Kristi Noem Confronted With Republican Criticism for Shooting Dog

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was confronted with Republican criticism about her account of fatally shooting her dog in her upcoming book during an interview on CBS News' Face the Nation on Sunday.

Noem, a Republican who has been floated as a possible vice presidential nominee for former President Donald Trump ahead of this year's presidential election, drew bipartisan backlash over an excerpt that was published late last month by the British newspaper The Guardian about her dog, Cricket, in her new book No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward.

In the excerpt, the governor shared an account of shooting the 14-month-old puppy, which she wrote had an "aggressive personality."

On the way home from the trip, Cricket escaped Noem's truck and attacked a family's chickens, "grabb[ing] one chicken at a time, crunching it to death with one bite, then dropping it to attack another." This made the chickens' owner cry and Noem paid them while also helping clean the mess the dog had made. She added that when she grabbed Cricket, the dog "whipped around to bite me."

"At that moment," Noem wrote, "I realized I had to put her down."

The governor also wrote that she "hated that dog," describing it as "untrainable" and "dangerous to anyone she came in contact with."

The excerpt drew widespread condemnation, with many Republican critics arguing that Noem should not have shot the dog, but instead could have trained it or rehomed it. Others questioned why she willingly wrote about the incident in her book.

Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan pressed Noem on Sunday about the political implications of the controversy, as well as criticism from former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who recently told Politico, "Killing the dog and then writing about it ended any possibility of her being picked as VP."

"On this point, because you have been rumored to be a potential vice presidential candidate, as you know. And former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said, 'Killing the dog and then writing about it ended any possibility of her being picked as VP'...Are you doing this to try to look tough? Do you think that you still have a shot at being VP?" Brennan asked.

Noem largely dismissed the criticism while also defending her decision to put the dog down.

"I would say about Republicans criticizing me, these are the same Republicans that criticized me during COVID. They criticized me when I've made other decisions in South Dakota to protect my state," she said. "My state today is extremely happy and thriving. We're doing well. We've got thousands of people moving to our state because they love the opportunities that are here and the businesses that have come."

Brennan also asked Noem if she has any regrets about sharing the story amid the criticism.

Noem said the excerpt was worth sharing because she believes that "people need to understand who I am and some of those difficult decisions."

"This was a dangerous animal that was killing livestock and attacking people. And I had little children at the time. Our operation had many kids running around and people in interaction with the public. And I made a difficult choice," the governor said.

Newsweek reached out to Noem's office for comment via email.

Noem previously responded to the criticism on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote: "I can understand why some people are upset about a 20-year-old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back. The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned."

Noem also contended that she "followed the law and was being a responsible parent, dog owner, and neighbor."

"South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down. Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did. As I explained in the book, it wasn't easy. But often the easy way isn't the right way," she continued.

Polymarket, an online prediction platform where users can place "yes" or "no" bets on the likelihood of world events, gave Noem a 3 percent chance of potentially being the next Republican vice president after the incident about Cricket emerged.

On April 26, Noem was given a 5 percent chance of being selected as Trump's next running mate, down from 10 percent the previous day. On March 25, Polymarket was listing Noem as the second favorite with 9 percent chance, behind South Carolina Senator Tim Scott on 22 percent.