Kristi Noem is tripling down.
For over a week the Republican governor of South Dakota has been dogged by critics from across the political spectrum. In her forthcoming book, “No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward,” Noem describes shooting dead her own 14-month-old pup, Cricket, after Cricket killed a neighbor’s chickens and appeared, in Noem’s view, dangerous to humans. (Noem also described killing her “disgusting, musky” goat, a death that has generated far less public outrage.)
Noem has faced widespread backlash from Democrats and members of her own party over her tale of canine execution. Instead of backpedaling, however, she has stuck by her guns — and has even gone on the offensive.
Whether reasonable or not, Americans have a fanatical love of dogs and attentiveness to their welfare.
“Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people,” Noem said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation, referring to Biden’s dog Commander, who was exiled from the White House in the fall after repeatedly biting Secret Service agents. “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? … That’s the question that the president should be held accountable to.”
When “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked, “You’re saying he should be shot?” Noem repeated, “That’s what the president should be accountable to.”
Those comments were made just before The Guardian reported Monday that in another, previously undisclosed, passage of her book, Noem implies that she would be willing to execute Commander herself. Contemplating what she would do as her first act as president, she wrote, “The first thing I’d do is make sure Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds. (‘Commander, say hello to Cricket for me.’)”
There’s something Trumpian about Noem’s decision to attack others before conceding any ground on the matter. But it doesn’t seem to be working. Whether reasonable or not, Americans have a fanatical love of dogs and attentiveness to their welfare, and Noem’s tack seems to be backfiring — including with former President Donald Trump, who had reportedly been eyeing her as a vice presidential pick.
In Noem’s original story, she says that she “hated” Cricket and felt obligated to kill him after the dog revealed itself to be “untrainable,” “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with” and “less than worthless” as a hunting dog. In her defense of the story after it went public, Noem has claimed she had attempted to train the dog for months and had taken it to other trainers.








