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MAGA is fueled by outrage. Grievances (and the belief in an alternate reality) are the lifeblood of the movement. A corporate logo without a barrel on it, a random liberal saying something about the pretty blonde jeans lady on social media, or any conservative facing “injustice” at the hands of someone “woke” are all reasons for the outrage machine to go into overdrive.  

And, if you can convince the right-wing Internet that you were the one hard done by, then you can be a star for a moment… until all attention reverts back to Donald Trump.

While the president is in a league of his own when it comes to celebrating his alleged persecution, there are others who also understand how this game is played, such as Rep. Nancy “Hold the Line” Mace (R-SC), who is parlaying her sense of victimhood into a run for governor, or Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

The latter once again got an opportunity to play victim after an appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday.

This morning, I joined CBS to report the facts about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety.

Watch for the part of my interview that @CBS tried to… pic.twitter.com/28fsGZug48

— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) August 31, 2025

As it turns out, the mean, mean journalists censored her (“shamefully,” according to Noem) when she answered a question about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the undocumented immigrant who was illegally shipped to El Salvador and whom the administration has tried really hard to paint as a criminal mastermind/terrorist/gangbanger/child molester/wife beater*/etc.

It is hardly surprising that Noem tried to seize the opportunity to turn a question about whether the administration would deport him to Uganda instead of trying him for human smuggling in Tennessee into reminding Americans why Abrego Garcia is the most dangerous man on the planet, or that she was distressed to find out that CBS edited out that part from the version of the interview that aired on TV (although it was retained in the online version).

As a service to Noem, we are printing the relevant part of her answer, including the part that was omitted (“shamefully”), which we italicized.

Although this individual does have criminal charges pending. He has charges pending against him civilly as well, and the one thing that we will continue to do is to make sure that he doesn’t walk free in the United States of America. This individual was a known human smuggler, MS-13 gang member, an individual who was a wife beater and someone who was so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors and even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off. He was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating small children, so he needs to never be in the United States of America, and our administration is making sure we’re doing all that we can to bring him to justice.

Here is the thing: Very little of that is accurate.

Abrego Garcia is not a “known human smuggler” and “MS-13 gang-member.” Sure, he has been accused of these things by the administration, but he has not been convicted of them. In fact, he has not even been charged with most of the things Noem accuses him of in the interview.

It is especially noteworthy that the only crime he has been accused of in court is the relatively minor offense of “human smuggling” instead of the more serious crime of “human trafficking.” In addition, it seems as though the Trump administration, in order to even secure an indictment, gave a sweetheart deal to a convicted felon in exchange for his testimony against Abrego Garcia.

Furthermore, the judge overseeing the Tennessee trial isn’t buying that he poses a risk to the community and released him pending trial.

Finally, even the administration’s plan of deporting Abrego Garcia to Uganda demonstrated that he is not a criminal.

When the African nation agreed last month to receive undocumented immigrants from the US, it stipulated that it would not accept criminals.

“This is a temporary arrangement with conditions including that individuals with criminal records and unaccompanied minors will not be accepted,” stated Uganda’s Foreign Minister Bagiire Vincent Waiswa at the time.

Fortunately for the administration, Abrego Garcia fits those requirements.

As for Noem, she shouldn’t be too upset that her lies were edited out.

After all, she still got to say a lot of other crazy stuff, for example, that Los Angeles “wouldn’t be standing” today if it had not been for Trump sending troops to put down mostly non-violent protests there that paled in comparison to the deadly January 6 insurrection that the president incited.

Which brings us to our recommendation to CBS for how it can avoid this kind of problem in the future: Stop inviting known liars and demagogues onto your shows. 

* It is true that Abrego Garcia’s wife filed a temporary restraining order against him in 2021 that says he punched and scratched her. She later tried to downplay what happened.

In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.