In other words, they produced a typical pre-campaign book, where the first rule is to do no harm. Somewhat unusually for the genre, that book, 2022’s Not My First Rodeo: Lessons from the Heartland, landed the South Dakota governor on the New York Times’ bestseller list, adding to the consensus that the Donald Trump devotee had a big future in GOP politics.
What it didn’t do, of course, was spark a weeklong news cycle — and a round of obituaries for that same political future — by including a tale about Noem leading a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer named Cricket to a gravel pit and shooting him to death after he ruined a pheasant hunt and killed a neighbor’s chickens.
This time around, Noem has a different team in place, as well as a different imprint, Hachette’s conservative-leaning Center Street. And the folks behind her new book, No Going Back, didn’t get in the way of sharing memories about gunning down an ill-trained puppy.
Kirsti Noem’s publisher in 2022: “This is a horrible story. We can’t include this, Dick Cheney only got away with his hunting trip scandal because he shot a lawyer and not a puppy.”
Kristi Noem’s new Conservative publisher in 2024: “People will be impressed with how tough you are on puppy crime.”
Like any work of fiction, it’s about upping the stakes.
The next high-profile political memoir better have some casual cannibalism in it or it will be a total flop.
The dog story has been confirmed by witnesses
I don’t quite think Noem got the memo. Only Donald Trump is allowed to do whatever he wants and be cheered for it by the base. This privilege does not extend to the people who continue to kiss his ass.
I figured she was just trying to get out in front of it, but it appears she is stupid enough to think that someone might find that story endearing.
She got out in front of it like it was a train.
I do not advocate for violence and would never celebrate somebody’s tragedy. Having said that, if Kristi Noem literally jumped in front of a train I may decide to get an ice cream cake that day.
