'She can't be VP now': Fellow Republicans slam Noem after puppy-killing brag
Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) is under fire after boasting in her new book that she killed her fourteen-month-old German wirehair pointer puppy Cricket, whom she described as "worthless" and "untrainable" as a hunting dog on her farm, after she didn't obey commands on hunts and behaved aggressively around livestock.
And the criticism isn't just coming from Democrats, either. Some Republicans see this as the end of her prospects for higher office, too — in particular, as a potential running mate for former President Donald Trump.
"You do not shoot an animal just because it doesn’t 'hunt right,'" said Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and former congressional candidate. "You find a no kill shelter and give the dog up for adoption and give it to a family that doesn’t have a farm. I adopted a dog from a Chinese meat market. I love her. My Mecca was abused in the meat market and has potty training issues in adulthood. I have to clean up after her a lot because she sometimes forgets she can’t pee in the house. It’s annoying but I love her so I take care of her and her special needs ... There is no excuse to kill a dog because it attacked some chickens." In a separate post, she said, "She can't be VP now. You can't shoot your dog and then be VP."
ALSO READ: ‘Fraudulent’: Trump tormentor Lincoln Project loses big money in cybertheft scheme
"I’m a dog lover and I am honestly horrified by the Kristi Noem excerpt," wrote former Trump communications official Alyssa Farah Griffin. "I wish I hadn’t even read it. A 14-month old dog is still a puppy & can be trained. A large part of bad behavior in dogs is not having proper training from the humans responsible for them." She separately added, "Dogs are a gift from God. They're a reflection of his unconditional love. Anyone who would needlessly hurt an animal because they are inconvenient needs help."
"When I saw tweets about Kristi Noem murdering her puppy, I thought to myself, 'Damn, one of the other VP contenders' teams found some oppo,' until I realized SHE wrote about it in HER book," wrote former Trump White House deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews. "I'm not sure why anyone would brag about this unless they're sick and twisted."
"Kristi Noem is trash. Decades with hunting- and bird-dogs, and the number I've killed because they were chicken-sharp or had too much prey drive is ZERO. Puppies need slow exposure to birds, and bird-scent," wrote Rick Wilson, a longtime GOP strategist who now runs the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. "Not every dog is for the field, but 99.9% of them are trainable or re-homeable ... You down old dogs, hurt dogs, and sick dogs humanely, not by shooting them and tossing them in a gravel pit."
"I assumed the story was fake. My goodness," wrote far-right provocateur and former "Pizzagate" conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich. "At least she’s out for VP."