Newsmax host Eric Bolling on Monday wondered whether the controversy over Kristi Noem’s admission in her forthcoming memoir that she shot and killed her 14-month-old puppy in a gravel pit was somehow the work of a rogue, “liberal plant” in the book’s publishing house.
Bolling prefaced his interview by framing the story as “the liberal media folks” having “a field day over trying to take down a potential Trump vice presidential pick,” even though Noem’s actions have spurred bipartisan criticism.
Bolling then essentially told Noem how she was right to complain about her recent interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, having written on X shortly afterwards that the anchor, Margaret Brennan, kept “interrupt[ing]” her. (Noem’s evasive replies often prompted Brennan to try to get an answer out of her, including whether she actually met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as she had claimed in the book.)
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“I’m going to give you a minute or so to tell your side of the story without interrupting you,” he said before handing it over to Noem, who then reiterated what she’s said in prior television interviews, like how her story is supposed to be an example of her making “hard decisions.”
Bolling, who at one point praised the governor as a “follower of God,” moments later inquired whether her book’s publisher, Center Street, had been infiltrated by someone bent on causing Noem political embarrassment.
“Governor, I’ve also written a couple of books and I know how the process works. You write some chapters—you don’t write the whole book at once—you write a chapter or two, you send it to the editors, and they edit. They read it, they add, they subtract, and here’s my question,” he said. “The editor, was she possibly a plant? A liberal plant? Because I’m not sure either one of these stories—the dog story or the North Korea story—seems like the Kristi Noem I know.”
“No, the buck always stops with me. I take my own full responsibility. I wrote this book and I take the responsibility for what’s in it,” she replied. “It’s a great book, Eric. I hope everybody reads it and buys it.”
Earlier in the interview, Noem claimed that her account of killing her dog has come up in prior campaigns.
“I think that in South Dakota, in the last couple of elections that I’ve had, my political opponents have tried to use this story and have tried to use it against me,” she said. “I wanted people to know the truth. That’s why it’s in the book.”
Politico reported Monday that Noem wanted to include the story in her previous book, 2022’s Not My First Rodeo: Lessons From the Heartland, but the publisher axed it.
