'Horrified' Noem defenders baffled by her refusal to stop talking about shooting her dog
Allies of embattled South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) are as much "horrified' by her admission that she shot a puppy years ago as they are that she admitted to it in her new book and that she won't quit talking about it which is keeping the horrific story alive.
According to a report from the Washington Post, Noem's continuing attempts to justify the shooting of 14-month-old puppy "Cricket" in a gravel pit years ago has some of her longtime supporters stunned that she refuses to cut her losses and move on.
As the Post's Ashley Parker wrote, "... even would-be allies have been left scratching their heads — not just that Noem killed her dog, but that she continues to talk about it, holding up the gravel pit executions as a character reference for her leadership chops."
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Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) cautioned, "It’s hard to imagine a universe where bragging about shooting your 14-month-old puppy increases your brand value. I’ve known hunters who accidentally or impulsively shot their hunting dog, but I’ve never known anyone who bragged about it or considered it noble in any way.”
Noting that her insistence to keep bringing up the shooting has "opened herself up to additional criticism," that her story keeps changing.
"A community note at the bottom of her Thursday X post, in which readers are allowed to add additional context, reads that 'Noem’s description of why she shot Cricket has morphed," the Post is reporting. "The note says that in her book, Noem writes that she killed Cricket because she was untrainable for pheasant hunting and killed the neighboring chickens. It adds that when criticized, 'Noem altered her story' — going from claiming that Cricket snapped at her to claiming Cricket actually bit her to claiming Cricket had a biting history and was a 'danger to children.'"
The report notes that the controversy is likely not going to go away soon with Noem booked to appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
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