So Kristi Noem's Book Launch Is Going Well
Does the moderate governor have any actual time for conservative policy?
Just when you thought you’d heard the last of Governor Kristi Noem’s awkward flexes from her new book “Gravel Pit: How I ended My Political Career” comes another. This time, instead of shooting a puppy a gravel pit of death she shot what was left of her credibility by telling a Bidenesque tall tale where she stared down the notorious K-I-M writing:
"I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, I'm sure he underestimated me having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants. I've been a children's pastor after all.”
It came out on Friday that Noem had not then, nor ever, met North Korea’s chief shortstack, Kim Jong Un. On Sunday came this uncomfortable exchange courtesy one of the Sunday talk shows:
"Did you meet Kim Jong Un?" Brennan asked the governor.
"I'm not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders, I'm just not going to do that," Noem said. "This anecdote shouldn't have been in the book, and as soon as it was brought to my attention, I made sure that that was adjusted."
The “anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book?” So it was ghostwritten? That still doesn’t explain then why she read the audiobook including this exact passage. She read a fictional account of meeting a world leader and let it pass anyway? As Dana noted on air these are all excerpts from the book that both she and the publisher must sign off on to promote the book. So her book was presumably ghost-written, yet she read the audio version and didn’t object even though she knew it was false, and OK’d the written excerpt of said fictional meeting and didn’t object? So she had two times to object prior to the book’s final manuscript and nothing? Did she think that no one would scrutinize it?
This was just one of two disastrous soundbites (bold my emphasis).
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- When you joined us ma'am at that time and I thanked you for answering questions on it. But on the- on this point, though, because you have been rumored to be a potential vice-presidential candidate, as you know. And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said "killing the dog and then writing about it ended any possibility of her being picked as VP." You talk multiple times about it. In fact, 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. Are you doing this to try to look tough? Do you still think that you have a shot at being a VP?
GOV. NOEM: Well, number one, 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 --
[CROSSTALK]
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Well he's not living at the White House anymore--
GOV. NOEM: -- That's the question that the President should be held accountable to.
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- You're saying he should be shot?--
GOV. NOEM: -- That what's the president should be accountable to. What is- what is the number. And I would say about Republicans criticizing me. These are the same Republicans have criticized me during COVID. They've criticized me when I've made other decisions in South Dakota to protect my state.
Noem made a fool out of herself in her tactless book and blames the media and … Republican voters who criticized her for being a weak, moderate Republican governor who is now trying to gaslight everyone into thinking she was ever a conservative on COVID, women’s sports, and mandates? She was criticized for governing like a progressive, not for being too conservative.
She seems to spend a lot of time on things like drastically changing her appearance, flying to Texas for cosmetic dental procedures while promoting it online like a social media influencer (resulting in a lawsuit from a nonpartisan group over claimed deceptive advertising), and making unforced errors — and no time for actual conservative policy, the bulk of which can be attributed to South Dakota’s Republican state legislature.
P.J. Miller works in business and is a Chapter and Verse guest contributor.
Is this lady in her right mind? What does Biden's dog have to do with what she did to her dog? She looks like an idiot.
Governor Noem really embarrasses herself with her telling of her killing a puppy. There is sense and there is no sense. You don't have to reveal everything about your personal life to sell a book. Shooting a puppy in the head is outright stupid. She's a cowgirl. She could have grabbed the puppy and taken it to a shelter. There's a right way and a wrong to do things. She chose the wrong way. She's not eligible to be vice president of the United States.