Noem Changes Subject to Biden's Dog

Governor who killed her family's pet suggests Commander should be next
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 5, 2024 4:35 PM CDT
Kristi Noem: What About Biden's Dog?
President Biden prepares to throw a ball as he walks with his dog Commander in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, in December 2021.   (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Whataboutism may have reached a new level Sunday when Kristi Noem, who's under fire after writing about once killing a family dog she found troublesome, tried to change the subject to President Biden's bite-happy German shepherd. "Joe Biden's dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people," South Dakota's governor said on CBS' Face the Nation. "So how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog?"

Commander was banished from the White House complex to an undisclosed location after the Secret Service logged 24 biting episodes from October 2022 to July 2023, the New York Times reports, though there's been no indication the dog was killed. In her book being released this week, Noem suggests that her late pet and the president's might meet in the afterlife in a scenario in which she's elected president and sends her predecessor's pet there: "Commander, say hello to Cricket for me."

Another anecdote in No Going Back is being removed, Noem said on CBS—this one about once meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. It's a claim that was met with skepticism. The Republican's office had said Friday that corrections were being made before publication, including the Kim passage. "I've met with many, many world leaders. I've traveled around the world," she said Sunday, per the Washington Post. "As soon as it was brought to my attention, we went forward and made some edits." Noem did not directly answer Sunday whether she'd ever met with Kim. (More Kristi Noem stories.)

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