White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre weighed in Monday on South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s apparent suggestion that President Joe Biden’s dog should be put down by saying the admitted puppy killer is only making things worse for herself.
“We find her comments from yesterday disturbing. We find them absurd,” Jean-Pierre told reporters during a briefing. “And we are a country that loves dogs, and you have a leader talking about putting dogs down—killing them—and that’s a disturbing statement to say.”
“[What] I would say to her is she should probably stop digging herself in a hole,” Jean-Pierre added.
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Noem has repeatedly cried “fake news” since her detailed account of the time she shot and killed her 14-month-old bird dog, Cricket, garnered attention. The gritty anecdote was included in her upcoming memoir, No Going Back, and has been met with near-universal bipartisan disgust.
The South Dakota governor seemed particularly incensed by the probing interview she faced on CBS’ Face the Nation Sunday. It was during that contentious appearance when anchor Margaret Brennan questioned the governor about another passage toward the end of her forthcoming memoir in which she suggested that President Joe Biden’s German Shepherd, Commander, should be put down.
“At the end of the book, you say the very first thing you would do if you got to the White House… is that you’d make sure ‘Joe Biden’s dog was nowhere on the grounds. Commander, say hello to Cricket.’ Are you doing this to try to look tough?” Brennan asked.
“Well, number one, Joe Biden’s dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people,” Noem replied. “So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog and what to do with it?”
The president’s dog, who has bitten Secret Service agents at least two dozen times, no longer lives at the White House, but instead with Biden’s relatives.
In addition to Noem’s troublesome animal encounters, she has also been criticized for claiming to have met North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Noem is now removing that excerpt from her book—after experts called it dubious at best—but has repeatedly refused to say whether the passage was false.
