Kristi Noem, South Dakota’s Republican governor, ‘had a chance’ of being nominated Donald TrumpTrump’s running mate for vice president — but blew it by bragging about shooting her dog, a Trump insider reportedly said.
Related: Trump Vice Presidential Candidate Kristi Noem Opens Up About Killing a Dog – and a Goat – in New Book
“She was already unlikely to be chosen as vice president, but she had a chance,” the New York Post said. quoted said an anonymous Trump ally.
“After that, it’s simply impossible.”
Noem’s story about her decision to kill Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer who she deemed useless for hunting and dangerous for chickens, is contained in her upcoming book.
No Turning Back: The Truth About What’s Wrong in Politics and How We Move America Forward, will be released next month. Last week, the Guardian obtained a copy and reported the surprising story of Noem and the dog Cricket, who Noem says she “hates”.
Even more surprising, Noem also describes killing – with two shotgun blasts – an unnamed, uncastrated goat, which she considered too stinky and unruly.
On the page, Noem defends her actions as indicative of the kinds of nasty things people have to do on farms and in politics as well. Since the story became public, she has doubled down, saying her family recently shot three horses and claiming she was legally obligated to kill Cricket because she killed a neighbor’s chickens.
According to a Guardian study, South Dakota law suggests Noem may have committed a class 2 misdemeanor by allowing Cricket to kill the chickens – and may also have broken the law by killing the dog on her own property, after the attack chickens.
A spokesperson for Noem had no comment on the claim.
After entering Congress during the far-right Tea Party wave in 2010 and becoming governor of South Dakota in 2019, Noem was widely considered a possible vice presidential pick for Trump.
Following revelations about how she killed Cricket and the unnamed goat, the latter animal with two shots separated by a return to Noem’s truck for more shells, most experts declared those hopes dead.
The Trump ally who spoke to the New York Post – as the former president was on trial in the city, in his hush money case involving payments to an adult film star – said: “Trump is not necessarily a dog lover, but I think that he understands that you can’t choose a puppy. killer as your choice, for blatantly obvious reasons.
The Post said another source within the former president’s camp said that while Trump “loves Kristi a lot,” he was “disappointed upon hearing the ‘dog’ story.”
“It certainly hasn’t improved his chances, but no decisions have been made on any of the vice presidential candidates,” the source was quoted as saying.
Other media outlets have reported similar concern.
“The median reaction when we checked what was happening in Trump’s world was ‘WTF,'” said Semafor, “although some pointed out that his chances were already considered slim.”
Dog killing aside, Noem’s…
