Something’s fishy about this.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas spent less than six hours visiting hurricane-hit areas of North Carolina on Thursday — before retreating to Washington to grab an early takeout dinner at Nobu.
Mayorkas touched down in the Tar Heel State around 10 a.m. before jetting back to the nation’s capital, where he was spotted by The Post at 5:15 p.m. carrying bags of food from the posh international Japanese restaurant chain — where sushi and sashimi selections are priced at $60 a plate and the highest-grade Wagyu steaks go for $40 per ounce.
A photographer snapped the apparently peckish Mayorkas, 64 — still wearing his navy blue suit and white dress shirt — exiting the Northwest DC establishment at 5:30 p.m., just 30 minutes after it opened.
The cabinet official was home by 5:40 p.m., dodging DC’s notorious rush-hour traffic.
Mayorkas had returned to Washington at 4 p.m. after remotely joining a White House press briefing shortly after 1 p.m. and “speaking firsthand” with FEMA responders, “impacted communities” and other “first responders on the ground” in Raleigh.
“This Administration has completely failed the American people, again,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told The Post. “It is offensive that the secretary is wasting time eating over-priced sushi rolls at fancy restaurants, when he should be working to get disaster relief out the door immediately for the people in desperate need of basic necessities.”
Johnson has himself spent two working days visiting hurricane victims in Florida and western North Carolina and held a press conference earlier this week in Asheville.
“I think it’s important for the speaker of the House to come,” he told reporters Wednesday. “It’s symbolic to show that it’s the whole of Congress that has our eyes and our attention, our prayers on the community here and those who are affected. We want them to know they will not be forgotten and that we will get recovery dollars to these communities as is needed.”
Mayorkas previously visited North Carolina on Oct. 2, when he joined Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and President Biden for an aerial tour of storm-wrecked regions.
Lawmakers who oversee the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and serve in states ravaged by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton said Thursday’s pictures proved Mayorkas had committed dereliction of duty in the midst of once-in-a-century disasters.
“It just shows you that he’s not a hands-on individual,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.) told The Post from his home in Miami. “He’s shown over his last three and a half years to be totally incompetent in his job.”
“To be honest with you, I haven’t seen him,” said Gimenez, who was scheduled Friday to tour the devastation from Milton on Florida’s Gulf Coast alongside Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). “I see more, you know, it’s the mayors and the governors that are coming out, and police and firefighters are the ones that are coming out that I’ve seen.”
“He’s been a complete failure as the secretary of Homeland Security, just as this administration has been a complete failure,” he added, pointing to Mayorkas’ failure to secure the southern border that led to his impeachment by House Republicans in February.
“The House appropriately impeached Mayorkas for lying to Congress (which is a felony), but Senator Schumer dismissed the case claiming it didn’t rise to the level of a misdemeanor,” noted Senate Homeland Security Committee member Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). “Mayorkas’ most recent dereliction of duty dealing with hurricane relief only confirms he should have been convicted and removed from office.”
Gimenez, a former firefighter who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee that led the impeachment effort, couldn’t help but lighten the mood a bit: “If I were bothered every time that this administration does something wrong, I’d be needing psychiatric help.”
The fancy feast even appalled Democrats, with one congressional source, who asked not to be identified by name, telling The Post it was “the definition of insensitive and the epitome of elitism.”
A second Democratic source resorted to punnery, telling The Post: “During a hurricane, particularly a storm like Milton, the protocol is all hands on deck — 24/7 work to support the area that has been hit and to flex the competency of the administration amid crisis.
“However, it appears that when it comes to being a roll model in crisis, Secretary Mayorkas thinks of sushi,” this person added.
At least 232 Americans have been killed by Helene, which made landfall in Florida Sept. 26 before sweeping across Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina.
Another 16 have died since Hurricane Milton struck Florida on Oct. 9, ripping the dome off the Tampa Bay Rays’ home of Tropicana Field and causing more than $100 billion in damage.
Mayorkas appeared before the White House press corps for just 23 minutes on Thursday to discuss hurricane recovery efforts.
But he declined to answer any questions about an Afghan national indicted earlier this week for plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack.
The 27-year-old suspect, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, entered the US after the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in August 2021 and settled in Oklahoma City.
Subsequent reports show Tawhedi previously worked for the CIA as a security guard — but Mayorkas was mum about the migrant’s background or why he was allowed to stay in the country on a special immigrant visa after receiving humanitarian parole.
“I’d be very pleased to answer your question in a different setting, but we are here to talk about emergencies and the support that we can deliver to people in desperate need,” the DHS secretary dodged in response to questioning from Fox News correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.
As Floridians were battening down the hatches for Hurricane Milton last weekend, Mayorkas was snapped by the Washington Free Beacon at the pricey menswear store Sid Mashburn in DC’s historic Georgetown neighborhood.
The DHS head strutted through the brick-and-mortar retailer in a smart navy blue polo, light khakis and New Balance tennis shoes while eyeing more items for his own wardrobe — possibly the $795 corduroy Butcher Jacket with a trendy camouflage design.
Sid Mashburn’s suede and leather penny loafers are priced at $350 a pair, while black calfskin loafers have a sticker tag of $550. Classic wool suits run as high as $3,695 a pop.
“Luxury shopping and now dinner at Nobu?” Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) told The Post in disbelief. “Mayorkas seems to care far more about keeping up with the Kardashians than any sort of disaster response. The only thing we’re seeing him work hard at is allowing millions of illegal aliens, including potential terrorists, into the country.
“I’ve seen the devastation from Helene firsthand, and heard from countless North Carolinians who are rightfully appalled by the slow federal response. Let me tell you, the people of western North Carolina aren’t eating fancy dinners at Nobu right now,” thundered Bishop. “Mayorkas should’ve resigned long ago, but he clearly has no shame.”
“If you’re gonna be in charge of an operation … you need to go to the areas that are affected and you need to see it firsthand,” Gimenez emphasized. “Whenever we had any issues here in Miami-Dade County, I went out myself and took a look at what the heck is going on. You got to put your feet on the ground.
“You need to have boots on the ground, you know, a knowledge base from which you make those decisions — just can’t sit in an office and think that, ‘OK, we’re gonna do this, this and this’ without actually going out there and seeing it firsthand, seeing it firsthand is invaluable,” he said.
Of Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Deanna Criswell, Gimenez gave the withering assessment: “They’re not really good operations people.”
Congress authorized more than $20 billion for disaster relief funding right before going into recess Oct. 1, but Criswell revealed in a briefing earlier this week that $9 billion has already been spent.
But only $210 million in aid has gone to the affected regions, with $11 billion still left over in disaster relief funding.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General audited FEMA in August and found at least $7 billion could potentially be redirected toward disaster relief.
Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-NC) accused Mayorkas of trying “to politicize a tragedy for personal gain” when the secretary claimed last week: “FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season.”
“We supplied FEMA with the resources that it needed to respond directly,” Johnson said during his Wednesday presser in Asheville after touring the devastation. “As of Monday, only 1% of those funds had actually been distributed. There’s concern that the federal response was too slow, and that needs to be addressed. But FEMA and the administration have the resources necessary right now to address the immediate needs.”
Following the publication of this story, a DHS spokesperson told The Post Mayorkas was picking up takeout for his wedding anniversary — though a DC insider revealed Friday the secretary is also a semi-frequent customer at the eatery on non-special occasions.
The secretary received multiple briefings with FEMA team members during his two visits to North Carolina, the DHS flack added, and provided updates to the president on the operational response to the hurricane’s destruction.
Mayorkas has not, however, directly visited affected areas, the rep continued, since that would divert resources away from responders on the ground there.
A Nobu rep declined to comment on the cost of Mayorkas’ meal.
