South Dakota governor Kristi Noem obviously has not heard of the maxim that when you are in a hole, you should stop digging.
When news emerged that in her book to be out shortly, she had shot dead her 14-month old puppy Cricket because it had ruined a pheasant hunt and then killed a neighbor’s chickens, there was a firestorm of outrage across the political spectrum. It appears that in her memoir, she also brought up Joe Biden’s dog that had bitten Secret service agents and suggested that he should have met the same fate.
Kristi Noem suggested Sunday that President Joe Biden’s dog Commander should meet a similar fate as her 14-month-old dog Cricket, whom the South Dakota governor reportedly described shooting and killing in her coming book.
“Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people. So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog and what to do with it?” Noem, who is considered a potential running mate for former President Donald Trump, said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Commander, a German shepherd, was relocated from the White House last year after a series of biting incidents.
According to CBS News, Noem’s memoir, set to be released this week, also includes a reference to Commander. In the book, Noem says that if she were to make it to the White House, she would first ensure that Biden’s dog was not on the premises. “Commander, say hello to Cricket,” she imagines herself saying, according to CBS News.
There is a certain insouciance in the way she talks about this, coupled with the news that she also shot dead a goat and also put down three horses, that suggests a cold and uncaring personality.
Instead of realizing that she had made an error by voluntarily revealing a 20-year old story that no one else had mentioned, she should have just shut up, kept her head down, and wait for this to blow over. But instead she has doubled down and given one interview after another trying to justify her actions, thus keeping the story in the news. With the retellings, Cricket has morphed into some Godzilla-like monster that was on the rampage terrorizing all and sundry and threatening to kill her children and other people.
The South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful Kristi Noem asked the American public to consider having to “make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal”, as she again defended her killing of a 14-month-old dog.
“I would ask everybody in the country to put themselves in that situation,” Noem told CBS’s Face the Nation about her decision to shoot the dog, named Cricket, after the animal ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbor’s chickens.
“Because that’s what I faced, and I talked about it because what I’m tired of in this country is politicians who pretend to be something that they’re not.”
Asked why she did not surrender Cricket to an animal shelter before killing the dog, about 20 years ago, Noem repeated her prior claims that the creature was simply untrainable, had tried to bite her, and might have bitten others.
Her allies are not helping. Kimberly Guilfoyle was a Fox News personality who left in 2018 because of allegations of sexual harassment and is now the partner of Donald Trump, Jr. She has suggested that the Cricket story was slipped into Noem’s memoir without her knowledge.
“It makes no sense. I don’t understand,” said Guilfoyle. “I’ve always liked Gov. Noem. She works very hard, tirelessly on behalf of the movement.”
Guilfoyle, who works with the no-kill animal welfare organization Furry Friends, cited her previous legal work as an animal abuse prosecutor as why the issue of animal rights is “something I take really seriously.”
“I just can’t imagine that because there’s a forever home for all animals,” explained Guilfoyle, who was ostensibly on the show to promote her new dog-themed children’s book “The Princess and Her Pup.”
Then she floated the theory: “I don’t know what happened, maybe somebody slipped that in and she didn’t see it. I don’t know, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, so that’s a tough one to take.”
The theory seems unlikely, though, given how Noem has since doubled down on the admission, spinning it as proving her decisive leadership skills and ability to do difficult things when needed.
It takes some level of obliviousness to to defend someone by putting forward a theory that a story is fake when that person has repeatedly admitted that the story is true and is actually proud of it.
Sure, somebody slipped that in and she didn’t see it. Obviously, what we have here is an unauthorized autobiography.
The story was probably put in the book by BLM and Antifa editors after they finished storming the Capitol.
To some certainly, but not so much to farmers.
She and prince MBS should share a bone saw.
Noem hasn’t yet disclosed the real reason Cricket had to die.
Cricket was “woke”.
Woke explains everything.
When your only tool is a gun, then every problem looks like a potential dead body.
Kristi Noem is also famous for doing nothing to fight the Covid-19 virus pandemic in South Dakota. At times that state had some severe outbreaks of the virus.
Farmers have to be pragmatic about the life and death of animals, but anyone who wants the second highest office needs to have what Germans call fingerspitzgefuhl, reasonable sensitivity for what is considered ok whith those you engage.
By doubling down she has proven herself to be as agile as an elephant in a china shop.
“..When your only tool is a gun, then every problem looks like a potential dead body.”
This also explains a lot about American law enforcement.
Um, the story is in the audiobook. As read by Kristi Noem. I’m pretty sure she knew in advance that the story was in the book.
I don’t know how Cricket “ruined a pheasant hunt” but that just sounds like a positive to me. X-D
@SilentBob: Cricket the puppy wasn’t trained (probably at all, but certainly not to hunt). Then she was brought to a hunt and set loose with no idea what she was supposed to be doing. Like puppies everywhere, when she found herself in a group of other dogs with no directions, she ran around and had a fine time socializing with the other dogs.
After the hunt, when she was still bouncy and excited from running around with other dogs, Noem took her to a home with chickens running around…and let the puppy loose. The bird-dog’s instincts kicked in, and she attacked the chickens.
So, in summary: Noem had on her hands a bouncy, happy, lively puppy with generations of bird-killing in its DNA, with no training or direction whatsoever, and let it loose in a situation where it could get in trouble. Then she dragged the dog to a gravel pit and shot the it in the head. For acting like a bird-dog puppy with generations of bird-killing in its DNA.
She got such a high off the wanton killing that she then rounded up the un-neutered male goat and slaughtered it for the sin of being…an un-neutered male goat.
This is not “farmers gonna farmer” b.s.; it’s a sign of an immature, clueless idiot whose answer to everything is to shoot to kill.
Katydid @10
I think the reason she had to shoot Cricket was her bruised ego. To her the dog had embarrassed her, twice, and her anger at that was probably also why she then shot the goat. Her unreasonable anger had not been quelled by shooting the dog.
To her, Noem isn’t digging a hole, she’s building a mountain from a molehill to raise her profile. Next, she’ll proclaim that all federal death-row inmates need to be introduced to Cricket as quickly as possible, and she’s the one to oversee that if (hint, hint) she ever has the opportunity.
We call that being, “set up to fail.”
Usually this refers to how some parents raise their kids.
Or how some companies are run and treat their employees.
Failed.
As usual, we are told two versions of the story which are mutually exclusive (or even the complete opposite) and expected to believe both. The classified documents at merd a lardo were both SSAT’s personal property, and planted by the FBI.
@11, Alan G. Humphries: I agree with you. Noem is so thin-skinned, petulant, and ego-driven that her response to her own series of bad decisions regarding Cricket that she had to avenge herself against a puppy who was acting like a puppy. You can see why someone with her qualities would admire Trump; he shares them.
Maybe someone should do a wellness check on her kids. What would she do to a child who forgot their homework or talked in class?
Also, I agree with Raven about Cricket the puppy being set up to fail. Not once does Noem indicate that she trained the puppy in any way…yet she took the dog out in public to a hunt with trained dogs and hunters slavering over the idea of killing birds, and then to someone else’s farm.
Eh -- she is just waiting for some right winger to equate undocumented immigrants to rabid dogs.
I just realised -- Kristi Noem would be a very apt candidate for the Republican party. Not just as VP, as Potus.
Cruelty and making up stories about meeting world leaders? Check.
Even better! Not only would she be, she has been and currently is.
(But very cluey of you)
—
“Kristi Lynn Noem (/noʊm/; née Arnold; born November 30, 1971) is an American politician who has served since 2019 as the 33rd governor of South Dakota. A member of the Republican Party, she was the U.S. representative for South Dakota’s at-large congressional district from 2011 to 2019, and a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives for the 6th district from 2007 to 2011.
First elected governor in 2018, Noem is South Dakota’s first female governor. During the 2018 election, she was endorsed by President Donald Trump. As governor, Noem rose to national prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic over her refusal to issue a statewide mandate to wear face masks. In February 2024, Trump said that Noem was on his shortlist of potential running mates.[1] ”
(Wikipedia)
[Noem becomes Noe, right? Heh]
[Hm.
Noe becomes No?]