31 is a big increase but it's south dakota and And so the actual overall number in the aggregates pretty small. Chicago, you could get 31, honestly, in a matter of a couple of months, maybe even less. But there was an increasing crime from 2023 to 2024. And this is in a small state. And by Nome's own argument, one murder should have resulted in her calling up Joe Biden to say, hey, how can I get this stuff under control? Help me help my state.

Did she do that? No. Christine Ome was vehemently opposed to the idea of President Joe Biden helping out by sending in the National Guard to anything. She called it an affront to states' rights. Here she is talking about Biden using the National Guard, deputizing National Guard, to deal with the immigration issues during his administration. You can tell the difference just by listening to the words.

People ask me why when I heard the news, I immediately the next day was at the border. And it was because of what I heard Democrats encouraging the president to do. They were encouraging President Biden to activate our National Guard soldiers so that they would stand down. He actually was going to take control of our South Dakota National Guard and actually activate them so that they would not protect America. So recognizing the real threat that was to state's rights and how that would be the first time in history a president would pay a soldier to not fight, to not protect our country, made me show up in Texas the next. state to let Governor Abbott know, I'm here. South Dakota is with you. We will defend our Constitution. We will defend our rights because the last several years, we've seen Democrats take away our freedom of religion, our freedom of assembly, our freedom of speech. We can't let

them take away our state's rights, too, especially our rights to protect ourselves. All right, so there you have it. Noam was very much on the record opposing the use of National Guard by the President back in 2024. Now she believes that the National Guard should be deputized to go into the cities. She believes that one murder should necessarily. the governor of a state calling up the president to say, hey, help me out when in fact the numbers in her state and number of murders, homicides went from 18 to 31 at a time when they were dropping nationally. But I have no record of her calling up Joe Biden to say help out with the murders in South Dakota. In the end, we should thank her, though, or I guess thank

Donald Trump because we would not have Los Angeles, if not for the intervention that took place a couple months ago. So as you walk the streets of Los Angeles, as you admire Hollywood, the signs and the hills, if you enjoy the lovely streets, maybe you're going for a shop on our day of drive, maybe you're just getting some good food from one of those quality restaurants they have there. Thank Trump, because we wouldn't have that, if not for him. And thank you for watching because, you know, we got to get through this somehow, so might as well do it together. Appreciate it. Subscribe to the feed. Hope you enjoyed this. Tell your friends and family, we'll talk to you later.