In an interview with the TV station CBS, Noem suggested that Biden’s German Shepherd should also have been shot. As a reminder, Biden’s dog Commander was banned from the White House in October after several bite attacks on Secret Service officers. Before that, the Bidens gave up another dog – Major, also a German Shepherd. Major also bit Secret Service employees and was taken to family friends of the Bidens for safety reasons.
“Joe Biden’s dog (Commander, note) attacked 24 secret service people,” said Noem in the CBS interview. “How many people have to be attacked and dangerously injured before a decision is made about a dog?” she asked.
The Republican Noem Biden’s dog Commander was also discussed in her memoirs, several media outlets reported, including the New York Times. “A dog that bites is dangerous and unpredictable (are you listening, Joe Biden?) – especially if you run a business where people interact with your dogs,” the New York Times quoted from the not yet published book. There was no statement from the White House yet.
AP/Tom Williams Biden’s dog Commander was banned from the White House after multiple bite attacks
Cricket shot: ‘I hated that dog’
Specifically, the passage in Noem’s book is about the killing of her dog, Cricket. The relevant excerpt, which was first reported by the British “Guardian”, has been causing a stir since the end of April. In it, Noem explains that she wanted to train her dog, Cricket, to hunt pheasants. 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. She then shot the animal in a gravel pit. “I hated that dog,” she wrote.
Noem connects incident with being a politician
With the anecdote in the book, which will be published in the USA on Tuesday, Noem wants to underline her willingness to do “difficult, messy and ugly” things as a politician if necessary, according to the report. Immediately afterwards, she did a similar thing with a “bad and mean” goat that always chased after her children.
In this year’s presidential election campaign, Noem is seen as a contender for the role of former Republican President Trump’s “running mate,” i.e. as a possible running mate. The 52-year-old caused a stir with a TV interview after the end of the right to abortion in the USA. “Every single life is precious,” she replied when asked whether an underage rape victim had to have the child. “I don’t believe a tragic situation should be perpetuated by another tragedy.”
Noem responds to criticism
After the Guardian article was published, Noem defended himself on Platform X (Twitter). “We love animals, but on a farm difficult decisions like these have to be made again and again,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, a few weeks ago we also had to kill three horses that had been with our family for 25 years.”
A few days after the Guardian article appeared, which had brought the politician a lot of criticism, Noem described it as “fake news”. “You know how fake news works,” she told Fox News. “They leave out some or most of the facts of a story and present it with the worst possible spin. And that’s what happened in this case,” she defended herself. But she repeatedly defended the killing itself.
“Rolling Stone”: Trump “disgusted” according to insiders
Rolling Stone magazine reported on Friday, citing insiders, that Trump was disgusted by Noem’s descriptions. “Why did she do that?” and “What’s wrong with her?” Trump is said to have said in meetings behind closed doors. According to the insiders, he attested to Noem’s poor sense of PR.
In response, the Democratic Party leadership, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), wrote a statement in the name of the “Dogmocratic Party”. Their message is: “If you want elected politicians who don’t brag about how they brutally killed their pets as part of their book tour, listen to our owners: Vote Democrat!”
Noem invented meetings with Kim Jong Un
She was asked about it in the CBS interview. “That anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book, and as soon as it was brought to my attention, I made sure it was adjusted,” she admitted.