Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, defended her story about shooting and killing her 14-month-old dog Cricket and suggested that U.S. President Joe Biden‘s dog Commander should meet a similar fate, in a Sunday interview on CBS’ Face the Nation.
Noem is considered a potential running mate for former president Donald Trump in his 2024 campaign. But her vice-presidential dreams may now be dashed as her dog-killing story continues to draw headlines and public outrage.
The Guardian first reported on the concerning anecdote, which appears in Noem’s forthcoming autobiography No Going Back. The U.K. outlet obtained an advance copy of the book, in which Noem reportedly admits to shooting her wirehaired pointer puppy after the excited dog ruined a hunt and later killed a neighbour’s chicken. Cricket also tried to bite her, Noem wrote.
“I hated that dog,” the book reads. “It was not a pleasant job but it had to be done. And after it was over, I realized another unpleasant job needed to be done.”
Noem went on to kill one of her uncastrated male goats, who she described as “disgusting, musky, rancid.”
During Sunday’s interview, Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan brought up another passage from Noem’s book that referenced the dog-killing story.
“At the end of the book, you say the very first thing you would do if you got to the White House, that was different from Joe Biden, is you’d make sure Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds. ‘Commander, say hello to Cricket,'” Brennan quoted.
Noem replied that Commander “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? That’s the question that the president should be held accountable to.”
Commander, a German Shepherd owned by the Bidens, has been involved in at least 24 biting incidents and was relocated from the White House as a result.
“You’re saying (Commander) should be shot?” Brennan asked.
“That’s what the president should be accountable to,” Noem replied.
Noem also faced a question from Brennan about why she determined that Cricket, at 14 months old, was “untrainable” and why the governor didn’t just surrender the dog to a shelter.
“I had put months and months of training into this dog. This dog had gone to other trainers, as well,” Noem explained. “That’s the choice I made over 20 years ago… I didn’t ask somebody else to take that responsibility for me.”
The governor also said she feared for her children’s safety and made a “difficult choice” to protect her family.”
“Would you make a choice between your children or a dangerous animal? And I think I would ask everybody in the country to put themselves in that situation,” she said.
Trump allies told the New York Post that Noem has “no shot” at being named Trump’s running mate now.
“Trump isn’t a dog person necessarily,” one unnamed source said, “but I think he understands that you can’t choose a puppy killer as your pick, for blatantly obvious reasons.”
A second source told The Post that Trump “likes Kristi a lot,” but was “disappointed when hearing the ‘dog’ story.”
“It certainly has not enhanced her chances, but no decision has been made concerning any of the VP candidates,” this source added.
— With files from Global News’ Michelle Butterfield