Crockett on Noem trip to Israel: ‘You just had a good photo op'
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) slammed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem for her recent trip to Israel, declaring it just another 'photo op.'
Crockett said she didn't think anything substantive would come from the foreign trip scheduled days after two Israeli Embassy staffers were fatally shot outside of a museum in Washington.
'You just had a good photo op. And I think that that's probably all Kristi Noem is good for, is a photo op,' Crockett said Sunday during an appearance on MSNBC's 'Weekends with Alex Witt.'
Noem has faced heavy criticism in recent months from lawmakers and others for wearing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gear, including a bulletproof vest, in photos and videos and when speaking to reporters along the southern border. During a trip to El Salvador, the secretary also received pushback for giving remarks in front of prisoners at the notorious megaprison known as CECOT.
However, she said her Sunday trip to Israel was not arranged for the media but requested by President Trump after a shooting killed the couple, identified as 26-year-old Sarah Lynn Milgrim and 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky.
The two staffers were killed after a gunman opened fire outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last week. The shooter also shouted 'free Palestine' during the incident, according to police — likely in protest over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
'Following the horrific terrorist attack in Washington DC killing two Israeli diplomats, @POTUS Trump asked me to visit Israel and meet with Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu],' Noem wrote in a Monday post on the social platform X, showcasing MSNBC footage of her at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. 'Hate will not have the last word.'
Netanyahu also shared an image alongside the secretary thanking her for her 'unwavering support' of Israel.
Crockett has been openly critical of Trump and his administration since the president returned to the White House in January. She has also joined with her fellow progressive Democrats to push for change in her own party.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Explainer How Ukraine's Drone Arsenal Shocked Russia and Changed Modern Warfare
Kyiv's flying machines cost as little as $400 and can neutralize sophisticated Russian equipment worth thousands of times more. Outgunned, outmanned and outspent, Ukrainian troops have kept up the fight against invading Russian forces for more than three years. They might easily have been routed were it not for Kyiv's mass deployment of drones. Tens of thousands of the relatively cheap and expendable machines are now buzzing back and forth over the front lines, pinpointing Russian positions, gathering intelligence to anticipate impending assaults, colliding with enemy targets or dropping bombs on them. By early 2025, drones were accounting for 60% to 70% of the damage and destruction caused to Russian equipment in the war, according to UK-based think tank the Royal United Services Institute. Russia's military has developed a rival drone force and drawn upon a traditional strength in electronic warfare to upgrade its anti-drone technology. Yet Ukraine's highly adaptable drones continue to expose gaps and vulnerabilities in Russian defenses. In early June, drones launched from trucks hit airfields as far from the front as Siberia, damaging part of Russia's nuclear-capable long-range bomber fleet, according to Ukrainian officials. Military commanders around the world are taking note. Taiwan is investing in mass-produced drones in anticipation of a possible conflict with China. Israel has recalibrated the Iron Dome air defense system in the war in Gaza to account for maneuverable drones — one of its biggest blind spots. European governments embarking on their largest rearmament since the Cold War have identified drones and counter-drone systems as an investment priority. The US Pentagon, which pioneered sophisticated and expensive drones sourced from big arms contractors, is looking to buy cheaper ones designed by startups and deployed en masse. With President Donald Trump dialing down US military support for Ukraine, convinced that the war is Europe's problem to fix, Russian leader Vladimir Putin seems intent on pushing his advantage. A prevailing assumption among western military officials is that he aims to slowly wear down the Ukrainian army until the country's fighting power and money is eventually depleted. Ukraine's massive drone program may be its best chance to flip the script. Here's a detailed breakdown of the various types of drones used in Ukraine, and how they're changing modern warfare. Close Kill Drones Small, light drones with multiple rotors have become the defining innovation of the war. Known as first-person view drones, they are typically controlled in real time via a video feed by an operator who can 'see' through an onboard camera using electronic goggles so they can fly beyond the line of sight. Social media is full of videos showing the machines closing in on troops, armored personnel carriers, missile batteries and command posts until the moment of impact, when the picture turns to static. Other rotor drones are used to drop grenade-sized explosives on targets and can be reused if they make it back safely. Fixed-wing loitering munitions hover high in the sky until they locate a target, and then dive and blow up on impact. The latest dive-bombers, such as Ukraine's recently unveiled B-1, are designed to stay airborne for several hours and are quieter than earlier models, making them harder to detect. Deep Strike Drones Long-range drones designed as pilotless, fixed-wing airplanes, can fly hundreds of miles to their targets. Ukraine became painfully familiar with them in late 2022, when Russia started sending over swarms of explosive-laden Shahed drones made in Iran, killing civilians and damaging power infrastructure as far as the country's western borders. Moscow's forces have launched more than 20,000 of these UAVs since then. Kyiv has developed its own long-range strike drones and has been responding with attacks on oil refineries and fuel and ammunition depots in Russian regions as far away as Bashkortostan, some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from Ukraine. Ukraine has been stepping up its attacks on military and industrial installations deep inside Russia in recent months. Russia said it downed 485 Ukrainian drones during a two-day assault in early May that damaged several arms manufacturing sites and the country's only fiber-optic cable factory. The strikes, which delayed more than 100 flights as airports around Moscow temporarily halted operations, continued through the daytime, whereas previous attacks typically occurred overnight. It demonstrated Ukraine's growing ability to bring the war to residents of the Russian capital who had been largely insulated from it in their daily lives. No injuries were reported. Naval Drones Unmanned speedboats laden with explosives have made it too dangerous for the Russian fleet to come near Ukraine's Black Sea coast, where ships would be able to bombard cities and blockade ports. Recently, Kyiv has started arming them with missiles. In early May, Ukraine's intelligence services said naval drones brought down two enemy fighter jets near the Russian port of Novorossiysk. The drones can be controlled from hundreds of miles away using the US Starlink satellite broadband network. The growing capability of naval drones costing as little as $20,000 challenges the effectiveness of warships that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build. Reconnaissance Drones Small-rotor aerial surveillance drones help combat units to spy over nearby enemy trenches, while longer-range, fixed-wing drones map the locations of enemy units and equipment, making the staging area behind the front lines more dangerous. Surveillance drones can make aerial attacks more effective by spotting targets and delivering their coordinates for more precise targeting of howitzer artillery and ground- or air-launched missiles. Russia's Forpost spy drone provides laser guidance for glide bombs deployed by manned aircraft flying safely beyond the range of Ukraine's air defenses. For the early part of the war, Ukraine relied on Turkish-made Bayraktar drones to guide artillery firing on Russian armored units. It's now developed its own drones, Leleka and Furia, for the purpose. Russia's Orlan surveillance drones are a regular and menacing presence in the sky over Ukraine as they often foreshadow missile strikes. On the ground, Ukraine has begun deploying remote-controlled robot dogs to locate booby traps and Russian soldiers in places that flying drones can't access — such as inside buildings, along trenches and in dense woodland. Other Uses Rotor-winged drones can be used to haul food, water, medicine and ammunition to troops cut off by the enemy or when it's too dangerous to deliver supplies by road. Drones can be used as flying guides accompanying stranded servicemen out of dangerous territory. They are even used to take prisoners. The buzz of a drone will prompt some soldiers to hide or run. Others may try to shoot it down with a machine gun. Sometimes they signal surrender in the hope that the drone operator notices them and guides them to safety instead of dropping an explosive. How have drones transformed the battlefield? The bulk of FPV drones are easy to assemble in a small workshop from parts bought online. With the cheapest costing about $400, they can immobilize or even destroy a tank or other large piece of machinery worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — sometimes millions. They have allowed Ukraine to achieve some stunning military successes using relatively simple means. This has made Russia's armed forces adjust their tactics. Columns of tanks dispatched toward positions across swathes of open terrain are easy prey for Ukrainian drones. So commanders prioritize speed over armor, sending troops out on motorbikes, electric scooters and golf carts, or sometimes on foot to probe for weak spots in enemy lines. This forces drone operators to confront a multitude of smaller, scattered and fast-moving groups, and preserves the most expensive kit for larger, more coordinated assaults. The downside for Russia is that these mobile teams are more vulnerable when attacked, resulting in heavy casualties. Camouflage has become essential even miles from the front, and armored vehicles now sport jerry-rigged netting to entangle FPV drones that can only carry relatively small explosive charges. With more drones zipping across the landscape, sheltering in trenches has become a preferred option for soldiers when not on the move. The dugouts need to be better camouflaged than those used in earlier wars, and soldiers often forego hot food and avoid gathering in large numbers for fear of being detected by an eye in the sky. This permanent, blanket aerial reconnaissance has made it harder for either side to secure and hold territory, widening the 'gray zone' — the area of battle-scarred no-man's land that snakes for more than 1,000 km across Ukraine's eastern regions — to 25 km from 10 km in 2022. Military experts say it's also a reason why there's been little large-scale movement of the front lines, with Russia making only incremental territorial gains over the past year despite having more troops. Plans for further massive increases in drone deployment make it harder to predict the course of the conflict. Ukraine produced at least 1 million drones last year, and has plans to make 2.5 million in 2025, according to the country's strategic communications center. International sanctions haven't stopped Russia ramping up drone output, with Putin calling for annual production of 1.4 million this year, ten times the number Russia churned out in 2023. Innovations Developments are a constant cat-and-mouse game, with drones evolving on an almost daily basis as the adversaries figure out new ways to deal with each emerging capability. Jamming: It's feasible to knock down large drones such as Shahed using anti-aircraft machine guns, but shooting at tiny, omnipresent FPVs makes little sense. So anti-drone measures on the front line are focused on blocking the radio link between a drone and its operator using devices that emit interference signals. Another tactic is spoofing — using fake GPS signals to trick drones into thinking they're somewhere they're not and steering them off course. To deal with jamming, drone operators have been equipping drones with frequency-hopping chips to ensure connections remains secure. Fiber Optics: Russian forces pioneered the use of fiber-optic connections that can't be jammed. The drone unspools a cable as it flies, staying connected to the pilot. These drones fly closer to the ground than radio-operated UAVs and don't emit any radio waves, ensuring the safety of the drone and its operator. Often they're flown out across the gray zone and brought to land, where they wait until there's an opportunity to ambush enemy troops. One downside of these drones is that they must carry a heavy spooling reel. This makes them slower and less maneuverable, and so more susceptible to being shot down. The spool reduces the weight of explosives the drone can carry, and the cable is fragile. The drone can fly no further than about 10 kilometers, or just half of that when it's windy as the cable can sway and destabilize the drone. One other problem: Many of the cables are abandoned when a drone is incapacitated, leaving the landscape strewn with plastic pollution. More recently, Ukraine has introduced its own fiber-optic drones. Russian forces have responded by creating 'anti-drone corridors' — stretching protective mesh or wiring along roadsides. Artificial Intelligence: The direct link required between a drone and its human operator remains the weapon's main vulnerability. As soon as a connection is jammed or a fiber-optic cable breaks, the drone is lost. Trained drone operators have also become targets themselves. Advances in AI are making more expensive, fixed-wing drones increasingly autonomous. They can use Simultaneous Localization and Mapping — or SLAM — to gather data about their surroundings and then construct a map of their location. That's then compared with a high-resolution image of the territory to help it pinpoint where it is. At the same time, other sensors provide data about acceleration and velocity that can then determine how far it has traveled and estimate its location. These systems often work in conjunction with each other, as well as with satellite positioning, in order to boost accuracy and stop the drone drifting off course. In a world of fully autonomous drones, the machines could travel unguided across the landscape, identify a target and attack it before returning to base. There are no fully-autonomous drones for now, but some carry target-locking technology where AI takes over to guide the drone over the final 100 meters for the kill after its human operator has identified the target. Achieving full drone autonomy would further reshape the battlefield, potentially reducing the need to train thousands of operators. How are they building them? The Kremlin has used its deeper pockets to scale up mass production of a more limited assortment of drone models. The industry is centered on large weapons-making clusters such as Alabuga in Tatarstan, where Shahed replicas are made, and Izhevsk, where it's producing a long-range combat drone called Garpiya. Russia plans to establish 48 research and production facilities across the country by 2030 to boost its drone capabilities. Constrained by more limited resources, Ukraine's defense establishment relies on a patchwork of more than 500 suppliers. Some mass-produce drones in sprawling factories. Others either build them from scratch in small workshops and garages or repurpose drones bought online from Chinese online marketplaces. Chinese Mavic drones have become a familiar sight on the front lines, even though their maker, SZ DJI Technology Co., has denied selling any to Russia or Ukraine and the Beijing government says it's taken steps to prevent their use in the conflict. The variety of companies, funding sources and production techniques has made the industry fiercely competitive and innovative. The government is encouraging this startup culture through drone design competitions open to everyone including high-school students. Ukrainian company Skyfall has grown into one of the country's biggest drone producers. It was founded by three engineers to develop the Vampire heavy-duty, multi-purpose drone able to carry 15- kilogram bombs or to transport ammunition, food, water and medicine. It's nicknamed Baba-Yaga by Russians, after the wicked witch from children's fairytales. Skyfall has delivered thousands of the machines to the front. The company also makes the popular Shrike FPV, runs an academy for training prospective engineers, operates several drone servicing centers in cities closer to the front lines, and runs a 24/7 hotline to help soldiers solve technical problems with their drones, even in the heat of battle. Ukraine has been receiving shipments of drones from foreign partners including the UK and Germany, but its vibrant drone industry means the national military is procuring a growing share of its weaponry from domestic suppliers. Ukraine's Ministry of Defense allocated over $2.5 billion in 2024-2025 for local drone manufacturers, signing contracts with 76 companies. Oleksandr Kubrakov, a former infrastructure minister who now advises Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, said the country's drone industry remains fragile because it relies so heavily on the state. 'There is a way to reduce this dependence, and that's to officially open up Ukraine's military exports so they can sell drones abroad. For now, exports are forbidden,' said Kubrakov.
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