People think I'm a cat lover, but that's only because dogs are high maintenance and I traveled frequently for years. I'm that person dog walkers fear: the dog lover who stops them so that I, a stranger, can give their dog some love.
Naturally, I was among the millions of people who were sickened to learn that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem once executed her puppy, Cricket, in a gravel pit, apparently for looking like a puppy. And save a few tears for the pet goat he later dragged to the death camp and shot, simply for being unruly and “rancid.”
Noem's account in her upcoming memoir, ostensibly intended to showcase her guts, courage and skill with weapons as she auditions to be Donald Trump's running mate, instead had the rare effect of uniting Americans of all stripes. political tendencies, feeling repulsion towards it.
opinion columnist
Jackie Calmes
Jackie Calmes brings a critical look to the national political scene. He has decades of experience covering the White House and Congress.
“Kristi Noem manages to unify the left and the right, the woke and the Q-anon, the trans and the homophobes unanimously around the proposition that she is a monster,” said right-wing pundit Ann Coulter. aware in X.
Trump has not intervened in Puppygate. (He, however, provided a propaganda for the book of Noem: “You have to read it!” Did he do it?) Maybe he got distracted because he is locked up in Manhattan criminal court. Or maybe because he is of that rare breed that He doesn't seem to like dogs.; Trump is the only president in a century who hasn't had one. He has dogs on his mind. a lotbut always when he barks pejoratively about women, terrorists and political enemies (“Drowned like a dog” “He liked an abandoned dog” seems “a dog,” “he died like a dog”).
However, Trump's advisers, hiding behind a cloak of anonymity, were quick to confirm the conventional wisdom: Noem is almost certainly disqualified as Trump's pick for vice president. Like the word game headline In the Murdochs' New York Post put it this week: “Kristi Noem 'has no chance' as Trump's VP pick after puppy-killing controversy: sources.”
And that's what makes me sick now: there are so many things that ought disqualify Noem from being first in line for the presidency, starting with the fact that she disputes Joe Biden's election and supported Trump's efforts to overturn the result and resist the peaceful transfer of power; However, it was necessary to kill a puppy to in fact disqualify her.
What a testament to our warped politics.
All the other Republicans said to be on Trump's short list are similarly supportive of his false and undemocratic complaints about 2020. And yes, I understand that when the man at the top of the list is the one denying the election and the one inciting the insurrection in chief, it follows that he will want as his number 2 candidate a candidate who echoes his statements and responds to his commands, like a dog, right?
Or, like Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida and JD Vance of Ohio; Representatives Elise Stefanik of New York and Byron Donalds of Florida; North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Trump's rival and sycophant Vivek Ramaswamy, among other potential lapdogs eager for his approval.
During the 2016 campaign, then-rival Rubio he growled on Trump: “In the years to come, there will be many people on the right, in the media and among voters in general who will have to explain and justify how they fell into this trap of supporting Donald Trump.” Now, after Trump's impeachments, an insurrection, and four indictments, it's Rubio who's totally stuck. This week it was tweeting against “Biden-friendly Democratic 'judge'” in Trump's hush money trial in New York. Like his teacher.
Vance is another candidate who has leaned toward Trump. “I'm a guy who never succeeds,” he said. saying in 2016, and suggested to a friend that Trump could be “America’s Hitler.” But on ABC's “This Week” In February, Vance lashed out at host George Stephanopoulos for even asking about the events surrounding Jan. 6, and later admitted that he would have refused to certify Biden's election if he had been vice president.
As Vance and the rest of the vice presidential hopefuls know, Trump demands total loyalty. (So why doesn't he have a dog?)
Noem came relatively early to endorse Trump for re-election, at a September rally in South Dakota. At that time she saying she would be his vice presidential candidate “in the blink of an eye,” adding: “Trump needs a strong partner if he wants to take back the White House.”
And how does a woman show that she has so much strength, at least in the world of Trump and MAGA? Noem decided one way was to write his self-promotional book, “No Going Back,” and include anecdotes such as the multi-page account of the shooting of Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, and a family goat.
In his story, first revealed by tthe GuardianThe cub had an “aggressive personality” and, “crazed with excitement,” interrupted a pheasant hunt. and attacked a neighbor's chickens like “a trained killer.” Noem grabbed a gun and took Cricket to the pit: “It wasn't a pleasant job, but it had to be done.” He then thought that he too could dispatch the “nasty and bad” goat. Two shots were necessary.
What strength. Amid days of complaints, the supposedly strong Noem stood firm, destination online about how the episode highlighted his ability to make “difficult decisions” and his ability to create “real, honest, politically incorrect stories.”
As fed up as Secret Service agents must be Commander, Biden's happy German shepherdIt's hard to believe that any of them would want to point their guns at him like Noem did with poor Cricket.
I hope he killed his VP prospects. I'm just sorry it's not for the right reasons.
