The Real Reason Kristi Noem Fired (and Rehired) a Coast Guard Pilot

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s blanket fiasco may not have been about a blanket at all.

The so-called ICE Barbie allegedly had her rumored beau, expired-special-employee Corey Lewandowski, fire a Coast Guard pilot last May after Noem neglected to bring her favorite weighted blanket onto the second flight of one of her trips.

But three DHS insiders that spoke with the Daily Mail indicate that the spectacle may not have been about an abandoned blanket, but rather a mysterious bag with potentially embarrassing contents.

“This was never about a blanket,” one insider with knowledge of the incident told the Mail. “The blanket was a cover story for what really happened. The whole thing was really about the bag that was left.”

The insiders were unable to shed light on what was in the bag.

Reports of the episode began to circulate earlier this month. A maintenance issue on one of Noem’s planes had forced her to land and deboard to another aircraft. The sudden switch inspired Lewandowski to fire the pilot responsible for flying the first plane—Keith Thomas, a commanding officer for the Coast Guard—after they discovered the blanket was missing.

Thomas was told to take a commercial flight home when they reached their destination.

But moments later, Lewandowski had to backtrack on the pilot’s terminated employment, though he didn’t do so in any admission of wrongdoing. Instead, Noem tapped the pilot to fly her around again because “no one else was available to fly them home,” reported The Wall Street Journal.

Noem’s alleged affair with Lewandowski is one of the worst-kept secrets in Washington. The pair are practically inseparable, and have been spotted grinding on each other at parties and leaving each other’s apartments, despite the fact that they are both married to other people.

The arrangement has become such a MAGA meme that the DHS secretary was actually mocked for taking her husband to a black-tie White House event over the weekend instead of Lewandowski.