Kristi Noem criticized for posing "irresponsibly" with an M4 rifle

Kristi Noem participated alongside Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a series of raids against illegal immigrants in Arizona. The Homeland Security secretary was accompanied by some media outlets, such as The New York Post, to document the operations. However, these remained in the background, since almost all the attention fell on a video posted by Noem on social networks.

It turns out that the Homeland Security secretary appeared in a video wielding a gun between two ICE agents. What quickly caught the attention of users was that the official's gun appeared to be with the magazine on and pointed at the head of one of the agents.

Experts consulted by VOZ state that the Secretary of Homeland Security did not respect the most elementary safety standards and criticize that no one warned her of the tremendous mistake. "Although she doesn't have her finger on the trigger, the position with a colleague next to her is terrible," the VOZ sources point out. "The truth is, it was something very irresponsible. Not only from her but also from those who did not tell her anything. In this case, the gun should be in a straight line and down, next to her leg," they added.

The video exceeded seven million reproductions; of course, the comments on social networks were not long in coming, mostly criticizing the former governor of South Dakota.

"Noem is pointing the muzzle of the (rifle) M4 at an agent with an open dust cover, indicating a chambered round. It's the worst possible place to point it. No one stopped her, including the agent to her left, who should know better but also has bad muzzle discipline," noted military journalist Alex Horton of the Washington Post.

One of the few members of Congress to respond to Noem was Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who served in the U.S. Marine Corps for several years.

"You have a magazine inserted. That tells me you likely have a round in the chamber. And if you have a round in the chamber, the most important thing you have to always deal with in dealing with weapons handling is you have to assume every weapon is loaded. And you're pointing that weapon directly at that guy's head on the left-hand side. So that is a problem, Secretary Noem," Gallego expressed in a video posted on his X account.

Criticism of Noem for the video with the gun.