Sen. Thom Tillis Rips Kristi Noem, Compares ICE Killings To Dog She Killed

Fireworks on Capitol Hill ... Sen. Thom Tillis ripped into DHS Secretary Kristi Noem during a congressional hearing ... comparing American citizens killed by immigration agents to a dog she killed.

Check out the video ... the Republican Senator from North Carolina says Noem has shown terrible leadership and decision-making as Trump's DHS Secretary.

Tillis says the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis by ICE and Border Patrol remind him of a passage from Noem's book ... where she recalls killing a dog she brought on a hunting trip.

Noem said the 14-month-old dog, Cricket, was misbehaving ... so she led the dog to a gravel pit and shot her.

Sen. Tillis told her straight up ... "Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment. Not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis. We're an exceptional nation, and one of the reasons we're exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership. And you've demonstrated anything but that."