There is a familiar moment in Republican electoral politics when an obscure politician thrust into the limelight during election season comes under intense public scrutiny and is found to be not quite as first impressions suggested. This was Sarah Palin in 2008, or Ben Carson in 2016, and the inflection point is the moment at which the supposedly promising new face shades into what Mitch McConnell once delicately referred to as the Republicans’ “candidate quality problem”. Or, as most of us know it colloquially, the moment we realise: oh, this person is unhinged.
So it was last week for Kristi Noem, the formerly obscure governor of South Dakota, propelled into the big time as a possible running mate for Donald Trump, and who at first glance appeared appalling in all the ordinary ways. The 52-year-old, who was elected to the governorship in 2018, echoes the Republican party’s hardline positions on abortion, immigration and offshore drilling in ways indistinguishable from the rest of the VP field. She is telegenic, charismatic, reliably rightwing, and, according to her forthcoming memoir No Going Back: The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics and How We Move America Forward, also killed her 14-month-old puppy, Cricket.
It’s worth noting the prevalence of animal stories in the journey of Republican politicians, from merely unpleasant to decisively weird. Noem’s history of targeted animal killing – she also dispatched a goat, for smelling bad and chasing her kids – sits alongside Mitt Romney’s decision to tie his dog, Seamus, to the roof of the car on a family road trip back in 1983 and Dick Cheney’s adventures in hunting. It also, for my money, recalls Sarah Palin’s first public reference to herself as a “mama grizzly”, a pivot point for many of us in her rapid descent from shiny VP pick to something more akin to a firework going off in a small room.
These examples all pale into insignificance, however, compared with the account Noem gives of animal husbandry on her farm in South Dakota. In the memoir, she tells the story of how, after Cricket tried to bite her, killed some chickens and refused to submit to dog training, she took her to a gravel pit and shot her. “I hated that dog,” writes Noem; and it’s this tone, more than the act of killing itself, that is causing Noem so much trouble this week. Her defence – that city folk don’t understand the tough decisions that take place on a farm – doesn’t quite cover the relish with which she tells the story, or the effect of the words “gravel pit” on the imagination. By Noem’s own account, this was not a regrettable incident of having to have a dangerous dog put down, but something more like a mob killing.
And what about the goat? He doesn’t rate a name check, but Noem characterises him as “nasty and mean,” an animal that, having survived Noem’s first attempt to shoot him, finally died after she reloaded and shot him again. Even for the most rugged, red-meat Republicans this is a bit bloody much, and you had to look hard to find defenders of Noem last week.
Denver Riggleman, a former Republican congressman from Virginia, called the governor “small and empty”. The former GOP strategist Rick Wilson called her “trash”. Writing on X, Meghan McCain remarked, “All I will distinctly think about Kristi Noem now is that she murdered a puppy who was ‘acting up’ – which is obviously cruel and insane.” The Democrats had a field day, meanwhile, with former White House communications director Kate Bedingfield barely able to conceal her delight when referring to Noem’s “literal puppy murder”.
As for Noem herself, she appeared to double down under criticism by mentioning three horses that had to be put down on the farm several weeks ago – whether this happened in the infamous gravel pit or not she didn’t allude to. The story about Cricket, she said, was included in the memoir to illustrate how she is prepared to do anything “difficult, messy and ugly” – and, by implication, also mishandle the message so egregiously that everyone instantly and overwhelmingly despises her. (We can assume this isn’t a deal-breaker for Trump.)
The last word on all this, however, must be given to Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential candidate and senator for Utah, who, after the comparison to Noem was made enough times, was finally provoked into defending himself. “I didn’t eat my dog,” he told HuffPost, appearing to escalate the accusations against Noem, possibly for comic effect. “I didn’t shoot my dog. I loved my dog, and my dog loved me.” Amen.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
