Kirstjen Nielsen

Kirstjen Michele Nielsen (born May 14, 1972) is an American attorney who served as United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2017 to 2019.

She is a former principal White House deputy chief of staff to President Donald Trump, and was chief of staff to John F. Kelly during his tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security.

Kirstjen Michele Nielsen was born on May 14, 1972, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to Phyllis Michele Nielsen and James McHenry Nielsen, both United States Army physicians.

Nielsen's father is of Danish ancestry while her mother is of Italian descent.

The oldest of three children, Nielsen has a sister, Ashley, and a brother, Fletcher.

Following Nielsen's birth, the family relocated from Colorado Springs to Clearwater, Florida.

Following high school, Nielsen attended the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree.

She then attended the University of Virginia School of Law, receiving her Juris Doctor in 1999.

She also took Japanese studies at Nanzan University, in Nagoya, Japan.

Nielsen served during the George W. Bush administration as special assistant to the president and as senior director for prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) at the White House Homeland Security Council.

She also set up, and led as assistant administrator, the Transportation Security Administration's Office of Legislative Policy and Government Affairs.

After leaving the Bush administration in 2008, Nielsen became the founder and president of Sunesis Consulting.

The firm's online profile listed her as its only employee, with the firm's phone number being Nielsen's personal cellphone.

In September 2013 the company won a federal contract, with an initial award of about $450,000, to "provide policy and legislation, technical writing, and organizational development" to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Nielsen was a senior member of the Resilience Task Force of the Center for Cyber & Homeland Security Committee at George Washington University and served on the Global Risks Report Advisory Board of the World Economic Forum.

Nielsen said that she had not seen the intelligence community briefing that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 election.

A week later, Nielsen backtracked, saying that she agreed with the intelligence community's assessment.

Nielsen was confirmed as Secretary of Homeland Security on December 5, 2017.

Nielsen is best known for implementing the Trump administration family separation policy.

Nielsen served as John F. Kelly's chief of staff at the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after he assumed that position on January 20, 2017.

In early September 2017, just over a month after Kelly became White House chief of staff on July 31, 2017, Nielsen moved to the White House, becoming the principal deputy chief of staff under Kelly.

On October 11, 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Nielsen to be the new United States secretary of homeland security, replacing acting secretary Elaine Duke.

On December 5, 2017, the Senate confirmed her nomination, by a 62–37 vote.

On December 6, 2017, she was sworn in as secretary of homeland security.

An assessment by the FBI, CIA and NSA in January 2017 was that the Russian preference was clearly to help Trump win; this assessment was mirrored in a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee released days prior to Nielsen's testimony.

On January 16, 2018, Nielsen testified before the United States Senate in favor of merit, rather than family, based immigration.

She was questioned about an earlier meeting at the White House in which press reports and Senator Dick Durbin related that the president had used the word "shithole" to describe African countries, as well as disparaging remarks about Haiti.

Nielsen said, "I did not hear that word used, no sir," although she said she heard "tough language" that was impassioned.

During the same hearing, Senator Patrick Leahy asked her whether Norway was a predominantly white country.

Nielsen appeared to hesitate before answering with, "I actually do not know that, sir."

She added, "But I imagine that is the case."

Nielsen was criticized by Senator Cory Booker for not recalling or speaking out against Trump's disparaging remarks which Booker characterized as bigoted.

Following the hearing, Nielsen expressed her disappointment in the amount of attention being paid to the White House meeting.

From March to December 2018, Nielsen sat on the Federal Commission on School Safety.

On March 23, 2018, it was reported that Nielsen agreed with the enactment of the Presidential Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security Regarding Military Service by Transgender Individuals.

At a May 2018 congressional hearing, Nielsen said that she was unaware of the intelligence community's conclusion that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election to help candidate Trump get elected.

In July 2018, Nielsen said there were no signs that Russia was targeting the 2018 midterm elections in the same "scale or scope" as it did in 2016.

At the Aspen Security Forum, Aspen, Colorado, during an interview by Peter Alexander of NBC on July 19, 2018, Nielsen stated that Russians had absolutely interfered in the United States presidential election in 2016.

When Alexander asked if Russians had interfered in favor of Donald Trump, Nielsen responded, "I have not seen any evidence that the attempts to interfere in our election infrastructure was to favor a particular political party. I think what we have seen on the foreign influence side is they were attempting to intervene and cause chaos on both sides."

She resigned in April 2019.