Editor's note: Former attorney Dean Obidala is the host of the daily program “The Dean Obidala Show” on SiriusXM radio. Follow him on the thread. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion pieces on CNN.
CNN —
“If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog,” was a famous line from the late President Harry Truman. And if you keep that dog, make sure to keep it away from Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Kristi Noem reportedly boasts in her new book about the shooting death of his 14-month-old puppy named Cricket nearly 20 years ago. The dog was “untrainable.”
Nomu, who is reportedly a front-runner to be former President Donald Trump's running mate in this year's presidential election, led her energetic, handful wire-haired pointer puppy down a gravel road. He wrote in his book that he went there. I drilled a hole and shot him.
How did this cruel and horrific act come to light? Noem was never asked “gotcha” questions by investigative reporters or exposed in social media posts. No, according to the Guardian, South Dakota's governor wrote about the incident himself in his book, “No Going Back: The Trus on What's Wrons with Politics and How We Move America Forward.” The Guardian wrote that it had obtained a copy ahead of the book's publication next month.
Unsurprisingly, reports that Noem killed the dog caused an uproar in the media and on the internet. Amid public backlash from conservatives as well as her liberals, she staunchly defended her own decision to shoot her dog, writing on her social media: ”
Noem later used the controversy to promote her book, writing, “If you want more real, honest, politically incorrect stories that will make the media take a breather, here's also a link to order the book. Please pre-order “No Going Back,'' including “No Going Back.''
I found a line in “No Going Back” where Noem rebelled and killed Cricket. Of the estimated 65 million households, I suspect most people who own a dog (and many who don't) feel the same way.
A 2023 Pew poll found that 97% of pet owners view their pets as family members. But Noem apparently didn't see Cricket that way, writing in her book that he “hated” the naughty pup. Noem said she thought the pup was “worthless” after he ruined a pheasant hunt by “losing his mind with excitement, chasing all the birds and having the best time of his life.” Told.
Later that day, after the dog escapes from Noem's car (which many of us would consider a human failure, not the dog's), Cricket kills a local farmer's chicken and bites Noem as he tries to restrain her. Ta. Noem writes that was the last straw. As she wrote in her excerpt published in the Guardian, “At that moment I knew I had to let her go.” After a while, she took Cricket to the gravel pit, she said.
Noem went on to write that when her daughter got home from school she asked where the dog was. “Kennedy looked around in confusion,” she wrote of her daughter, but the dog said, “Hey, where's Cricket?” ?” he asked. Excerpts shared by the Guardian do not include what Noem told her daughter, but the Republican governor also accused him of killing Cricket and shooting his pet goat on the same day because it was “mean and spiteful.” boasted that this was proof that Nomu had told her daughter. He was willing to do the “difficult, messy, ugly” work of his life, and perhaps politics as well.
Perhaps Noem included the story of the cricket shooting in her book because she had read reports that President Trump did not like the beloved pet that brings joy to millions of people. “Donald was not a dog person,” Trump's late wife Ivana wrote in her memoir “Raising Trump.” She pointed out that President Trump is hostile toward his pet poodle, Chappie, because he is “territorial and barks.” (At least one of her studies suggests that dogs are good judges of personality, so maybe Chappie was right to bark.)
President Trump's antipathy towards our four-legged friends may explain why he is the first president in 120 years to not have a pet dog in the White House. US presidents owning dogs is a tradition that dates back to George Washington, who owned two American foxhounds. Since the first president, most White House occupants of both parties have been dog owners, including Abraham Lincoln, who had a friendly mongrel named Fido, and Portuguese water dogs Sunny and Bo. This includes Barack Obama, who owned a pair of dogs. Of course, President Joe Biden also has a pet dog, but the commander-in-chief sometimes isn't the best-behaved dog. He is said to have bitten at least 20 Secret Service agents over the years, but no one has suggested that his misconduct merits the death penalty.
Trump is a rare exception to not being a dog owner, even telling supporters at a rally in 2019 that having a pet dog in the White House felt “a little phony.” Given that history, and assuming she was aware of President Trump's antipathy towards dogs, perhaps Noem could use the cricket shooting story to give her a little edge when the obvious Republican presidential candidate was choosing a running mate. Maybe he thought it would happen.
But my own theory is that she thought that by telling this story she could endear herself to certain ruthless Republicans and convince them of her toughness. If that was Noem's calculation, she may have made a grave miscalculation. She may have come to that conclusion herself. write to x on sundayNoem appears to be soft-spoken about her decision to give up her dog.
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“I can understand why some people would be upset about the 20-year-old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs on the farm, that appears in my upcoming book, No Going Back. It's filled with many honest stories about my life, good days and bad, challenges, tough decisions, and lessons learned,” Noem wrote.
“In fact, South Dakota law states that any dog that attacks and kills livestock can be killed,” she added. “I decided on my actions in light of Cricket exhibiting aggressive behavior by biting people.”
Let's see if that explanation helps to quell public outrage. After all, people of all political persuasions are naturally disgusted by animal abuse, even if they don't always treat their fellow humans with the respect and dignity they deserve.
