South Dakota governor Kristi Noem was a fast rising star in the Republican Party.
Conservative, popular within the party, and pretty (especially for her 52 years), she had a bright future. She has been fairly tight with Trump for years, and many thought she was the likely VP candidate for 2024. Trump would definitely benefit from picking a female VP, as white suburban female voters continue to be one of his electoral weaknesses.
Then came the first strike against Noem. She was apparently having an affair with former Trump strategist Corey Lewandowski.
However, it's 2024, not 1984, so affairs are no longer a dealbreaker in politics. Bill Clinton changed all of that. And while we had our share of good husbands since Clinton, in GW Bush and Barack Obama, we were back to more of the same in Hillary Clinton (basically a sham marriage) and Donald Trump (who cheated on Melania and other wives often). And then there's Biden with his creepy sniffing of women and young girls.
Even Nikki Haley had affairs with multiple men, while her husband was away.
Kristi Noem, however, was seen as a good family woman -- until the stories about Lewandowski came out.
Still, given how people don't care about these affairs much beyond gossip these days, the rumors didn't slow down Noem very much. But what did? A dead dog.
In her new book, Noem oddly confessed to shooting dead her 14-month-old dog because it ate her chickens and tried to bite her when she tried to stop it. This outraged people on social media, especially because Noem portrayed the shooting matter-of-factly as something that was necessary, rather than something which upset her.
She has some defenders, claiming that shooting dogs is common in rural communities when the animal is a problem, and that in the city people just bring the troubled pet to the pound to basically do the same thing. That might be true, but the optics here are terrible.
One off-putting situation or story can make or break you in politics (unless you're Donald Trump), and this might end up defining Noem.
In short, Noem was a moron and hung herself here. It's not like a former close friend or neighbor revealed the dog story. Nobody knew about this, and she published it on her own in her recent book. Everyone loves dogs, and this story resonates with people. It doesn't help that the dog itself is cute and innocent looking, making it hard to picture Noem putting down a vicious animal.
She tried to make a weak defense of this, but it failed:
https://twitter.com/KristiNoem/status/1783849977409671483
Now this meme is going around, which mocks both the dog killing and the Lewandowski affair:
Ouch.
I think she's done. This baggage is the last thing Trump needs, as the presumptive favorite right now.
Reply With Quote