What did the Axios report actually say about Kristi Noem's comments and who were its sources?
Executive summary
The Axios piece reported that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told an ally that “everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” a line that Axios obtained through people close to the internal White House/DHS discussions rather than from an on-the-record Noem statement [1] [2]. Axios built that reporting from multiple anonymous insiders — including a source who helped prepare the DHS statement, White House officials familiar with deliberations, and law‑enforcement sources aware of early Border Patrol reports — all of which Axios cited in recounting how the “gun/assassin” narrative circulated [2] [1] [3].
1. What Axios actually wrote about Noem’s comment
Axios reported that Noem privately told an associate — not via a public transcript or press conference — that “everything I’ve done, I’ve done at the direction of the president and Stephen,” and the outlet presented that as a quote relayed to it by insiders rather than as a direct, on‑the‑record admission from Noem herself [1] [2]. Axios framed the remark in the larger context of the federal response to the Minneapolis shootings and the scramble over messaging after the incident, observing that the comment appeared in conversations among aides and allies as the White House and DHS tried to control the narrative [2] [4].
2. How Axios described the origin of the ‘massacre/assassin’ language
Axios reported that early law‑enforcement reporting to the White House and Customs and Border Protection contained references to a gun, and that Stephen Miller “heard ‘gun’ and knew what the narrative would be: Pretti came to ‘massacre’ cops,” language Axios attributed to an administration source familiar with the drafting and dissemination of early statements [2] [3]. Axios further noted that Miller posted on X calling Alex Pretti an “assassin” shortly after the DHS statement, and that those initial characterizations were tied, in Axios’s reporting, to early CBP reports sent up the chain [2].
3. Who Axios identified as its sources
Axios relied chiefly on multiple anonymous insiders: a source involved in preparing the DHS statement who described internal disagreements and cleanup attempts; a source who said officers involved in the shooting “all shut up and got lawyers” limiting initial information; two sources who said Miller and Noem’s adviser kept the president briefed; and other White House officials who were described as familiar with the flow of information [2] [3]. Axios also cited reporting from CBP-originated material as the purported basis for early White House commentary, per Miller’s own defense to the outlet that comments were based on “information sent to the White House through CBP” [2].
4. What Axios did not — and could not — independently verify in its piece
Axios’s account makes clear it did not publish a contemporaneous on‑the‑record audio, video, or a direct transcript of Noem saying the quoted line; the outlet presented the line as reported to them by a person who heard it, and it relied on off‑the‑record or unattributed sources for most core claims about who drafted statements or who told the president what [1] [2]. Axios also reported that some internal White House officials disputed being fully briefed before the DHS statement went out, but those disputes were attributed to unnamed officials rather than to documents independently produced for the story [2].
5. Competing narratives and implicit agendas Axios flagged
Axios documented competing explanations inside the administration: Miller disputed implications that he fabricated the narrative by saying early comments were based on CBP reports, while other sources blamed Miller for amplifying “assassin/massacre” language and suggested Noem felt “hung out to dry” after the backlash [2] [3]. By using anonymous insiders close to different actors, Axios implicitly presented a battlefield of competing personnel narratives — one that serves political actors who want to shift blame internally and another that protects officials who insist they merely relayed agency reports [2] [5].