CBS News ‘Shamefully Edited’ Interview To ‘Whitewash’ Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Background, Noem Says

CBS News edited an interview with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to “whitewash” the criminal background of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, according to Noem.

Noem appeared on CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday and defended the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Abrego Garcia, who is currently challenging his planned removal to Uganda.

The Homeland Security Secretary said that Abrego Garcia, who is in the United States illegally, committed crimes against children and his wife, but when her interview aired on CBS News, the network had cut out the part in which Noem had talked specifically about the accusations that Abrego Garcia is facing.

“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,” Noem said in a clip that aired on Face The Nation.

The edit cut short Noem’s response, which continued on for nearly 30 more seconds.

“This individual was a known human smuggler, a MS-13 gang member, an individual who was a wife beater, and someone who was so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors,” Noem had continued in a clip that never made it to air, but that Noem later posted on social media.

“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,” said Noem. “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.”

Noem said that the network “shamefully edited” her interview to “whitewash” Abrego Garcia.

“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,” she wrote in a post on X.

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

The Department of Homeland Security moved earlier this month to deport Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, to Uganda after a court order prevented his deportation back to his home country.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, an Obama appointee, put the deportation on hold until Xinis can hold an evidentiary hearing on a lawsuit Abrego Garcia filed challenging his deportation to Uganda. Xinis had previously ordered the Trump administration to “take all available steps to facilitate the return” of Abrego Garcia to the United States after he was sent to El Salvador.