President Donald Trump unloaded on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at a heated cabinet meeting this week, railing against her for failing to stop illegal border crossings.
Trump, who has growing increasingly frustrated by a spike in apprehensions at the border and other legal setbacks, blamed Nielsen Wednesday for failing to do enough to stop them, according to people familiar with the exchange.
Nielsen, one person said, tried to explain the issues were complex and that the department's powers were limited by a slew of legal restrictions. She told the president her team was doing everything it could, but the president was left unconvinced.
The episode, first reported by The New York Times, left Nielsen on the verge of resignation, according to the paper, which also said Nielsen, the former deputy White House chief of staff, had drafted - but not submitted - a resignation letter.
But the department pushed back on that characterization. Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton said in a tweet that,
"The @nytimes article alleging that the Secretary drafted a resignation letter yesterday and was close to resigning is false." The secretary, he added, was "hard at work" Thursday "on the President's security-focused agenda and supporting the men and women of @DHSgov."
She added that, "Border security is the most basic and necessary responsibility of a sovereign nation" and said she would "continue to direct the Department to do all we can to implement the President's security-focused agenda."
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