In case, you weren’t aware who Kristi Noem was before, you likely know her now as the Republican Governor who bragged about heartlessly executing her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket, and then their unnamed family goat in a bid to propel herself as a powerful leader.
Most people on both sides of the political spectrum do not look kindly upon those who kill their own pets, or anyone’s pets for that matter, and you know you have failed to make your point when even Donald Trumo Trump Jr. and Steve Banon are not really in your corner. “Who puts that in the book?” Don Jr. asked Bannon while mocking Noem’s choice to voluntarily include the horrifying detail in her book (via MSNBC).
Nevertheless, the South Dakota Governor went on Fox News to try to do some damage control. Perhaps it might have worked for a portion of the network’s audience to use the magic words “fake news.” But when you start getting desperate and dish even more hair-brained reasons to defend that you were in the right for killing your dog, only to get fact-checked by a social media platform, it’s obvious that instead of using a firehose to douse the flames you sparked, you stoked it further with gasoline.
Does Kristi Noem still have any chance of being Trump’s VP? Community Notes say ‘NO’
Kristi Noem’s new excuse for having shot Cricket was that the dog bit her and was a danger to her children. While she screams that the actual chain of events has been twisted by the media and peddled as fake news, she forgets that the details weren’t conjured out of thin air — they come directly from her memoir, the book she wrote. There is no mention in the memoir of the puppy ever being a danger to anyone, only that her young daughter innocently asked for Cricket’s whereabouts after Noem had already executed her in a gravel pit.
The community notes did the favor of reminding everyone that Noem only changed her story upon being hit with the tsunami of backlash.
Though Cricket’s life was unfairly cut short, even in death, she is still ensuring the cruelty of her former owner is exposed, thus effectively shooting down Noem’s chances at a potential position as Trump’s running mate. Good girl, Cricket!