South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem still isn’t done lashing out at members of the press regarding the fallout from her story about shooting and killing her 14-month old puppy, this time complaining about a “hit job” interview on Newsmax after a host said he doubted whether Noem is still on Donald Trump’s VP shortlist.
The controversial elements of Noem’s memoir, including a story—which she refuses to say is true or not and has since been removed from the book—of her meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, are widely seen as having buried her chances of being the former president’s running mate. A Trumpworld source told The Daily Beast late last month that the likelihood of a Trump-Noem ticket was “less than zero now.” After Wake Up America co-host Rob Finnerty mentioned this reality to Noem, their exchange grew tense—unlike Noem’s prior Newsmax interview on Monday night.
“Governor, if you had asked me a month ago who’s at the top of the list to run with Donald Trump, I would have said your name. If you had asked me that same question this morning, I don’t even think you’re on the list.”
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“Really? And why is that?” Noem said.
“Yes, really, and it’s because of things that have come out in this book like your claims that you met Kim Jong Un,” Finnerty said before Noem interjected that she has “been to the DMZ.”
After Finnerty read a passage from Noem’s book describing her meeting with the dictator, he asked, “Governor, that never happened, did it?”
“What I have said, in the book, is that when I became aware of the content, that we had it changed, and that’s the way that it is. I should not have put that anecdote in the book,” Noem said.
Finnerty replied: “But an anecdote indicates that it happened, right?”
“I’m not going to talk about my conversations with world leaders,” Noem said, reiterating her response in prior interviews.
But Finnerty pointed out that he was merely asking whether the meeting occurred.
“Governor, I’m not asking you about the details of this alleged meeting. I’m asking if the meeting actually happened. I don’t think it did, and I think if it did, you’d be able to confirm for me that, ‘Yes, it did, and here’s when it happened. It happened, say, at such and such a date or a month.’ Or you don’t have to be specific,” he said.
Noem, once again, said she wouldn’t discuss her “conversations with world leaders.”
Noem’s refusal to admit whether the meeting took place prompted Finnerty to tell her that she will “continue to have to answer this question.”
Noem disagreed. “I don’t think so, because the average American citizen is more worried about the border,” she said, pivoting to criticizing President Joe Biden.
Despite Finnerty maintaining that he wasn’t “deliberately trying to be adversarial,” Noem would later accuse him and co-host Sharla McBride of conducting a “hit job,” similar to her complaint Sunday about “fake news” after she faced probing questions during a CBS interview.
Her memoir, No Going Back, “is not a typical political book,” she said. “It is one that [the American people] will be able to learn and really understand the corruption that’s in politics—what kind of hit jobs like this that the media does, what money does in politics.”
“We’re not trying to do a hit job on you at all,” McBride shot back, as Finnerty shook his head in agreement.
