Jesse Watters gives Kristi Noem a friendly interview to respond to criticism that “you shot your dog and wrote a book about it”
Published
Citation From the May 6, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime
JESSE WATTERS (HOST): What happens if you are debating Kamala Harris and she says, "wait a second, you shot your dog and you wrote a book about it, bragging about it, how can you be vice president?"
KRISTI NOEM (GUEST): You know, that story was a choice as a mom, the safety of my children versus a dangerous dog that was killing livestock and attacking people. So, this book that I've written is full of stories of my past, hard decisions and I told the truth. And I think that's very different than a lot of politicians that we have today. A lot of politicians --
WATTERS: Do you regret telling that story? Do you feel like oh, maybe I should have said it -- do you understand why people don't like that story?
NOEM: Oh, everybody's known that story for years. That's what most people don't realize is that in South Dakota they've used that story to attack me and my political campaigns for years. I wanted people to know the truth. This dog was vicious, it was dangerous, it was killing livestock for the joy of it and attacking people; and I had a choice between keeping my family safe, I had little kids at the time, a very public business of inviting people out to come out and enjoy our hunting lodge and our business and I don't pass my responsibilities off to anybody else, so that story's in the book because I want people to know I'm honest and that when I have difficult jobs that I take responsibility of myself.
WATTERS: Alright, so you're standing by the dog story.