‘Enough’: Frustrated Kristi Noem loses cool with Fox host over dog killing story

Kristi Noem’s frustration at continuing to face tough questions about the killing of her puppy Cricket finally boiled over as she lost her cool with a Fox News host.

The release day of her memoir No Going Back on 7 May was supposed to be a triumph for the South Dakota governor, but instead, she found herself dealing with more questions surrounding likely false claims in her memoir and a controversial story about her decision to shoot the misbehaving puppy and dump him in a gravel pit.

In a Tuesday interview on Fox Business News, anchor Stuart Varney continued to press Ms Noem about her thoughts on the dog story, and said his show had been inundated with negative emails about Ms Noem and her chances as Trump’s running mate.

“I’ve not heard anybody support you on shooting the dog,” he said, adding, “We’ve been consumed with emails saying I won’t vote for this person. I won’t vote for Trump if he puts her in the vice-president spot.”

In response, the governor accused the Fox host of “not hearing from real Americans that live on farms and ranches,” and defended her decision to kill cricket as justified.

“I made a decision as a mom, and I’m a grandma, that the safety of my children and safety of people was what I needed to decide, protecting them from a very dangerous animal,” she said.

When the host continued to press about the dog story, the governor became angry.

"Enough, Stuart,” she said. “This interview is ridiculous what you are doing right now. You need to stop. It is. Let’s talk about some real topics that Americans care about.”

Governor Noem has claimed the “fake news” is exaggerating the story about her killing her dog, which she has maintained was justified and legal under state law.

“The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down,” she wrote on X in April. “Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behaviour toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”

A similar confrontation played out on Tuesday at Newsmax, where anchor Rob Finnerty bluntly told Governor Noem she had sunk her prospects as Trump’s running mate with the claims in the book, including a since-removed anecdote about allegedly meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un which observers believe is highly unlikely to be true.

“If you asked me a month ago who’s at the top of the list to run with Donald Trump, I would’ve said your name,” he said. “If you asked me that same question this morning, I don’t even think you’re on the list.”

With Ms Noem again declining to provide details about the alleged meeting with Kim, Finnerty appeared incredulous, warning the governor that if she was picked as Trump’s potential vice president, “You’re going to get questions a lot more difficult than that.”

“The average American citizen is more worried about the border,” she said of the North Korea story.

The clashes Tuesday follow a bruising week of coverage for the South Dakota leader.

On Sunday, she again declined to comment specifically on the details of her alleged meeting with the North Korean leader.

“I’m not going to talk about my specific meetings with world leaders,” she told Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan. “I’m just not going to do that. This anecdote shouldn’t have been in the book and as soon it was brought to my attention, I made sure that that was adjusted.”

In a statement to The Independent, Ian Fury, chief of communications for Ms Noem’s office, said: “It was brought to our attention that the upcoming book No Going Back has two small errors. This has been communicated to the ghostwriter and editor. Kim Jong Un was included in a list of world leaders and shouldn’t have been.”