Kristi Noem recommended Joe Biden shoot his dog. Now the White House is reacting. The Republican is also in the headlines for another matter.
Endless dog debacle for Kristi Noem: First, the Republican governor of the US state of South Dakota bragged about shooting her dog Cricket – now she is calling the White House into action with comments about Joe Biden’s German Shepherd. The 52-year-old was asked about the US President’s dog on a TV show at the weekend, which recently made negative headlines. Because “Commander” bit Secret Service officials in the White House so often that he was banned from government headquarters last fall.
Noem said of the incidents: “How many people have to be attacked and dangerously injured before you make a decision about a dog and what to do with it?” Moderator Margaret Brennan asked the Republican: “Are you saying he should be shot?” Noem responded that the president was responsible.
The White House called Noem’s statements “disturbing” on Monday. The USA is a country that loves dogs, said Biden’s spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre. And a politician is talking about killing her. “And that’s a disturbing statement. I would tell her that maybe she should stop digging herself a hole.”
Shot in a gravel pit
The ultra-conservative Noem caused a stir around a week and a half ago with a passage from her as yet unpublished book. In it she describes how she shot her dog named Cricket. Noem explains that she actually wanted to train Cricket for pheasant hunting. The 14-month-old dog was too impetuous and scared the game away.
Then, “like a trained assassin,” she tore up chickens on a family’s property in the neighborhood and snapped at Noem. Noem then shot the animal in a gravel pit.
In this year’s presidential election campaign, Noem is seen as a contender for the role of former Republican President Donald Trump’s so-called running mate, i.e. as a possible running mate. However, after her dog anecdote became known, she found herself caught in the crossfire and justified herself in various interviews. It is more than questionable whether Trump will seriously consider Noem after the horror of the dog’s brutal end.
According to reports, a passage in which the politician claims to have met North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un is now to be deleted from Noem’s book. When asked by host Brennan if she had actually met this one, Noem said that she had made some changes in the book. “I have met with many, many world leaders and traveled around the world.”
