South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, killer of dogs and goats, appeared on Fox News Wednesday to blame “fake news” for the ongoing fallout over an excerpt from her memoir that recalled in detail the day she fatally shot her dog and goat, per South Dakota Searchlight.
“You know how the fake news works,” Noem told Sean Hannity in her first interview since the story became public. “They leave out some or most of the facts of a story. They put the worst spin on it, and that’s what happened in this case.”
Find someone who loves you like Kristi Noem loves a gravel pit. (Photo by Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
Except it isn’t at all what happened in this case! What actually happened is this: Noem decided to write a book. Then she decided to include in that book a story about Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehair pointer with an aggressive personality who killed a neighbor’s chickens and “whipped around to bite” Noem when she tried to intervene. So Noem took the dog to a gravel pit and shot it.
And then!
“Walking back up to the yard,” Noem wrote, “I spotted our billy goat.”
This was not just any goat, according to Noem — this was a “disgusting, musky, rancid” “demon” of a goat that often chased and knocked down her children. And, you know, it was right there, and Noem already had her gun out, so why not kill him, too? Alas, one shot wasn’t enough — turns out even demon goats jump when you fire a gun at them — but no matter! Noem just hustled over to her truck, grabbed “one more shell to finish the job,” trekked back to the gravel pit, and “put him down,” to the “shock and amazement” of a nearby construction crew.
This is … a lot of detail (possibly too much detail!), all of it written by Noem and then republished last week by The Guardian. No facts appear to be missing, unless Noem herself withheld them, so blaming the ensuing reaction on “fake news” is a nonsensical explanation unless the memoir itself were titled “Fake News.” (“No Going Back” is a far more accurate title, at least from the perspective of the dog and/or goat.) Likewise, people did not hate this story because of bad “spin.” People hate this story because they generally like dogs and goats and also generally dislike people who kill the things they like. You’re a governor! Who killed a dog! And a goat! And then wrote about it in a book! There is no spinning that story. That story spins itself.
You can spin a roulette wheel, though I don’t advise it. (Photo by William Thomas Cain/Getty Images)
Noem still tried it, though. After blaming “fake news,” Noem doubled down on the story, telling Hannity she included it as an example of the “tough, challenging decisions that I have had to make throughout my life.” Also, in South Dakota, you’re allowed to kill “dangerous” dogs! (No word on the goat.) This is just more hate from the same haters who hated Noem because she wouldn’t impose strict lockdowns during the pandemic!
“It’s an unfortunate situation, but one that I hope people understand that they need to hear the truth and not what the media has been spinning,” Noem said. “The media, continuously, through the fake news, does not always tell the truth, and they spin the story. They did the same thing to me during COVID and they’re doing it again here. I hope people buy the book and read the truth.”
Donald Trump leaned into his own poor messaging Wednesday in Michigan, where he reiterated his lies about the 2020 stolen election, celebrated the fall of Roe v. Wade, claimed Democrats would legalize “execution” by abortion even after a baby is born, and whined about his legal problems, the Michigan Advance reported.
“As you know, I’ve come here today from New York City, where I’m being forced to sit for days on end in a kangaroo courtroom with a corrupt and conflicted judge, enduring a Biden sideshow trial at the hands of a Marxist district attorney,” Trump said at a campaign rally in Freeland. “The ultimate verdict on this travesty will not come in a courtroom. It will come at the ballot box. And the American people are going to find crooked Joe Biden guilty of trying to destroy our country.”
Marxist travesty crooked kangaroo sideshow trial. (Photo by Kyle Davidson/Michigan Advance)
Obligatory debunking: Trump is currently standing trial for state (not federal) charges, which have nothing to do with the U.S. Department of Justice or the Biden administration. No one is trying to legalize abortion after birth, more commonly known as “murder.” And while there’s nothing factually problematic with highlighting your role in abolishing the constitutional right to abortion, it’s an odd choice politically. As of last week, nearly two-thirds of Americans still oppose the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that killed it.
Trump seemed, at times, to understand that, urging supporters to see the election as more than just a referendum on the issue of abortion.
“Getting elected is also important,” he said. “A lot of bad things will happen beyond abortion if you don’t win.”
President Joe Biden walked his own political tightrope Thursday, breaking days of silence on student-led protests against the Israel-Hamas war that have roiled college campuses across the country. Speaking from the White House, Biden reaffirmed the right to protest, denounced violence and antisemitism and rejected calls from Republicans to deploy the National Guard to contain the turmoil, our D.C. bureau reported.
A protest encampment at the University of Wisconsin. (Photo by Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
“There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos,” Biden said. “Dissent is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to deny the rights of others so students can finish a semester or finish their college education. Order must prevail.”
Roughly 2,000 people have been arrested in connection with the demonstrations, which have escalated this week amid increasingly tense clashes with state and local law enforcement. The protests have reignited debate over the war but have not affected Biden’s policy goals, he confirmed Thursday.
