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Kristi Noem Blows Up at Fox Anchor Stuart Varney Pressing Her on Puppy
Murder
(HTM) Source
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In what has devolved into the TV equivalent of tweeting through it,
Kristi Noem appeared for yet another cable news interview on Tuesday
morning.
The beleaguered South Dakota governor seems to be on a mission to
salvage her exceedingly slim hopes of becoming Donald Trump's running
mate.
It did not go well for her.
Having already enjoyed friendly sitdowns with other Fox News and
Newsmax stars, the MAGA governor joined Fox Business Network anchor
Stuart Varney on Tuesday morning to do some more damage control over
the revelations in her upcoming book _No Going Back_.
Noem is currently facing intense bipartisan backlash for boasting in
the book that she shot her "untrainable" 14-month-old puppy Cricket,
whom she said she "hated." She's also come under fire for claiming she
met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, asserting that he
"underestimated" her. Experts have cast doubt on whether she has ever
met the shadowy dictator. And Noem has since blamed her ghostwriter
for the anecdote, saying it shouldn't have been included in the book
but has also refused to clarify if she ever spoke with the reclusive
leader.
Varney, for his part, noted that the governor's team advised her not
to include the story about her puppy murder in the book, adding that
its inclusion has "not gone down well" and has led to many
"questioning" Noem's political future. The governor, meanwhile,
defended her canicide, calling Cricket a "vicious" and "dangerous"
dog. (In recent days, she's further suggested President Joe Biden
should put his dog down.)
"Do you think it was good politics to include that story?" Varney
retorted, prompting Noem to claim that her "political opponents have
used it for years," so she wanted people to "know the truth on it."
Varney wondered if she thought she could be Trump's vice president and
if she'd talked to him since the dog story came out. "Yes, I talk to
Donald Trump often," she said. "Absolutely."
Noem became increasingly combative as Varney pressed her on the dog
execution, especially when he asked if she'd keep that story in her
book if she were writing it today.
"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 presidential spot,"
Varney declared.
"Well, I'll tell you, Stuart, I'm sorry you're not hearing from real
Americans that live on farms and ranches," she fired back.
Towards the end of the contentious conversation, Varney asked if Noem
still thought she was in line to be Trump's veep. The embattled
Republican responded that only Trump can decide that but that she does
speak to him regularly.
Not letting it rest there, the Fox host asked what Trump had said to
her and whether the dog story had come up. While Noem said she would
never reveal her "personal conversations" with the ex-president,
Varney kept grilling her on what Trump thinks of the situation.
"Enough, Stuart. This interview is ridiculous, what you are doing
right now," Noem fumed. "You need to stop."
She then demanded that they "talk about some real topics that
Americans care about," only for Varney to inform her that they were
out of time.
"Well, of course we are," she snarked back.
It remains to be seen whether she will run to social media to complain
about Varney being "fake news," which was how she responded to her
disastrous interview on Sunday morning's _Face the Nation_.
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